Do not add the $12.50 to the brief

By Airia Edge, Staff Writer, The Possible

The October brief already prints $77.50 for a 2GB Raspberry Pi 5[2]. The 1 October note says that figure is the price after a $12.50 increase[1]. Add the increase to the brief and you get $90. Ninety dollars is not a price. It is not on the brief[2]. It is not in the note[1].

The same trap sits on the Pi 4 line. The brief prints $67.50 for 2GB[3]. The note says that figure is also the result of a $12.50 increase[1]. Add them and you get $80. The brief does not print $80[3].

Pay the number both documents already share. Do not bill the increase twice.

The note names two shelf prices, and then it stops

Eben Upton's note is dated 1 October 2026[1]. The page metadata stamps 2026-10-01T09:06:19+00:00[1]. The note's own line is that the cost of memory "has risen very steeply over the past two years and continues to increase," and that the company has had to raise prices to keep up with the cost of production[1].

The operative sentence is short. During the April round they held the 1GB and 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5, while higher-density variants went up[1]. That hold, the note says, has become unsustainable[1]. From that day, the 2GB variants rise by $12.50, to $67.50 for Raspberry Pi 4 and $77.50 for Raspberry Pi 5[1].

Read the next sentence before you touch a cart. Prices for other products, including the 1GB variants of Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 and the 2GB variants of Compute Module 4 and Compute Module 5, remain unchanged[1].

That is the whole price list in the note. Two new board prices. A list of things that did not move. No 3GB line. No 4GB line. No 8GB line. No 16GB line. No kit price. No HAT price[1].

The note then tells you how to buy. Match the board to the job, and do not pay for headroom you do not need[1]. It names the Pi 3B, the 3A+, and the 3B+ as older boards that may still do the work at a lower cost[1]. It points at a magazine piece on memory[1]. It tells you to buy from an Approved Reseller, because those sellers abide by the official published maximum prices, and because some unauthorised vendors are using inflated pricing and supplying products that are not what they seem[1]. There are, in the note's words, over a hundred Approved Resellers, on every continent except Antarctica[1].

The close is the same sentence the company has used all year. The memory situation is challenging, it will not last forever, and they look forward to reversing the increases when it subsides[1]. The note does not give a date for that reversal[1].

The briefs already contain the new 2GB lines

The product page for Raspberry Pi 5 links a product brief, RP-008348[4]. The file fetched from that link on 14 October 2026 has a cover line that reads Published October 2026[2]. Its list-price block is the shelf, not an increase.

Raspberry Pi 5	List price in the October brief
1GB	$45[2]
2GB	$77.50[2]
4GB	$110[2]
8GB	$175[2]
16GB	$305[2]

The Pi 4 specification page links its own brief, RP-008344[5]. That file also says Published October 2026[3].

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B	List price in the October brief
1GB	$35[3]
2GB	$67.50[3]
3GB	$83.75[3]
4GB	$100[3]
8GB	$165[3]

Put the note next to those tables. The 2GB cells match the note's new prices exactly[1][2][3]. The 1GB cells match the prices the October note says did not move[1][2][3]. February had already named the 1GB Pi 4 at $35 and the 1GB Pi 5 at $45[7].

The 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB cells are prices the October note does not reprint[1]. They live on the briefs[2][3]. If a quote adds the October $12.50 to $110, or to $175, or to $305, it has applied a 2GB increase to a density the note did not touch[1][2].

The product-page text fetched the same morning printed one dollar figure for a Pi 5 board: the 16GB is available now for $305[4]. That matches the brief[2]. The fetched page text did not print a 2GB dollar figure[4]. The brief linked from that page did[2][4]. Use the brief for the 2GB line. Do not invent a second one from the marketing copy.

Ninety dollars is not a price

The arithmetic that gets people into trouble is the one the note invites and the brief has already finished.

The note prints an increase of $12.50 and a new price of $77.50[1]. The brief prints $77.50 and does not print the increase[2]. Those are two descriptions of one shelf. Subtract $12.50 from $77.50 and you get $65. That subtraction is mine. Neither the note nor the brief prints $65 as the current 2GB Pi 5 price[1][2].

