- Ubiquiti has added a ‘memory surcharge’ to its products at checkout
- This varies and can represent up to 5.8% of the cost of any product.
- Some people are unhappy with the price increases, but others appreciate that the company is trying to be transparent.
Ubiquiti has added a ‘memory surcharge’ to the products it sells. It’s an additional tax that is levied due to the high price of RAM and storage, and displayed at checkout, and the move has caused quite a stir in one form or another.
Ubiquiti is a provider of Wi-Fi and networking equipment, as well as other technology such as security cameras and video doorbells, primarily for businesses but also for consumers, and Tom’s Hardware noted the emergence of the memory surcharge.
The added amount is up to 5.8% of the cost of any product and the exact charge varies depending on the item being purchased.
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Ubiquiti provides an explanation in the shopping cart that notes: “Due to the current volatility in the global memory and storage markets, we are applying a surcharge to the price of select products, effective April 24, 2026. We continue to absorb a portion of these costs to minimize the impact and ensure constant availability.”
Analysis: a sneaky trick or a step towards transparency?
For some low-cost products, this amounts to just a couple of extra dollars (or the regional equivalent), and no one is going to bat an eye at that kind of increase. However, for more expensive hardware, even a few percent increase can mean a substantial premium.
Some buyers who discover the surcharge for the first time are not happy at all. One Redditor complains: “I just added some pieces to my cart and saw a surprise ‘memory surcharge’ of €65.” They claim it is due to “market volatility” in memory and storage. Is this becoming a new trend? “It seems like a clever way to increase prices right at checkout.”
Another Ubiquiti customer on Reddit observes: “I’ve been building this network for my home and I keep going back and forth on some elements. This [memory surcharge] just went into effect today… $56 total added.”
Of course, that adds up to a total bill of about $700, but it’s still a huge headache, and one that 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 happy that prices are going up, but some recognize that at least the company is being transparent in this regard.
In other words, Ubiquiti could have increased the selling prices on its online store by identical amounts and left it at that, and chances are, for many purchases, no one would have noticed.
At least this way Ubiquiti makes it clear that there has been an increase and tells the buyer why. Additionally, the hope is that once RAM prices drop further, the surcharge can be removed. The danger of stealthy and hidden price increases is that they never return to the previous level.
As this Redditor puts it: “I think this is Ubiquiti’s attempt to say that they would rather not raise the price, but due to circumstances beyond their control (tariffs and demand for AI memory) they have to. Since they’re putting it in as a surcharge, I’m HIGHLY hopeful that if memory prices drop, or if the US actually comes through with the tariff refund, the surcharges will be removed. For now, it’s terrible, but I get it.”
Someone else adds: “Yes, I honestly prefer this to raising prices and never going down again.”
These are fair points, the only problem is that in the case of the current RAM crisis, the end is not in sight. In fact, depending on who you listen to, a memory price reduction won’t happen until 2028, or maybe not until the end of the decade.
Still, the point about transparency and openness remains, but there are still some unhappy customers who may be emptying their shopping cart and looking elsewhere. Although, naturally, other retailers and manufacturers are facing the same pricing pressures due to the RAM crisis.
Since Ubiquiti has taken this course, it will be interesting to see if other hardware vendors follow suit. But RAM-related price increases are already being applied to many pieces of technology, whether you can see them or not. Meanwhile, CPUs are the latest PC components rumored to see substantial price increases, as grim news continues to arrive.
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