Google is implementing price increases across its entire Pixel hardware family, including the upcoming Pixel 11 series, due to an unprecedented global memory shortage. Shakil Barkat, Google’s Vice President of Devices and Services, confirmed in an interview with 9to5Google that the company can no longer absorb rising supplier costs, stating that the economics have fundamentally shifted and we’re not immune to that.
The price adjustments will be rolled out dynamically to match supply realities
and will affect both the new Pixel 11 lineup and existing “in-market” devices, such as the mid-range Pixel 10a. Google is scheduled to officially announce the next generation of Pixel devices on August 12 at an event in New York City.
AI Boom Drives Memory Costs
The price hikes are driven by a global reallocation of semiconductor production. According to TechTimes, the three companies supplying over 95 percent of the world’s DRAM—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—have shifted fabrication capacity away from low-power mobile memory (LPDDR5X) and toward High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators.
This shift creates a significant output deficit; when a fabrication line is converted from LPDDR5X to HBM, it removes the equivalent of three to four LPDDR5X production lines’ worth of output from the consumer market. Barkat pointed to Morgan Stanley analyst Shawn Kim’s data to illustrate a near-sixfold surge in the per-gigabyte cost of mobile RAM, which rose from $2.80 in 2025 to $12 in 2026. For a flagship phone with 16 GB of RAM, this represents a bill-of-materials increase from approximately $45 per unit to about $192.
Expected Pixel 11 Pricing and Specs
While official pricing will be revealed on August 12, leaks indicate the following changes for the Pixel 11 lineup:
- Pixel 11: Expected base price of $899, a $100 increase over the Pixel 10’s $799 launch price. This model is expected to feature 256GB of storage instead of 128GB.
- Pixel 11 Pro: Expected base price increase of $100 due to the removal of the 128GB storage option. Reports also suggest the RAM may be reduced from 16GB to 12GB to keep costs in check.
- Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold: Leaks suggest these models will be $100 more expensive.
Industry-Wide Impact and Google’s Response
Google is not alone in these adjustments. Other tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Roku, and Nintendo, have raised prices for products such as MacBooks, iPads, Xbox, and the Switch 2 in response to the same memory shortage. Memory analysts suggest that AI data center demand may not peak for another 18 to 24 months, potentially affecting multiple product cycles.
To mitigate the impact on consumers, Google stated it will continue to offer promotions, trade-in deals, and bundled perks like Google One subscriptions. Additionally, Barkat detailed a dedicated effort
by the Android development team to optimize memory usage across the operating system and app ecosystem. By combining software-level efficiency with custom Google Silicon chips, the company aims to allow future devices to run complex on-device AI models using less physical RAM.