Add $12.50 to $77.50 and you get $90. That addition is also mine. $90 is not a list price in the brief[2]. It is not a new price in the note[1]. A reseller quote of $90 for a 2GB Pi 5 is not the official figure these two documents print.

The Pi 4 version of the same mistake lands on $80. The brief prints $67.50[3]. The note says the increase that produced that figure was $12.50[1]. $67.50 plus $12.50 is $80, and $80 is not on the Pi 4 brief[3].

If you want the pre-increase figure, the note already handed it to you as a pair, not as a third number you have to keep. It said the price is increasing by $12.50, to $67.50 and to $77.50[1]. You do not add the $12.50 to the "to" figure. The "to" figure is the price.

Three clocks, one shelf

The cover line on the Pi 5 brief says Published October 2026[2]. The Pi 4 brief uses the same month line[3]. The news note is dated 1 October 2026 and says the 2GB increase takes effect from that day[1].

The PDF metadata on the files fetched from those brief URLs does not say 1 October. pdfinfo on the Pi 5 file reported CreationDate: Tue Sep 22 10:11:18 2026 EDT. The Pi 4 file reported CreationDate: Tue Sep 22 11:00:58 2026 EDT. Those timestamps are metadata on the downloaded files. They are not a sentence in either brief[2][3]. They are not the effective date in the note[1].

Do not promote the file timestamp into a price day. A buyer who decides the $12.50 landed on 22 September has left the note[1]. A buyer who decides the cover's month is a reason to add the increase again has left the brief[2][3]. The clocks do not agree. The 2GB shelf prices do[1][2][3]. Pay those.

The other $12.50 belongs to the module

April's note used the same dollar figure on a different object. On 1 April 2026 the company introduced a 3GB Raspberry Pi 4 at $83.75 and printed a table of increases, not a table of new shelf prices[8]. Compute Module 4, Compute Module 4S, and Compute Module 5 at 2GB were on that table, up $12.50[8].

That April $12.50 is not the October $12.50[1][8]. October says the 2GB variants of Compute Module 4 and Compute Module 5 remain unchanged[1]. April had already moved the module. October moved the board, and it said the module did not move again[1][8].

Add those two $12.50 lines and you have described two products as one purchase. The October brief for the Pi 5 board does not contain the module[2]. The module page, fetched the same morning, opens at $67.50 and lists SDRAM options starting at 2GB[12]. The page does not say that $67.50 is the 2GB wireless-less lite SKU in the sentence next to the figure[12]. It says available now from $67.50[12]. The October note says the 2GB module price did not change that day[1]. A module is not a board with the ports shaved off. If the job needs the 40-pin header and the connectors on the Pi 5, the board price is the brief's $77.50, not the module page's opening figure[2][12].

The Compute Module 5 page also prints a memory string the Pi 5 brief does not use. The module page says 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of LPDDR4-4267 SDRAM with ECC[12]. The Pi 5 brief says LPDDR4X-4267, with options for 1GB through 16GB, and it does not print ECC on that line[2]. Same 4267. Different type string. Do not copy the module's ECC clause onto the board, or the board's X onto the module, unless the document you are ordering from prints it.

The earlier increases are already inside the brief

Four notes, in order, are how the Pi 5 list got to the October table. Each note prints a different figure. Only the December note prints old price and new price side by side[6].

On 1 December 2025 the company put a 1GB Pi 5 on sale at $45 and changed some board prices[6]. The table:

Product	Density	Old price	New price
Raspberry Pi 4	4GB	$55	$60[6]
Raspberry Pi 4	8GB	$75	$85[6]
Raspberry Pi 5	1GB	—	$45[6]
Raspberry Pi 5	2GB	$50	$55[6]
Raspberry Pi 5	4GB	$60	$70[6]
Raspberry Pi 5	8GB	$80	$95[6]
Raspberry Pi 5	16GB	$120	$145[6]

The same post says a 1GB Pi 4 still costs $35, the same as a 256MB Pi 1 from 2012, and that lower-density Pi 4 variants were not in that day's increases[6]. It also says 16GB Compute Module 5 variants, unchanged in the October 2025 module round, rose by $20[6]. That $20 is a module line. It is not a board line[6].

