RAM Price Trend 2026: A Simple Tracker With Dated DDR4, DDR5 and SSD Prices
A living RAM and SSD price tracker: dated DDR4 and DDR5 spot, contract and retail prices, a 12-month per-GB chart, what is driving prices, forecasts from TrendForce and Citi, and buy-or-wait advice for PC, Mac and GPU buyers.
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The RAM price trend is still pointing up as of October 27, 2026. A desktop DDR5 kit in the US now averages $18.12 per GB at the median, up 17.2% in 30 days, and DDR4 sits at $7.81 per GB, up 14.3%, according to RamRadar. No research firm I follow expects a drop before 2027. If you need memory, buy it now. If you don’t, don’t stock up.
This is a living page. I put the newest numbers at the top, give every figure a date and a source, and log each change at the bottom. Spot and contract prices are what chip buyers pay, and retail is what you pay, so I keep them apart.
Latest update: October 27, 2026
- DDR5 chips are scarce. TrendForce’s spot board shows 16Gb DDR5 chips averaging $61.333 on October 27, and its October 21 spot update says sellers are holding back.
- DDR4 chips cost more than DDR5 chips. A 16Gb DDR4-3200 chip averaged $82.623 on the same board. At retail, DDR4 is still cheaper. I explain why in my DDR4 vs DDR5 price inversion post.
- Shenzhen shops cut prices a little. CCTV found 16GB DDR5 sticks at 1,400 to 1,600 yuan in Huaqiangbei, down only 20 to 50 yuan, with dealers selling below cost to raise cash (21jingji.com repost, Oct 27, 2026).
- Forecasts haven’t changed. TrendForce still expects contract prices to rise 10% to 15% this quarter.
Current DDR4 and DDR5 prices, with dates and sources
| Price | DDR4 | DDR5 | Date (2026) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chip spot, 16Gb mainstream (daily average) | $82.623 | $61.333 | Oct 27 | TrendForce DRAM spot |
| Chip spot, 16Gb eTT (lower grade) | $13.825 | $29.30 | Oct 27 | TrendForce DRAM spot |
| Chip spot, DDR4 8Gb 3200 | $47.043 | – | Oct 27 | TrendForce DRAM spot |
| Module spot, 16GB desktop (weekly) | $165.60 | $240.00 | Oct 19 | TrendForce DRAM spot |
| Chip contract, 3-month change | +24% | +20% | Oct 13 report | Barclays via IT Home |
| US retail, median per GB | $7.81 | $18.12 | Oct 27 | RamRadar |
| China retail, 16GB stick | from ¥530 | ¥1,400–1,600 | Oct 21 / Oct 27 | Shenzhen Commercial Daily / CCTV |
A few notes so you read the table the right way. The DDR4 China figure is the cheapest domestic brand, and imported brands cost over 600 yuan. A year ago the same stick was under 200 yuan. The Kingston DDR5 16GB stick was 1,300 yuan on October 21, and 32GB DDR5 ranged from 2,100 to 3,800 yuan on that visit.
TrendForce’s newest free contract figures are for the second half of August: DDR4 16Gb chips at $50.00, up 4.17%. September and later numbers are for paying members, so I use the Barclays three-month change for the trend. The gap between that $50 contract price and the $82.623 spot price shows how short the open market is.
RAM price trend by month, November 2025 to October 2026
RamRadar tracks asking prices for desktop kits on eBay and Newegg. Its monthly mean for DDR5 went from $9.89 per GB in November 2025 to $18.40 in October 2026, an 86% rise. DDR4 went from $5.04 to $8.04, up 60%. The chart uses the monthly mean, which runs a little above the median in the table because a few pricey kits pull it up.
The only real dip in the RAM price trend came in June, when DDR5 fell to $12.99 and DDR4 to $7.24. Both climbed again from July. October is the steepest month for DDR5 so far.
Why memory prices keep rising
HBM and AI servers take the best capacity
HBM, the stacked memory on Nvidia and AMD AI chips, and large server DDR5 modules earn more per wafer than PC memory. TrendForce wrote on September 30 that suppliers keep putting advanced capacity into server products and that PC DRAM supply could fall in 2027 (TrendForce, Sep 30, 2026). DigiTimes tied the DDR4 reversal to the same shift toward HBM (DigiTimes, Oct 14, 2026). If you want to see how much HBM the newest AI chips carry, my Rubin vs MI455X specs post lays it out.
