Why RAM prices are surging in 2026
The price of computer memory has roughly tripled in under a year, driven by the AI build-out. The strange part: the official inflation numbers barely show it. This page tracks both sides of that gap in plain English, using only free, primary data.
Why are RAM prices so high right now?
Because the AI build-out has drained the DRAM supply. Cloud providers are buying memory for AI servers faster than fabs can make it, so spot prices for memory chips have roughly tripled since late 2025. Government inflation gauges like the semiconductor producer price index barely register it, because they quality-adjust prices and track contract rather than spot deals. The squeeze is sharpest in older DDR4, which several fabs are winding down.
- Jun 23, 2026First publish: BLS semiconductor PPI and computers CPI through May 2026, TrendForce DDR4 1Gx8 spot through June 9, and the Roundhill Memory ETF.
The divergence, in one chart
Everything below is rebased so that november 2025 = 100. That puts the government indices and the memory chip on the same starting line, so you can see how far they part ways. The two government lines hug the bottom; the memory chip spot price shoots up. Same period, same scale.
| Date | Semiconductor PPI | Computers CPI | DDR4 chip spot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-01-01 | 107 | 107 | |
| 2024-04-01 | 107 | 108 | |
| 2024-07-01 | 103 | 105 | |
| 2024-10-01 | 104 | 102 | |
| 2025-01-01 | 102 | 100 | |
| 2025-04-01 | 102 | 102 | |
| 2025-07-01 | 101 | 103 | |
| 2025-10-01 | 100 | ||
| 2025-11-18 | 105 | ||
| 2025-12-09 | 140 | ||
| 2026-03-01 | 102 | 103 | |
| 2026-05-01 | 102 | 104 | |
| 2026-06-09 | 295 |
The raw chip price, in dollars
Here is the same memory chip in plain dollars, not an index. This is the spot price of a single mainstream DDR4 chip (a 1Gx8 part, which holds exactly 1 GB), as quoted in TrendForce's weekly updates. It went from about $12 to about $36 in roughly seven months, with a plateau in the spring before climbing again.
| Date | DDR4 1Gx8 spot |
|---|---|
| 2025-11-12 | $12 |
| 2025-11-18 | $13 |
| 2025-12-03 | $17 |
| 2025-12-09 | $17 |
| 2026-04-28 | $33 |
| 2026-05-05 | $32 |
| 2026-06-03 | $35 |
| 2026-06-09 | $36 |
What this means if you are buying RAM
A memory chip is not a memory stick. The numbers above are spot prices for bare DRAM chips: what a buyer pays on the open market for the silicon, before it is assembled into a module, branded, and sold at retail. Most retail and PC-maker buying runs on contract prices, which move slower and sit below the spot spikes. So a tripling in the chip spot price does not mean your next 16 GB stick costs three times as much, but it is the upstream pressure that pushes retail prices up over the following months.
The squeeze is worst in older DDR4. As fabs shift capacity to DDR5 and to high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, they are winding down DDR4 production, which has sent legacy-memory spot prices up sharply, in some weeks above comparable DDR5. For DDR5, TrendForce reported spot prices up 307% from September to November 2025; widely cited figures put a 16 Gb DDR5 chip near $6.84 in September 2025 and about $27.20 by December 2025 (reported figures citing TrendForce spot data, not a primary TrendForce dollar quote).
The Roundhill Memory ETF (ticker DRAM) is included as a daily, free market read on the same story: it holds Micron, SK Hynix, Samsung, Sandisk and other memory makers. It is an equity signal, a bet on memory makers' profits, not a measure of chip prices, and it has run from a 52-week low of $26.14 to $80.72 since its April 2026 launch.
DDR5 at retail: what a kit actually costs
The dollar chart above is the bare DDR4 chip at spot. For DDR5, the number most readers care about is the finished kit on a store shelf. TrendForce quotes DDR5 spot moves mostly in percentages (its DDR5 spot rose 307% from September to November 2025), so the figures here are approximate reported retail prices for one consistent configuration, a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit, rather than a continuous feed.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Mid 2025 | $80 |
| Early 2026 | $432 |
| Mar 2026 | $400 |
DDR4 chip spot price: the readings
The exact TrendForce readings behind the dollar chart. One 1Gx8 chip is 1 GB, so the price column is also the chip-level cost per GB.
| Week | DDR4 1Gx8 spot | vs. first reading |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 12, 2025 | $12.18 | +0% |
| Nov 18, 2025 | $12.76 | +5% |
| Dec 3, 2025 | $16.73 | +37% |
| Dec 9, 2025 | $17.06 | +40% |
| Apr 28, 2026 | $32.50 | +167% |
| May 5, 2026 | $32.40 | +166% |
| Jun 3, 2026 | $34.80 | +186% |
| Jun 9, 2026 | $35.90 | +195% |
How this tracker stays honest
- Free, primary sources only. Government indices come straight from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; chip spot prices come from TrendForce's published Memory Spot Price Update releases. No paid feeds, no scraped retail listings.
