Guides / W25Q flash prices and alternatives · Data from 24 October 2026

Flash memory shortage 2026: W25Q prices and alternatives

Memory prices have been in the news all year. Most of that news is about DRAM and NAND, the memory in PCs, phones and SSDs. Hardware designers mostly buy something else: small SPI NOR flash chips like the Winbond W25Q series that hold a microcontroller's firmware. We looked up what those cost and who has them on 24 October 2026.

What the shortage is, and what it is not

The reported price rises are in DRAM and NAND. Industry trackers quoted by Tech Insider expected NAND contract prices to rise 55 to 60% in Q1 2026 and 70 to 75% in Q2, and reported that SK hynix has allocated its NAND output to customers through the end of 2026. NextPCB cites DRAM contract prices up 90 to 95% in Q1. Gartner put Q3 2026 PC shipments at 55.4 million, 22.4% below a year earlier, and attributed the drop mainly to higher prices and scarce components.

SPI NOR flash is a different market. It is made on older process nodes, with much smaller dies and largely different suppliers, and none of the sources above give NOR flash prices. We do not have a year of NOR price history either, so we cannot tell you NOR prices rose with DRAM. What we can show is what the parts cost and where they were in stock on one day.

Winbond W25Q prices on 24 October 2026

Unit price at 100 pieces, stock in brackets. All SOIC-8 208 mil except the W25Q256 (WSON-8, 6 × 8 mm).

Part	Size	JLCPCB / LCSC	DigiKey
`W25Q32JVSSIQ`	32 Mbit	$1.0736 (9,915)	$1.8298 (98,538)
`W25Q64JVSSIQ`	64 Mbit	$1.3567 (917)	$3.5833, 0 stock
`W25Q128JVSIQ`	128 Mbit	$1.7806 (63,254)	$5.1772 (59,212)
`W25Q256JVEIQ`	256 Mbit	$3.1208 (7,835)	$9.5302 (41,202)

DigiKey was 1.7 to 3.1 times the JLCPCB price for the same Winbond part. For one W25Q128 the gap is $3.40; across 100 boards it is $340.
Mouser had none of the four in stock.
The W25Q128JVSIQ is a basic part at JLCPCB (LCSC C97521), so it adds no assembly fee. The other three are extended parts with the $3 fee.
The W25Q32JVSSIQ is listed as obsolete, although DigiKey still had almost 100,000. For a new design, pick another part.
The W25Q64 is the thin one: 917 at JLCPCB and none at DigiKey or Mouser.

In-stock 128 Mbit alternatives

Several other manufacturers make 128 Mbit quad-SPI NOR flash in the same 8-pin, 208 mil package, generally with the same pin assignment as the W25Q (CS, DO, WP/IO2, GND, DI, CLK, HOLD/IO3, VCC); confirm it in each datasheet. Prices at JLCPCB for 100 pieces:

Part	Manufacturer	Price at 100	Stock
`ZD25Q128CSIGT`	Zetta	$0.6448	10,886
`BY25Q128ESSIG(R)`	Boya Micro	$0.7168	6,448
`MD25Q128SIGR`	GigaDevice	$0.7577	2,104
`PY25Q128HA-SUH-IR`	Puya	$0.8674	14,605
`GD25Q128ESIGR`	GigaDevice	$0.9672	26,620
`W25Q128JVSIQ` (for reference)	Winbond	$1.7806	63,254

All five alternatives are extended parts at JLCPCB, so assembly adds $3 per order. At these prices the GD25Q128 costs $0.81 less per chip than the Winbond part, so the fee is paid back after about four boards; the Zetta part after about three.

Before you swap the flash

Same pinout and package does not make two flash chips interchangeable for every system. Check:

Your bootloader or flash driver. Some read the JEDEC ID and only support listed manufacturers, or configure quad mode differently per vendor (the quad-enable bit is not in the same register on every chip).
Timing: maximum clock (the Boya and MD25Q parts are listed at 104 to 120 MHz against 133 MHz for the W25Q128) and erase times.
Temperature range: some listings do not state one.
The package code. One Boya listing is SSOP-8, others SOP-8: compare the drawing with your footprint.

For a firmware chip on an MCU board, GigaDevice is one of the most widely supported second sources. Test one board before changing a production build.

PSRAM: APS6404L

The APS6404L-3SQR-SN (AP Memory, 64 Mbit quad-SPI PSRAM, SOP-8) is the usual external RAM next to an RP2040, RP2350 or other MCU without enough internal memory. Here the order was reversed: Mouser $2.51 (53,355 in stock) against JLCPCB $2.8835 (3,518) at 100 pieces, and our DigiKey lookup returned no offer. Its JLCPCB listing went out of stock three times in the last 120 days.

What to do now

Price flash per distributor. The same Winbond part was three times the price at DigiKey, and out of stock at Mouser.
Choose a size with depth. On this day the W25Q128 had far more stock than the W25Q64, and costs only $0.42 more at JLCPCB.
Qualify a second source such as GD25Q128 once, so a stock gap does not stop a build.
If your board needs DRAM or eMMC, that is where the 2026 price rises are. Check those lines first.

Prices and stock are from 24 October 2026 and change daily. For other parts with pin-compatible alternatives, see STM32F103 alternatives and how to replace an obsolete part.

About the data

The numbers in this article come from Next Everything, an MCP server we build that lets AI assistants such as Claude, Cursor and Codex check a BOM against the JLCPCB/LCSC catalog and live Mouser and DigiKey prices. If you want to run the same check on your own BOM, the setup guides show how to connect it.

Next Everything is not affiliated with Mouser, DigiKey, JLCPCB or LCSC. Prices are list prices in USD at the time stated and change daily.