The price of your company's Dell laptops is about to go up.
The company plans to increase prices across its commercial product line starting Dec. 17, according to an internal list of upcoming price changes sent to staff on Dec. 9 and seen by Business Insider.
This list provides an overview of Dell's price increases. Commercial Business – Refers to sales to business customers rather than individual consumers. Commercial operations account for about 85% of Dell's annual revenue for Client Solutions Group (CSG), Dell's laptop and PC sales division, according to its latest annual financial results.
The company is one of the leading providers of computer hardware to U.S. companies, and Dell isn't the only one seeing prices rise. Industry-wide memory and storage chip shortages are driving up costs across the PC industry and impacting competitors like Lenovo and HP.
The surge in demand for AI infrastructure has led tech companies to source large quantities of memory and storage chips, increasing competition for consumer devices.
A Dell spokesperson told Business Insider: “Like others in our industry, Dell maintains our commitment to continuity of supply and customer value while taking targeted pricing actions as needed.”
“Our supply chain is resilient and globally diverse. It is designed to provide the flexibility we need as we navigate macroeconomic, regulatory and trade trends,” the spokesperson said.
What price increases mean for you
How expensive your Dell laptops will be next week depends on how much memory and storage you need.
The global shortage is hitting two major types of chips, DRAM and NAND, which are essential components of most user devices.
When you buy a laptop, DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) is used as the memory. For the average customer, this is typically between 8 GB and 32 GB. NAND (Non-Volatile Flash Memory) is used for SSD storage and is typically around 512GB or 1TB.
Starting next week, Dell Pro and Pro Max notebooks and desktops with 32GB of memory will cost $130 to $230 more, according to a list of price changes seen by Business Insider. If you opt for the top-of-the-line 128GB memory, prices will increase from $520 to $765 per device.
Choosing a laptop with 1 TB of storage will increase your overall cost by $55 to $135.
A Dell sales employee said the increase would be “10% to 30%” depending on the contract. They requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, but Business Insider confirmed their employment.
The rapid increase in demand for AI is causing memory costs to rise, and the soaring prices are hitting the PC industry directly. Artur Widak/NurPhoto (via Getty Images)
The price list also includes price increases for AI laptops and individual monitors with Nvidia Blackwell GPUs. For example, the Dell Pro 55 Plus 4K monitor is currently listed on Dell's website for $1,349.99, but the price list says it's going to cost $150 more.
According to the price list, an AI laptop with a 6GB Nvidia RTX PRO 500 Blackwell GPU will cost $66 more, and a 24GB GPU will cost $530 more.
“It's affecting everyone and there's no way around it at the moment, so customers just have to pay more money if they want the product,” the salesperson said.
How Dell tells sellers to prepare
Higher prices make it harder to sell, and with today's tariff-weary consumers and businesses, it's already a challenge for sales teams.
Dell sent an email to its “Go to Market” (GTM) sales representatives on Nov. 25, seen by Business Insider, outlining “important next steps” for sellers to prepare ahead of the price increase.
“Global memory and storage supplies are tightening rapidly,” Dell warned GTM team members.
Contract prices for DRAM and NAND chips “have already increased significantly this quarter, with suppliers indicating further price increases and allocation constraints due to AI demand,” Dell said in an email.
The company told sellers to “act decisively” before raising prices to “protect our customers and Dell's values.”
To protect your sales pipeline, this email advises your team to engage with top accounts, close deals, and plan for significant opportunities and multi-quarter deals over the next week.
“Ordering now for future delivery does not lock in current prices,” Dell warned, but said that by acting now, customers would be able to get ahead of “the anticipated significant increase in memory.”
Jeff Clark, Dell's chief operating officer and vice chairman, said the speed of DRAM price movements is “unprecedented.” Kevork Jansezian/Getty Images
A Dell sales representative said the company was initially rushing to help customers purchase remaining inventory, but the situation now appears to be largely “out of control.”
The employee said Dell absorbs some of the costs internally by squeezing profit margins and limiting the discounts sales staff can offer.
Jeff Clark, Dell's chief operating officer and vice chairman, said during the company's third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 25 that the market's price increases are “unprecedented.”
“I've never seen costs move at this pace,” Clark said. “Demand far exceeds supply, and we're going to rely on what we've been doing as we work through that.”
Why is there a chip shortage?
Tech companies are buying large amounts of DRAM and NAND to power their AI models and cloud services, leaving fewer chips for consumer devices.
The explosive increase in demand, coupled with global supply chain strains, has caused the three companies that dominate the DRAM market, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, to raise prices.
DRAM prices have already risen 50% so far this year and are expected to rise 30% in the final quarter of 2025, according to global technology market research firm Counterpoint.
“The whole supply chain is not able to meet the demands that are needed right now, which inevitably leads to these kinds of challenges,” Bob O'Donnell, president and principal analyst at Technology Research, told Business Insider.
These price increases are “likely to have a noticeable impact on all types of PCs from all PC vendors,” O'Donnell said, adding that supply shortages are expected to continue through 2026.
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