On 2 February 2026 the note stopped printing new shelf prices. It printed increases by density, for Pi 4, Pi 5, Compute Module 4, and Compute Module 5 parts with 2GB or more[7]. The cost of some parts, it said, had more than doubled over the last quarter[7]. "Some parts" is the phrase on the page. It is not a claim that every DRAM contract doubled[7].

Memory density	February increase
1GB	no increase printed[7]
2GB	$10[7]
4GB	$15[7]
8GB	$30[7]
16GB	$60[7]

The February note protected the $35 1GB Pi 4 and the $45 1GB Pi 5, and it left the Pi 400 at $60[7]. Pi 500 and 500+ were affected[7]. It did not print their new shelf prices[7].

On 1 April 2026 the affected board list was Pi 4 and Pi 5 variants with 4GB or more, plus the 500, the 500+, the compute modules, the CM5 development kit, and the AI HAT+ 2[8]. The board increases in that table:

Product	Density	April increase
Raspberry Pi 4 and 5	4GB	$25[8]
Raspberry Pi 4 and 5	8GB	$50[8]
Raspberry Pi 5	16GB	$100[8]

April held the 1GB and 2GB Pi 4 and Pi 5 "at between $35 and $65"[8]. That is a range, not a SKU price. Do not read $65 as a printed 2GB Pi 5 shelf price. The sentence does not name the SKU next to $65[8]. It also held the Pi 400 with 4GB at $60[8]. It introduced the 3GB Pi 4 at $83.75[8]. It said LPDDR4 used on the Pi 4 and Pi 5 had seen a seven-fold increase over the last year[8]. That seven-fold line is the company's statement about the DRAM it buys. It is not a line in the October brief, and it is not a multiplier you apply to a board price[2][8].

October then added $12.50 to the 2GB boards only[1].

If you add December's new Pi 5 price, then February's increase, then April's increase, then October's increase, you rebuild the October brief. You do not discover a new price.

Pi 5 density	1 Dec 2025 new price	2 Feb increase	1 Apr increase	1 Oct increase	Sum of those printed figures	October brief
2GB	$55[6]	$10[7]	none printed; boards held[8]	$12.50[1]	$77.50	$77.50[2]
4GB	$70[6]	$15[7]	$25[8]	none printed[1]	$110	$110[2]
8GB	$95[6]	$30[7]	$50[8]	none printed[1]	$175	$175[2]
16GB	$145[6]	$60[7]	$100[8]	none printed[1]	$305	$305[2]

The sums in that table are additions of the figures the notes printed. They match the brief[2]. That match is a check. It is not a second invoice. If a quote is higher than the brief, someone added an increase the brief already contains.

The Pi 4 4GB and 8GB lines check the same way. December's new prices were $60 and $85[6]. February added $15 and $30[7]. April added $25 and $50[8]. October did not mention them[1]. $60 + $15 + $25 is $100. $85 + $30 + $50 is $165. Those are the October brief's 4GB and 8GB list prices[3]. The additions are mine. The brief already printed the results[3].

The Pi 4 2GB line does not reconstruct from December, because December's table did not include a Pi 4 2GB row[6]. Stop there. The October note and the October brief both print $67.50[1][3]. You do not need a missing December cell to know what to pay.

The 3GB Pi 4 was born at $83.75 on 1 April[8]. The October brief still prints $83.75[3]. The October note does not mention it[1]. It did not receive the 2GB board increase. Subtract $77.50 from $83.75 and the difference is $6.25. That subtraction is mine. It is the gap between a 3GB Pi 4 list price and a 2GB Pi 5 list price[2][3]. It is not a Raspberry Pi per-gigabyte rate. The machines are not the same part.

What the price is buying

The October briefs are also the spec sheets. The prices above buy these parts, not a generic "Pi."

The Pi 5 brief names a Broadcom BCM2712, quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 at 2.4 GHz, with cryptographic extensions, 512KB of L2 cache per core, and a 2MB shared L3 cache[2]. Graphics are a VideoCore VII at 800 MHz in the overview, supporting OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2 in the specification block[2]. Memory is LPDDR4X-4267[2]. Power is 5V/5A DC over USB-C, with Power Delivery[2]. There is a single-lane PCI Express 2.0 interface, and it needs a separate M.2 HAT or other adapter[2]. Operating temperature is 0°C to 70°C[2]. Production runs until at least January 2036[2]. Ground-benign MTBF is printed as 93 800 hours[2].

