Indian consumers are facing a fresh tech shock as RAM prices, which stayed cheap for years, have surged sharply through 2025. While it affects gamers, students, and small businesses upgrading their laptops, refurbishers and PC builders seem have got the short end of the stick . Chipmaker Micron announcing the closing of its Crucial consumer brand earlier this month added to further woes.
“The AI-driven growth in the data centre has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments,” said Micron EVP and Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana in the official company statement.
After a long “golden period” of low prices between about 2019 and early 2024, memory modules are now costing two to four times their previous lows, according to Indian price‑tracking data and local market analyses.
Rowan Sharma, a 34-year-old PC masterrace builder-gamer from Bhopal, said, “It is now easier to break open older PCs and rebuild new ones from them. Buying basic RAM now costs as much as a starter motherboard six years ago.”
“AI ruined art. It ruined job market. And now hardware prices. AI ruins everything,” quipped Sharma.
He also noted how most of his peers left PC gaming for consoles and reasoned that console prices rarely appreciated, unlike computer hardware. “Two of them lost heart; they no longer game or build PCs,” he added.
Coming back to data, the long‑running price history for the popular Crucial 8GB DDR4 3200 MHz laptop RAM module shows just how wild the swings have been.
The RAM peaked at over Rs 12,600 back in March 2018, fell to a low of around Rs 1,249 in January 2025, and then climbed back to about Rs 3,000 by mid‑November 2025. The multi‑year average price works out to around Rs 4,100, meaning this year’s spike has already pushed the module back towards its long‑term “normal” range after an unusually cheap phase.
Another listing for a 32GB DDR4 2666 MHz desktop kit from Indian brand Dolgix, tracked since 2017, shows a lowest price under Rs 1,000, an average near Rs 2,435 and highs close to Rs 5,800, with the current price around Rs 2,550.
On the street, Indian tech retailers report that mainstream 8GB DDR4 3200 MHz sticks, which were selling for roughly Rs 1,300 in the glut years, now cost above Rs 3,000.
For heavier users, the spike is more turbulent. 16GB DDR4 kits have moved from about Rs 1,800–2,000 in deep‑discount periods to more than Rs 8,200, while 32GB DDR4 kits that could be found for around Rs 4,000 are now often priced above Rs 15,000.
DDR5, the newer generation of RAM used in the latest platforms, has seen 16GB kits rise from around Rs 4,000 to over Rs 12,500 and 32GB kits from about Rs 6,500 to beyond Rs 25,000 in 2025, according to one Indian market explainer.
India imports almost all its DRAM. So, these swings largely mirror global trends, compounded by the rupee‑dollar rate and retailer margins. Market analysts say a global supply squeeze—driven by booming demand for high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) in AI chips, as well as chipmakers shifting capacity from older DDR4 to more profitable DDR5 and HBM—has pushed up contract and spot prices worldwide, which then trickle down to Indian shelves.
Rajesh K.P., a refurbished PC repair specialist from Kochi, pointed out, “SSD and RAM prices increased my total build costs. There are almost zero margins in the budget PC builds.” Rajesh said that it would get worse, since AI companies are (allegedly) hogging RAM.
