Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip is the most expensive SoC it's made yet

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor means next-gen 2026 flagship smartphones will be even more expensive, so prepare your wallets and pockets.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip is the most expensive SoC it's made yet
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Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor costs $240-$280 per chip, significantly higher than previous generations, due to expensive TSMC 3nm fabrication. This price hike signals that 2026 and 2027 flagship smartphones will be more costly, with next-gen chips potentially exceeding $300 each.

It looks like 2026 flagship smartphones will be even more expensive than the already expensive smartphones of today, as Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor costs more to make than previous gen Snapdragon chips.

In a new post on X from Abhishek Yadav, we have some price estimates for each of Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon smartphone processors, ranging from the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 through to the just-announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5... and boy, things are getting more and more expensive with each generation of mobile chip released.

Qualcomm is reportedly charging between $240 and $280 per Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, and this doesn't include the royalties that the companies have to pay to Qualcomm to use their chips... so it is a little more than that on top. Qualcomm started out charging $120-$130 for its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 a few years ago, but the price has slowly been rising and now it's closer to $300 per chip (once again, without OEMs paying royalties).

Qualcomm has reportedly paid a 24% premium to have its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor fabbed at TSMC, as the Taiwan semiconductor leader is increasing prices on its older 3nm "N3E" and 3nm "N3P" process nodes, with wafers costing an estimated $25,000 and $27,000, respectively.

For its next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 -- if Qualcomm doesn't confuse consumers even more with another unnecessary name change -- we can expect even higher prices, as Qualcomm will be fabbing its new Gen 6 chip on TSMC's bleeding-edge 2nm process node. We should expect each chip to cost over $300 and probably closer to $350 to $400 at this point, making 2027 flagship smartphones cost even more than they do today, and will cost in 2026... not good.