Google is preparing buyers for a Pixel 11 price hike, according to comments from Shakil Barkat, the company’s vice president of devices and services, in an interview with 9to5Google. Barkat did not publish a price list, but he tied coming Pixel pricing changes to the same RAM supply crunch that has been pushing up costs across consumer hardware.
Barkat told 9to5Google that Google had protected customers from supply swings “for as long as possible,” adding that the economics had changed and that Google was not exempt from those pressures. He also said Pixel pricing would see “adjustments” that would be rolled out in response to supply conditions.
That is executive-speak, but the direction is not especially mysterious: the next Pixel is expected to cost more than the Pixel 10. The company is scheduled to announce its next Pixel devices on August 12, so the clean version of the price sheet should arrive soon enough.
Why is the Pixel 11 price going up?
The reason given by Barkat is memory supply. RAM is the working memory a phone uses to keep apps and system tasks ready while the device is running, and the current strain on that market has been linked to heavy demand from AI data centers.
The result, according to the reports cited around the Pixel launch, is that hardware makers are either charging more, changing configurations, or doing both. That is a boring mechanism with annoying consequences: the part gets pricier, the device maker protects its margin, and the person buying the phone gets invited to pay the difference.
Google is not alone in dealing with higher memory costs. Reports have connected price increases from Apple, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Roku to the same broader pressure on RAM and memory pricing. Those examples do not prove Google’s final Pixel prices, but they do make Barkat’s comments sound less like a one-off excuse and more like a market-wide bill coming due.
What price and specs are rumored for Pixel 11?
The base Pixel 11 is expected to start at $899, according to earlier reporting, with 256GB of storage rather than 128GB. That would give buyers more storage at the entry level, while still raising the starting price compared with the prior base model.
There is also a reported spec change on the higher-end model. The Pixel 11 Pro is rumored to move from 16GB of RAM to 12GB. If that holds, Google would be trimming the very component class driving the pricing pressure, which is less glamorous than a new camera bar but much easier to understand if the memory market is as tight as executives say.
None of the rumored pricing or RAM configuration is final until Google announces the phones. Barkat’s comments, though, are the closest thing to a warning label: Pixel pricing is being adjusted around supply reality, and buyers expecting the Pixel 10 price structure to carry over should probably recalibrate before the August 12 event.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
