Raspberry Pi 5 with 1GB RAM now available, hikes prices of other Pi 5s due to high RAM costs

Raspberry Pi has unveiled a new 1GB version of the Raspberry Pi 5, with a starting price of $45. It joins other variants, including the 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB. If the price seems high, that's because it is. The company has increased the prices of its Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 variants due to rising memory costs as AI infrastructure build-out is happening globally.

The new costs for the various products are as follows:

In addition to more expensive Raspberry Pi computers, the 16GB variants of Compute Module 5 are also rising by $20. It said "The prices of lower-density Raspberry Pi 4 variants, of Raspberry Pi 3+ and earlier models, and of Raspberry Pi Zero products remain unchanged."

Raspberry Pi said that the price increases were a hard choice to make, but needs must, and prices have been bumped up. The company said it views the rises as temporary and intends to unwind them when its costs fall.

While price rises suck, the company did show that it has managed to keep prices fairly consistent over the last decade. It said that for $35, you can get the Raspberry Pi 4 with 1GB of RAM today; back in 2012, the Raspberry Pi 1 with 256MB RAM cost that much.

Exploring lower-cost single-board computers

For those who find the price rise a deal breaker, Raspberry Pi is far from the only company offering this type of board computer, and you can find cheaper models elsewhere. Alternative brands worth considering include the Orange Pi, ODROID, Radxa, and ASUS Tinker Board.

Are you sticking with Raspberry Pi and its large ecosystem, or are you choosing an alternative brand for lower prices?

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Posted Tuesday 2 December 2025 at 4:03 am AEST (my time).

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