Cheapest 8GB RAM ranked by price per GB

8GB RAM: the budget upgrade that still makes a difference

8GB is where a sluggish older machine becomes usable again and the smallest size worth buying in 2026. The 1,213 8GB kits and single sticks above are ranked by price per gigabyte, from £0.00/GB to £147.69/GB (median £8.22/GB); the cheapest right now is ESUS IT MEMORY RAM UPGRADE 8GB for Apple Mac Mini MacBook Pro iMac DDR… at £0.01. At this size a single 8GB module and a 2x4GB kit both appear; the listing title says which.

When 8GB is the right buy

• Doubling a 4GB laptop or desktop. Windows 10 and 11 on 4GB swap constantly; with 8GB the same machine handles a browser, email and office apps comfortably. This is the classic upgrade for a DDR3-era PC.
• Adding a matching second stick. A laptop with one 8GB module fitted gets dual channel and 16GB from a single 8GB of the same generation and speed. Check the fitted module's speed in Task Manager (Performance, then Memory) and match it.
• Small servers, thin clients and mini PCs where the workload is fixed and the board has one slot.

What 8GB is not enough for: a new gaming PC, a photo or video editing machine, or any system where you keep many browser tabs open alongside a heavy application. For a fresh build the 16GB page is the starting point and 32GB the comfortable one; the per-GB price of the larger kits is usually lower, so 8GB only wins when you are constrained by slots or budget.

Picking the right 8GB module

Match the generation to the board: DDR5 8GB modules are rare and poor value, DDR4 8GB is the mainstream part at 2666 or 3200MHz, and DDR3 8GB modules (1600MHz, and DDR3L for post-2013 laptops) are what older machines take. Then match the form factor: DIMM for a tower, SO-DIMM for a laptop, mini PC or older iMac. The ECC and Buffered columns show whether a module is a server part; those will not work in a consumer board.

At 8GB the price differences between brands are a few pounds, so the £/GB ranking plus a decent review count is the whole decision. Kingston ValueRAM, Crucial's plain green modules and Corsair Value Select are the reliable no-frills choices, and Amazon Warehouse returns at this size are often under £10 for a DDR3 stick.