The same brief says the Pi 5 delivers a 2 to 3× increase in CPU performance relative to the Pi 4[2]. That is the company's comparison. It is not a benchmark from this desk, and it is not a token rate.

The product page uses different words for the same generation gap. The hero says 2–3× the speed of the previous generation[4]. A later sentence says the 2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 makes the board up to three times faster than the previous generation[4]. "Speed," "faster," and "CPU performance" are three phrases[2][4]. Do not average them into one multiplier. Do not turn "up to three times" into a guarantee that every workload triples[4].

The page and the brief also disagree on Vulkan. The page says Vulkan 1.3[4]. The brief says Vulkan 1.2[2]. Both say OpenGL ES 3.1[2][4]. Order from the document you are willing to be wrong about. If a software stack requires Vulkan 1.3, the brief you just downloaded does not promise it[2].

The Pi 4 brief names a Broadcom BCM2711, quad-core Cortex-A72 at 1.8 GHz[3]. Memory is 1GB, 2GB, 3GB, 4GB, or 8GB of LPDDR4, depending on model, with on-die ECC[3]. The brief does not print a megatransfer rate on that line[3]. Input power is 5V DC over USB-C, minimum 3A, and the footnote says a good-quality 2.5A supply can be used if downstream USB peripherals consume less than 500mA in total[3]. Operating temperature is 0°C to 50°C[3]. Production runs until at least January 2034[3]. Ground-benign MTBF is printed as 211 000 hours[3]. The graphics line says OpenGL ES 3.0[3]. It does not print a Vulkan version[3]. It does not print a PCIe lane[3].

The Pi 4 specification page, fetched the same morning, does not match that brief on three lines. The page says LPDDR4-3200[5]. The brief says LPDDR4 and does not print 3200[3]. The page says OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.0[5]. The brief says OpenGL ES 3.0 and is silent on Vulkan[3]. The page says the operating temperature is 0–50 degrees C ambient, which agrees with the brief's range, and it says minimum 3A on the USB-C connector[3][5]. Use the page's 3200 only if you are citing the page. Use the brief's ECC clause only if you are citing the brief. Do not staple them into one memory sentence.

The higher MTBF on the older board is not a buy signal. Both figures are ground-benign mean time between failure, as the briefs label them[2][3]. Neither brief says the larger number means you should skip the Pi 5[2][3].

A 2GB Pi 5 at $77.50 and a 2GB Pi 4 at $67.50 are $10 apart[2][3]. That $10 is the difference between the two list prices. It is not a fee the notes itemize. For that $10 the briefs offer a different SoC, a different power budget, a different temperature ceiling, a different production horizon, and, on the Pi 5 brief only, a PCIe 2.0 x1 port that still needs an adapter[2][3]. The Pi 5 also needs a supply that can do 5V/5A[2]. A Pi 4 supply quoted at 3A is the Pi 4's minimum, not a Pi 5 supply[2][3].

The 1GB Pi 5 is $45, and the magazine will not call it a desktop

The 1GB Pi 5 remains $45 on the October brief, and the October note says the 1GB variants did not move[1][2]. The gap from that board to the 2GB Pi 5 is $32.50. That subtraction is mine: $77.50 minus $45[1][2]. It is the current distance between those two list prices. It is not an official "price of a gigabyte."

The October note points at Raspberry Pi Official Magazine for memory guidance[1]. The article at that link is Lucy Hattersley's "Make your RAM go further." The byline on the page says posted 6 months ago, and it does not print a calendar date next to that phrase[9]. The piece says the work started in issue 164, on the new 1GB Pi 5[9].

The load-bearing paragraph is about the desktop, not about a kernel tweak. A 1GB Pi 5 can be used in desktop mode, and applications perform quickly, until you open several at once[9]. The desktop interface, the article says, takes up a third of the available RAM, and Raspberry Pi OS then turns to the swap file[9]. The article does not convert "a third" into megabytes[9]. Do not do that conversion and then cite the magazine.

