
Frustrated at being unable to buy a Raspberry Pi for a fair price?
Well, good news: you won’t be for much longer.
Short supply and high demand has seen the price of Raspberry Pi boards rise across all models, from the Raspberry Pi Zero W to the desktop-class Raspberry Pi 4.
For instance, the Raspberry Pi 4 (8GB) has a recommended retail price of $75 but you’d be hard-pushed to find one in stock, and when you do you may be asked to pay as much as $200 (Amazon US as of December 12) for the pleasure.
But Eben Upton, CEO at Raspberry Pi says the company’s supply chain issues are resolving, and the company is releasing more stock for enthusiasts to buy this Christmas.
“As a thank-you to our army of very patient enthusiast customers in the run-up to the holiday season this year, we’ve been able to set aside a little over a hundred thousand units, split across Zero W, 3A+ and the 2GB and 4GB variants of Raspberry Pi 4, for single-unit sales,” he writes in an update posted to the official Raspberry Pi website.
There is a small dose of bad news: price increases. Due to a culmination of economic, manufacturing, and supply chain strains the Raspberry Pi Zero doubles from $5 to $10; the Raspberry Pi Zero W will now retails at $15, up from $10 before.
New stock is filtering out to approved resellers of Raspberry Pi hardware. Approved resellers are contracted to not sell devices at above RRP prices so, where possible, you should use them.
The company anticipate that supply chain issues will resolve by Q2 2023. This will make it easier and cheaper to get Raspberry Pi boards at regular retail prices by the second half of next year.
In the meantime, if you’re after a board at an agreeable price you’ll want to use the rpilocator.com website. This site lets you know which Raspberry Pi models are in stock for ordering at common Raspberry Pi retailers.