Raspberry Pi flagship 500+ model now costs almost as much as a Mac Mini — firm Pi launches 3GB model to fight increasing DRAM prices

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The Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 have increased in price by $25 for the 4GB versions, and by $50 for the 8GB models. The Raspberry Pi 5 16GB has seen an even more extreme price increase of $100. Slotting in between the 2GB and 4GB versions of the Raspberry Pi 4 is the 3GB model priced at $83.75. Pricing for the Raspberry Pi 500 went up by $50, and the Raspberry Pi 500+ unit and the 500+ kit saw the highest price increases of all, but $150. This brings the 500+ model to a sky-high $410, which is almost as much as Apple's M3 Mac Mini (which can be found for around $430 depending on the retailer).

Price increases for the Compute Module 4, 4S, and 5 have also increased anywhere between $11.25 and $50. Pricing for the 16GB Compute 5 module has increased by $100.

Thankfully, not all Raspberry Pi models have seen a price jump. Upton noted that the Raspberry Pi 400, 4, and 5 models with less than 4GB of memory are holding their value for now. Also, older models with older LPDDR2 DRAM will hold their value indefinitely, as the board maker has a substantial inventory of the older DRAM type to weather the DRAM shortage.

For perspective, we wrote about Raspberry Pi price hikes just two months ago — since then, prices have increased by almost 50% for some models. For example, the Raspberry Pi 500+ 16GB cost just $280 in February.

Sadly, there's no guarantee another set of price hikes won't happen in the next month or two, as DRAM prices continue to trend upward. The latest reports indicate that NAND flash contract prices are rising faster than DRAM prices, with a predicted price jump of around 70% quarter over quarter.