Why RAM Prices Doubled in 2025–26 (and What It Means for Sellers)

By The Founder · Reviewed July 7, 2026 · About the author

What happened

Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron shifted DRAM wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators through 2025. Commodity DDR4/DDR5 supply tightened, and prices followed: DDR4 kits roughly doubled between October 2025 and January 2026; DDR4 ECC RDIMM rose 60–80% and DDR5 ECC RDIMM 100–116% from early 2025. Analysts expect elevated prices through 2027 as DDR4 production sunsets.

The evidence in our own data

The Payout Index tracks what we actually paid week over week — the changelog reads like a time-lapse of the shortage. When the trailing average for a 32GB DDR4-3200 RDIMM moves, it is real transactions moving it, not analyst estimates.

What it means for sellers

Decommissioned DDR4 appreciated while sitting in a drawer — a rare sentence in electronics. Cloud refurbishers and homelab builders are competing for a shrinking pool, and that bid shows up directly in payouts for 64GB RDIMMs and DDR5 alike.

The catch

Volatility cuts both ways, which is why our quotes lock for 7 days (72 hours on the hottest SKUs) — and why, if the market drops after we quote, we pay the quote anyway. Price yours.