'Is this becoming a new trend?': hardware seller's RAM tax 'feels like a sneaky way to hike prices right at checkout' — although not everyone agrees | Tech Radar
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'Is this becoming a new trend?': hardware seller's RAM tax 'feels like a sneaky way to hike prices right at checkout' — although not everyone agrees
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Ubiquiti has added a 'memory surcharge' to its products at checkout
This varies, and can be up to 5.8% of the cost of any product
Some folks aren't happy with the price hikes, but others appreciate the company trying to be transparent
Ubiquiti has added a 'memory surcharge' to the products it sells. It's an additional tax that's being levied because of the high pricing of RAM and storage, and which is shown at checkout — and the move has been causing quite a stir one way or another.
Ubiquiti is a supplier of networking and Wi-Fi gear, as well as other tech, such as security cameras and video doorbells — mainly to enterprises, but also to consumers — and Tom's Hardware noticed the appearance of the memory surcharge.
The amount added is up to 5.8% of the cost of any product, and the exact charge varies based on the item being purchased.
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Ubiquiti provides an explainer in the shopping cart which notes: "Due to ongoing volatility in global memory and storage markets, we are applying a surcharge to the price of selected products, effective April 24, 2026. We continue to absorb a portion of these costs to minimize impact and ensure consistent availability."
Analysis: a sneaky trick — or a move towards transparency?
For some low-cost products, this amounts to just an extra couple of dollars (or the regional equivalent), and no one's going to bat an eyelid at that kind of rise. However, for more expensive hardware, even a hike of a few percent can come out at a substantial premium.
Some buyers discovering the surcharge for the first time aren't at all happy. One Redditor complains: "Just added some parts to my cart and saw a surprise €65 'Memory Surcharge.' They claim it's due to 'market volatility' in memory and storage. Is this becoming a new trend? It feels like a sneaky way to hike prices right at checkout."
Another Ubiquiti customer on Reddit observes: "I have been building this network for my home and keep going back and forth on a few items. This [memory surcharge] just went into effect today… $56 in total added."
Granted, that's added to a total bill of approximately $700, but it's still quite a sting in the tail, and one that's left this particular person wishing they'd acted sooner.
However, in that second Reddit thread, some voices are raised in favor of Ubiquiti. Of course, no one is pleased to see prices going up, but some acknowledge that at least the company is being transparent here.
In other words, Ubiquiti could have just jacked up the asking prices on its online store by identical amounts and left it at that — and the odds are that in the case of many purchases, no one would even have noticed.
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At least this way Ubiquiti is making it clear there's been a hike, and letting the buyer know why. Also, the hope is that once RAM prices settle down more, the surcharge can be removed. The danger with stealthy, hidden price hikes is that they never return to the previous level.
As this Redditor puts it: "I think this is Ubiquiti's attempt at saying they would rather not raise the price but due to circumstances out of their control (tariffs and AI memory demand) they have to. Since they are making it a surcharge, I am VERY mildly hopeful that if memory prices fall, or the US actually follows through on reimbursing tariffs, the surcharges will be dropped. For now, it's dreadful, but I get it."
Someone else adds: "Yea, I honestly prefer this over raising pricing and never coming down again."
These are fair points, the only trouble being that in the case of the current RAM crisis, the end is nowhere in sight. Indeed, depending on who you listen to, an easing of memory pricing isn't going to happen until 2028, or maybe not until the decade is out.
Still, the point about transparency and openness stands, but equally there are some disgruntled customers who may be emptying their checkout cart and looking elsewhere. Although naturally, other retailers and manufacturers are all facing the same pricing pressures due to the situation with the RAM crisis, anyway.
With Ubiquiti having taken this course, it'll be interesting to see if any other hardware vendors follow suit. But RAM-related price hikes are already being applied to many pieces of tech, rest assured, whether you can see them or not. Meanwhile, CPUs are the latest PC components that are rumored to be set for substantial price rises, as the gloomy news keeps on coming.
➡️ Read our full guide to the best processors
- Best overall: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
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- Best professional: Intel Core i 9-14900K
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for Tech Radar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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