Historical memory prices 1960-2026

# Memory Prices Source: [https://dam.stanford.edu/memory-prices.html](https://dam.stanford.edu/memory-prices.html) Historic and current**memory and storage prices**, collected in the spirit of John C\. McCallum's classic memory\-price dataset — interactive, with the raw data downloadable\. Hover for details, click the legend to toggle series, drag or use the slider to zoom, and use the camera icon to export an image\. ## Price per gigabyte over time Historical lowest $/GB on a log scale — one line per memory type:**DRAM**,**NAND flash**, and**HBM**\. ## DRAM price by generation The DRAM line above, broken out by generation across the full history — Pre\-DDR \(SDRAM/core\), DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, DDR5\. \(Generation is inferred from product descriptions, so older points are approximate\.\) ## Accelerator cost breakdown Modeled estimates from**Epoch AI**: quarterly accelerator cost across the four largest AI\-accelerator designers —**Nvidia, AMD, Google \(TPU\) and Amazon \(Trainium\)**— stacked by component \(HBM, logic die, packaging/CoWoS, auxiliary\), a**production\-volume\-weighted average**\. ## HBM price by generation By HBM generation \(HBM2e → HBM3 → HBM3e → HBM4\)\. HBM is sold only to accelerator makers on confidential contracts — there is**no public spot market**— so these are sparse**industry\-analyst estimates**\(TrendForce / SemiAnalysis\), not transaction prices\. HBM4 is*projected*\(launches Q3 2026\)\. $/TBps is cost per unit of memory bandwidth \(stack price ÷ per\-stack bandwidth\)\. Methodology, sources and caveats### Sources and method CategoryWhat we trackSource and methodReliabilityDRAM $/GBcheapest retail $/GB, overall and by generation \(DDR3/DDR4/DDR5\)**Deep history \(1957–2024\):**the McCallum memory\-price dataset \([jcmit\.net, via the Internet Archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20250716092935/https://jcmit.net/memoryprice.htm)\)\.**Mid\-2024 onward:**the cheapest new consumer DIMM each month from[Keepa](https://keepa.com/)\(Amazon retail price history\), refreshed monthly\.Reference \+ liveNAND $/GBcheapest retail SSD $/GB, 2010–present**2016 onward:**the cheapest**consumer NVMe**SSD each month from[Keepa](https://keepa.com/)\(Amazon retail price history\), refreshed monthly; SATA and enterprise/datacenter drives are excluded, and per\-drive posting glitches are filtered \(see caveats\)\.**2010–2016:**four*approximate*pre\-NVMe anchor points \(no McCallum\-equivalent flash dataset exists\)\.Live \+ approximateHBM spend and cost breakdownquarterly HBM spend \($B\) and each component's share \(%\) of the accelerator bill of materials \(HBM, logic, packaging, auxiliary\)[Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/data-insights/ai-chip-component-cost-shares)\(CC\-BY\): a modeled estimate, production\-volume\-weighted across the four largest accelerator designers \(Nvidia, AMD, Google, Amazon\); aggregate only, no per\-company split\.External estimateHBM $/GB by generationHBM price per GB and per TB/s of bandwidth, by generationIndustry\-analyst estimates —[TrendForce](https://www.trendforce.com/)and[SemiAnalysis](https://www.semianalysis.com/)\(HBM has no public spot market\); bandwidth from[JEDEC/Rambus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Bandwidth_Memory)\. HBM4 is projected\.Sparse estimate### Caveats - $/GB is the**cheapest retail price in nominal USD**— not contract, average, or inflation\-adjusted, and retail lags contract pricing\. - The cheapest listing often tracks an**end\-of\-life generation being cleared out**, not the leading edge — the per\-generation chart shows this\. - These are cheapest**listed**prices over time \(via Keepa\),**not confirmed sales**\. For the SSD data, obvious posting errors are removed — any month a drive is listed**more than 60% below its own typical price**\(e\.g\. a $130 SSD shown at $4\) is dropped\. - The DRAM line**splices two sources at mid\-2024**\(McCallum → Keepa\); a small step there is expected, since Amazon's cheapest clearance can sit below McCallum's representative low\. - HBM figures are**modeled estimates**\(cost share and spend\), not measured prices\. ### Updates DRAM and NAND $/GB refresh**monthly**from Keepa; HBM updates quarterly \(Epoch AI\)\. The McCallum backbone and HBM estimates are fixed\. The downloadable[CSV](https://dam.stanford.edu/assets/memory-prices/memory-prices.csv)lists every point with its source\. ### About Compiled and maintained by David Shim, Stanford DAM project\. Questions or corrections:[hsshim@stanford\.edu](mailto:[email protected])\.