The swappiness check they print is cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness, which they say returns 60[9]. They show sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10 as a way to lean on RAM and spare the microSD card[9]. They also say the change is not permanent, and that it runs a risk of out-of-memory errors[9]. Then they draw the line the buyer actually needs. They do not recommend the 1GB Pi 5 for desktop use[9]. They say it is better to move to a 2GB model, or more, for that use[9]. They do recommend the 1GB Pi 5 for electronics and maker projects, especially if you turn the desktop off and use the command line[9].

That split is how you spend the $32.50. A headless logger, a GPIO job, a camera trigger that never opens a browser: the magazine is pointing you at the $45 board[2][9]. A desktop with more than one application: the magazine is pointing you at 2GB or more, and the current 2GB Pi 5 list price is $77.50[2][9]. The October note's warning about headroom cuts the other way[1]. Do not buy 8GB because a forum said desktops need it, if the job is a maker loop the magazine already put on the 1GB board[1][9]. Do not buy the 1GB and then discover the desktop ate a third of it[9].

The magazine's route off the desktop is in the same piece. Control Centre, System, Boot, To CLI, then a restart[9]. Or sudo raspi-config, then System Options, S5 Boot, B1 Console[9]. startx brings the desktop back for a session[9]. Those are the article's steps, not a tuning guide past what it printed.

The older board the note names is still $40 on its own brief

The October note suggests a Pi 3B, a 3A+, or a 3B+ if the project does not need the newer silicon[1]. It does not print those prices[1]. The 3B+ brief fetched this morning says Published October 2025, and its list price is $40[10]. April's note said the company did not anticipate price rises for classic products, including the 3B+, because those boards use older LPDDR2 and the company held inventory[8]. The October 2026 note does not revisit that sentence, and it does not print a new 3B+ price[1]. The last list price in the brief on the product page is $40[10][11].

What $40 buys, on the documents, is a different computer. The brief names a Broadcom BCM2837B0, Cortex-A53 at 1.4 GHz, and 1GB of memory, without printing the DRAM generation on that line[10]. The product page prints 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM[11]. Power is 5V/2.5A DC over micro USB[10][11]. Ethernet is Gigabit over USB 2.0, maximum throughput 300 Mbps on both documents[10][11]. Production runs until at least January 2028[10]. Ground-benign MTBF on the brief is 378 000 hours[10]. Graphics are OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0[10]. There is no PCIe line, and there is no 2GB option[10][11].

A $40 3B+ against a $45 1GB Pi 5 is a $5 gap between list prices. That subtraction is mine[2][10]. The machines are not substitutes. The Pi 5 brief gives you a 2.4 GHz A76, LPDDR4X-4267, a PCIe lane, and a production date out to January 2036[2]. The 3B+ gives you 1.4 GHz, a micro-USB power jack, and Ethernet that tops out at 300 Mbps[10][11]. The October note's suggestion is about jobs the older board can still do[1]. It is not a claim that the 3B+ is a cheap Pi 5[1][2].

What not to add, in one pass

If you are pricing a board this week, the documents divide like this.

Pay the October brief for the board you are actually ordering[2][3]. For 2GB, that number is also the number in the 1 October note[1]. For 1GB, the October brief and the October note agree that those prices still stand[1][2][3]. February had already named them[7]. For 3GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB, the October note is silent, and the brief is the list[1][2][3].

Do not add $12.50 to $77.50 or to $67.50[1][2][3]. Do not add $12.50 to $110, $175, $305, $83.75, $100, or $165[1][2][3]. Do not add April's module $12.50 to October's board $12.50[1][8]. Do not add April's $50 on the Pi 500, or April's $150 on the 500+, onto a shelf price these two briefs do not contain[3][8]. Those products are not in the October board briefs fetched this morning[2][3]. The October note does not reprice them[1].

Do not treat the 22 September file timestamp as the day the price changed[1][2]. Do not treat "seven-fold" as a multiplier on the board[8]. Do not treat "more than doubled" as a description of every part[7]. Do not treat Vulkan 1.3 on the product page as a correction already written into the brief[2][4]. Do not treat LPDDR4-3200 on the Pi 4 specification page as a figure the Pi 4 brief printed[3][5].

Buy from an Approved Reseller, at the published maximum, and match the density to the job[1]. The magazine's split is the one the company pointed at: 1GB Pi 5 for the maker loop with the desktop off, 2GB or more if the desktop is the point[1][9]. The brief already did the addition. Your cart should not do it again.

Sources