Raspberry Pi 5 Price History: How Far Have Prices Come?
The Raspberry Pi 5 has been on the market for a while now, and if you’ve been watching the price tags, you’ve probably noticed some wild swings. From launch-day shortages that pushed prices through the roof to a more mature market where you can actually find stock at reasonable rates, the Pi 5’s journey has been a rollercoaster. Let’s walk through what happened, where we are now, and what it all means for developers trying to pick the right SBC for their next project.
The Early Days: Shortages and Scalping
When the Raspberry Pi 5 first dropped, it was a monster—quad Cortex-A76 cores, a new VideoCore VII GPU, and PCIe 2.0 x1. Everyone wanted one. But the supply chain was still recovering from the chip shortage, and Pi 4s were already hard to find. The result? Third-party sellers on Amazon and eBay routinely listed the 8GB model for $200–$300, and the 4GB version hovered around $150–$180. If you were lucky enough to snag one at MSRP from a reseller like Pimoroni, you paid $80 for the 4GB or $120 for the 8GB. But those windows closed fast.
For months, the situation was frustrating. Developers and hobbyists either had to camp out restock alerts or pay a premium. The official Raspberry Pi store eventually capped orders, but the secondary market stayed hot.