- Spot, not contract or retail. The dollar figures are open-market chip spot prices. Contract prices (what module makers and PC builders mostly pay) move slower and lower; retail prices include assembly and margin. The three are related but not the same, and this page does not claim a retail price.
- Periodic readings, not a live ticker. The free TrendForce figures are published every week or two, so the spot series is a set of dated readings, not a continuous feed. The government indices are monthly (October 2025 CPI is missing because of the 2025 appropriations lapse, so that point is left blank rather than guessed).
- DDR5 dollar figures are labeled. TrendForce quotes DDR5 spot moves mostly in percentages; the DDR5 dollar prices here are reported figures attributed to TrendForce spot data, marked as such rather than presented as a direct quote.
Memory is one of the largest line items in the cost of AI compute, so this connects directly to the rest of the site: see the AI model tracker for per-token model prices and the cost-per-task calculator for what a real coding task costs to run.
Frequently asked questions
- Why are RAM prices so high in 2026?
- AI data-center demand has outrun memory supply. Cloud providers expanded DDR5 server orders faster than expected through late 2025, draining inventories, and chipmakers shifted capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators. That left a shortage across mainstream DRAM. TrendForce spot data shows the mainstream DDR4 chip price rising from about $12 in November 2025 to about $36 by June 2026, and DDR5 spot prices up 307% from September to November 2025.
- Why do not government inflation numbers show the memory price spike?
- Two reasons. First, the Bureau of Labor Statistics quality-adjusts hardware prices (hedonic adjustment): if a chip gets faster or denser, part of a price rise is counted as paying for more product, not inflation, so the index understates raw price moves. Second, the published indices track producer and consumer prices that lean on contract deals, while the dramatic moves are happening in the spot market. The semiconductor producer price index was actually about 5% lower in May 2026 than in January 2024.
- How much does DRAM cost per GB right now?
- At the chip spot level, about $35.90 per GB as of Jun 2026, up from about $12.18 per GB in Nov 2025, based on TrendForce's mainstream DDR4 1Gx8 chip (one such chip is exactly 1 GB). This is the raw spot price of a memory chip, not the retail price of a finished memory module, which is set on contract terms and includes assembly and margin.
- When will memory prices come back down?
- There is no reliable date. TrendForce has projected DRAM contract prices peaking through the first half of 2026 with further increases into the second half, and the supply tightness depends on how quickly fabs add capacity and how long AI server demand stays elevated. Treat any single forecast as a scenario, not a schedule. This tracker is updated as new primary-source readings are published.
- Where does this memory price data come from?
- Every figure is from a free, primary source. The semiconductor producer price index and the computers consumer price index come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The DDR4 and DDR5 spot prices come from TrendForce Memory Spot Price Update releases. The memory-maker equity signal is the Roundhill Memory ETF (ticker DRAM). Spot figures are periodic published readings, not a continuous live feed.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Producer Price Index by Industry: Semiconductor and Related Device Manufacturing (series PCU334413334413). Latest reading 2026-05. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/PCU334413334413
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Price Index, All Urban Consumers: Computers, Peripherals, and Smart Home Assistant Devices (U.S. city average) (series CUUR0000SEEE01). Latest reading 2026-05. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SEEE01
- TrendForce. Memory Spot Price Updates: mainstream DDR4 1Gx8 3200MT/s chip. Latest reading 2026-06-09. https://www.trendforce.com/price/dram/dram_spot
- TrendForce (2025). Memory Spot Price Update: DDR5 spot momentum. https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/11/19/insights-memory-spot-price-update-ddr5-prices-up-307-since-september-as-module-costs-poised-to-surge/
- Roundhill Investments. Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM). Price as of 2026-06-22. https://stockanalysis.com/etf/dram/
- Newegg Insider. DDR5 Memory in 2026: prices, supply and speed tiers (32GB DDR5-6000 kit). Reported retail, approximate. https://www.newegg.com/insider/ddr5-memory-in-2026-whats-happening-to-prices-supply-and-speed-tiers/