Google Confirms Pixel 11 Price Increase as RAM Costs Surge Sixfold

Overview

Google has confirmed that its entire Pixel hardware lineup, including the upcoming Pixel 11 series, will see price “adjustments” driven by a surge in memory chip costs, according to 9to5Google, which interviewed Shakil Barkat, Google’s Vice President of Devices and Services, about the situation this week. Barkat said “there’s never been an increase in memory prices like the world’s going through right now,” pointing to Morgan Stanley data showing the price of 1 GB of RAM climbing sixfold, from $2.80 in 2025 to $12 this year, according to 9to5Google.

What We Know

• Barkat told 9to5Google that Google has “shielded our consumers from supply fluctuations for as long as possible,” but that “the economics have fundamentally shifted and we’re not immune to that.”
• The entire Pixel family of devices will see price “adjustments” that will be “rolled out dynamically to match supply realities,” Google said, according to 9to5Google. Google’s hardware portfolio includes the Pixel Watch in addition to phones.
• The company will not share specific new prices for the Pixel 11 series until its August 12 announcement, according to 9to5Google.
• The price disruption will also reach “in-market Pixel phones” already on sale, according to 9to5Google, though Google did not say which existing models or when those changes would take effect.
• For comparison, the current Pixel 10 launched starting at $799 and the Pixel 10 Pro at $999, according to Droid Life.
• Ahead of Google’s official pricing announcement, leaks cited by 9to5Google point to the Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro rising by around $100 over their predecessors, with the entry Pixel 11 Pro dropping from 16 GB of RAM to 12 GB while base storage doubles from 128 GB to 256 GB. The same leaks suggest the Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold could see a straightforward $100 increase. Google has not confirmed any of these specific figures.
• Google said it remains committed to “delivering premium experiences at an accessible value,” and Barkat said buyers can still expect promotions, trade-in offers, and bundled perks like Google One, which he described as a “central part of how we make the Pixel lineup accessible,” according to 9to5Google.
• Beyond passing on “supplier costs,” Google says it is “aggressively engineering its way through these challenges,” including a “dedicated effort” to cut memory requirements across Android and its app ecosystem so devices can run well with less RAM, according to 9to5Google.

What We Don’t Know

• The exact new prices for the Pixel 11 lineup, which Google says it will disclose at its August 12 hardware event.
• Which specific “in-market” Pixel phones will see price changes, and when those changes will take effect.
• Whether the leaked $100 increase, RAM reduction, and storage changes reported ahead of the announcement will match what Google actually ships.

Analysis

Google’s decision to publicly get ahead of the pricing story, rather than let it surface only at the August 12 event, suggests the company is trying to frame a price increase as an industry-wide supply problem rather than a Pixel-specific one. The sixfold jump in RAM pricing that Barkat cited, driven by demand tied to the broader AI buildout, has already pushed component costs up across the consumer electronics industry, and Google’s acknowledgment that even existing “in-market” phones could see price changes signals the disruption may not be limited to new hardware launches.