DDR4 is reaching end of life
Samsung is sticking to its DDR4 end-of-life plan, and TrendForce expects DDR4 supply to drop sharply in 2026, with per-gigabit prices at record highs. SK hynix moved most of its Wuxi fab from the older 1z process to 1a (TrendForce, Jan 19, 2026). Millions of older PCs and industrial machines still need DDR4, so buyers compete for a shrinking pile.
Micron left the consumer market
Micron said in December 2025 that it would leave the consumer memory business and wind down Crucial, per the same TrendForce report. That took one of the three big memory makers out of retail sticks and SSDs.
Forecasts: TrendForce, Citi and Barclays
- TrendForce (Sep 30, 2026): conventional DRAM contract prices up 10% to 15% in Q4 2026 versus Q3, and NAND Flash contract prices up 15% to 20%. It also says notebook prices already reflect higher component costs.
- Citi (quoted by IT Home, Oct 13, 2026): the DRAM shortfall peaks at 13.9% of supply in Q4 2027, the NAND shortfall peaks at 8.3% in Q1 2028, and the shortage lasts into 2028.
- Barclays (same IT Home article): DDR4 contract prices rose 4% in October and 24% over three months, ahead of DDR5’s 20%.
These are forecasts, not facts. If any of them shifts the RAM price trend, I’ll note it in the changelog.
SSD and NAND prices
Flash is calmer than DRAM right now. On TrendForce’s NAND spot board, 512Gb TLC wafers averaged $18.592 on October 19, down 1.28% in a week, and the October 21 update says module makers are buying cautiously because they hold a lot of stock. In Huaqiangbei, CCTV saw 1TB SSDs at 800 to just over 1,000 yuan, down 20 to 30 yuan.
That calm may not last. TrendForce expects NAND contract prices to rise 15% to 20% in Q4, with enterprise SSDs the only category still speeding up. If you need an SSD, a small dip in spot prices is a fine time to buy, but I wouldn’t wait for a big fall.
Buy now or wait: PC builders, Mac buyers and local-LLM GPU buyers
PC builders
If you have a DDR4 PC and you’re short on RAM, buy now. DDR4 contract prices rose 24% in three months, and nothing points to a reversal. If your PC runs fine, leave it alone. For a new build, go DDR5, since current AMD AM5 and Intel Core Ultra desktop boards only take DDR5. On a tight budget, start with 16GB and leave two slots free.
Mac buyers
Apple’s memory sits in the chip package, so what you pick at checkout is what you keep. Choose the size you’ll need for the next three or four years. I covered memory sizes in my buy a Mac now or wait guide and in my touch screen MacBook Pro post. TrendForce says notebook prices already reflect memory costs, so waiting for a cheaper upgrade tier is a gamble.
Local-LLM GPU buyers
Graphics memory is up too. GDDR6 8Gb chips averaged $12.502 on TrendForce’s spot board on October 19. A Huaqiangbei wholesaler told the Shenzhen Commercial Daily that an RTX 5090 sold for 55,000 yuan on October 21, up from 22,000 yuan on January 1. Decide how much VRAM your models need first, then buy enough system RAM to back it. My RTX 5090 for AI post shows what fits in 32GB.
FAQ
When will RAM prices go down?
Not this quarter, going by every forecast I’ve read. TrendForce expects contract prices to keep rising through Q4 2026, and Citi sees the DRAM shortfall peaking in Q4 2027.
Why is DDR4 more expensive than DDR5 for chip buyers?
DDR4 supply is shrinking faster than demand. At retail, DDR4 kits are still less than half the DDR5 price per GB.
Are SSD prices going up too?
Contract prices are, by 15% to 20% this quarter per TrendForce. Spot wafer prices dipped in October.
Changelog
- October 27, 2026: Page created with spot prices from TrendForce (Oct 27 and Oct 19), RamRadar retail data (Oct 27), Shenzhen retail prices from CCTV (Oct 27) and the Shenzhen Commercial Daily (Oct 21), and forecasts from TrendForce, Citi and Barclays.