A Single 1GB DDR4 Chip Now Costs More Than an Entire 1GB Raspberry Pi 5

A single mainstream DDR4 chip now costs more on the spot market than a whole entry-level Raspberry Pi. In its latest memory spot price report, TrendForce put the average spot price of a DDR4 1Gx8 3200 MT/s chip (8 Gb, or 1 GB) at US$46.357 for the week of October 20, up 0.84%. Raspberry Pi still lists the 1GB Raspberry Pi 5 at US$45. If you design boards or buy SBCs, memory now decides your BOM.

Spot is not the whole story

Spot prices are for small, immediate lots. Raspberry Pi buys on contract, and the Pi 5 uses LPDDR4X, not DDR4, so this isn't what its chip costs. The direction is the same, though. TrendForce forecasts that conventional DRAM contract prices will rise another 10–15% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 2026, and NAND Flash 15–20%. The same October 21 report says DDR5 supply is still tight and suppliers are "clearly reluctant to sell". Only NAND eased, with 512Gb TLC wafer spot prices down 1.28% to US$18.592.

Raspberry Pi has felt this all year. In April it said the LPDDR4 it uses had risen seven-fold in a year. On October 1 it raised the 2GB Pi 4 to $67.50 and the 2GB Pi 5 to $77.50, while keeping the 1GB models unchanged. In India, CMR reports that shipments of microSD cards, SD cards and pen drives fell 58% year-on-year in Q2 2026, and it expects an 18–20% drop for the full year.

What this means for you

• Right-size the RAM. Raspberry Pi itself asks buyers to make sure they're "not paying for headroom you don’t need".
• Look at older boards. Raspberry Pi says the Zero, Zero 2 W, Pi 3, 3B+ and 3A+ use LPDDR2 that it holds "substantial inventory" of, and it doesn't expect to raise their prices.
• Design memory out where you can. If a microcontroller with on-chip SRAM can do the job, you don’t need DRAM at all.
• Buy from authorised channels. Raspberry Pi warns that some unauthorised vendors are charging inflated prices and selling products that "aren't what they seem to be".

Raspberry Pi says memory prices "won't remain at their current very high level indefinitely" and has promised to reverse its increases once prices fall. TrendForce's Q4 forecast suggests that isn't happening yet.

Image credit: Raspberry Pi (official product image); price data from TrendForce and Raspberry Pi.