If you have been saving up for a Samsung flagship, brace yourself: the Samsung S26 Ultra price in India has reportedly gone up by ₹15,000. The base 12GB + 256GB model that launched at ₹1,39,999 now sits at ₹1,54,999, and the 1TB version has crossed the ₹2 lakh mark.
Nothing about the phone changed. Same chip, same cameras, same body. Samsung only changed the number on the price tag, and it did the same in the US and South Korea. Samsung hasn’t said why, but the answer isn’t hard to find, and it’s a bit ironic: AI is making your phone more expensive.
Samsung S26 Ultra price in India: old vs new
Several Indian tech sites report that the new prices took effect around September 23, based on a retailer communication. Samsung has not announced it officially, so check the Samsung India website for the current price before you buy. Here is how the prices reportedly moved:
| Model | Old price | New price (reported) | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy S26 (12GB + 256GB) | ₹87,999 | ₹1,02,999 | ₹15,000 |
| Galaxy S26 (12GB + 512GB) | ₹1,07,999 | ₹1,22,999 | ₹15,000 |
| Galaxy S26+ (12GB + 256GB) | ₹1,19,999 | ₹1,34,999 | ₹15,000 |
| Galaxy S26+ (12GB + 512GB) | ₹1,39,999 | ₹1,54,999 | ₹15,000 |
| Galaxy S26 Ultra (12GB + 256GB) | ₹1,39,999 | ₹1,54,999 | ₹15,000 |
| Galaxy S26 Ultra (12GB + 512GB) | ₹1,59,999 | ₹1,74,999 | ₹15,000 |
| Galaxy S26 Ultra (16GB + 1TB) | ₹1,89,999 | ₹2,14,999 | ₹25,000 |
These are list prices. The Samsung S26 Ultra price you finally pay depends on bank offers and festive discounts, so always check the final price at checkout before you decide anything.
Samsung Galaxy S26 price in the US and Korea
On October 1, Samsung raised US prices too. Android Authority reports a $100 jump on most models, which takes the Samsung S26 Ultra price in the US from $1,299.99 to $1,399.99. The 1TB Ultra gets the worst of it with a $200 hike, landing at $1,999.99. 9to5Google notes that the change hasn’t reached every store yet. South Korea saw increases as well.
Why is the Samsung S26 Ultra price going up? AI is to blame
Every phone needs RAM, and the S26 Ultra uses a kind called LPDDR5X. The trouble is that AI data centres are hungry for similar memory chips, and they pay a lot more for them. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron make most of the world’s DRAM, and when the biggest buyers are AI companies, factories naturally lean towards them. Phone makers get what’s left, at higher prices.
Think of it like onions before a festival. If exporters start paying double, your local sabziwala doesn’t stop selling onions. He just buys them at the new rate and passes it on to you. That is the whole Samsung S26 Ultra price story in one line.
The numbers back this up. TrendForce data shows LPDDR5X contract prices rose 78 to 83% in a single quarter (April to June 2026). Gartner estimates that DRAM and SSD prices together will rise about 130% by the end of 2026, which could make smartphones roughly 13% costlier than in 2025.
But Samsung makes memory itself, right?
It does, and that’s what makes this odd. You would think Samsung could keep cheap chips for its own phones. In practice, the chip business and the phone business act like separate companies, and the chip side sells to whoever pays most.
A Gizmodo report even describes how the chip division’s staff are getting far bigger bonuses than the consumer division’s. One side is winning the AI boom, and the other side sends you the bill.
Should you buy at the new Samsung S26 Ultra price?
This is just my take, so adjust it to your own situation.
- You need a phone right now: wait for a festive sale and stack a bank offer on top. Don’t pay the full list price if you can avoid it.
- You are waiting for the S27 to save money: I would not count on it. With memory this expensive, the next model is more likely to start higher than lower. That is a guess, not an announcement.
- Your budget is tight: a last-year flagship or a mid-range phone is the smarter buy. Budget phones feel memory costs even more, so expect prices there to creep up as well.
Relief isn’t coming soon, either. TrendForce doesn’t expect new memory capacity to ease things meaningfully until around 2028. So if the Samsung S26 Ultra price is your only worry, the honest answer is that it probably won’t come down on its own. For more buying advice, browse our Mobiles section.
We were told AI would make our phones smarter. Nobody mentioned it would make them pricier too.
