How much RAM prices have risen, generation by generation.
Every number below compares a fixed kit capacity in AUD per GB across the newest observed year and exactly five and ten years earlier. Where an exact year is missing, the change is left unavailable rather than estimated.
Measured change, fixed capacity, AUD per GB
4 GB kit
8 GB kit
16 GB kit
32 GB kit
DDR4: the largest sample
The 16 GB kit ended 2026 at a median of $13.69 per GB across 25 observations. Compared with exactly five years earlier (2021, 39 observations at $8.06 per GB), that is a +69.8% change. Over ten years, from a 2016 median of $10.56 per GB (25 observations), the change is +29.6%.
The other fixed capacities move at different speeds: the 32 GB kit changed +83.7% over five years, and the 8 GB kit changed +163.2%. The 8 GB figure rests on only 1 start-year observation.
DDR5: too new for a five-year view
DDR5 first appears in our data in 2022. There are no observations in 2021 or 2016, so the five- and ten-year changes for 32 GB kit are not available and are reported as such rather than interpolated. The shortest exact comparison we can make is three years: from a 2023 median of $8.09 per GB (25 observations) to $21.84 per GB in 2026 (34 observations), a +169.9% change.
DDR3 and DDR2: legacy kits
DDR3 8 GB kit ended 2026 at $17.37 per GB (10 observations), up +101.4% from 2021 and +113.8% from 2016. Legacy DDR3 has become scarce and sparse, so these figures are the few remaining listings rather than a broad market.
DDR2 4 GB kit last appears in 2011 at $18.75 per GB across 3 observations. Its five- and ten-year changes are not available, because there are no observations in the comparison years, and no estimate is substituted.
Read the numbers
Like-for-like change holds capacity fixed and uses AUD per GB, so a shift in the mix of kit sizes cannot appear as a price change. It still describes only the offers we observed, from the sources listed in our methodology, not the whole Australian market. Sample counts accompany every figure because a change resting on a handful of observations is weaker evidence.
See the underlying annual medians and product histories at the RAM price charts, or compare current value at RAM cost per GB.