How much did the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 cost in 2020 vs 2026?

Mr.Mikla/Shutterstock

It's only natural to wince when you think back to the spring of 2020. But among all the chaos and uncertainty of the time, you could've found solace in bagging an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 for the low low price of $1,050. That might look like a typo when considering today's "cheapest" model costs $3,600 when you buy directly from ASUS, but it's true. Even at Best Buy, you're talking $3,200 at the time of writing, with both prices representing more than a three-fold increase over the launch price. 

That number looks all the more grim when you consider that inflation only accounts for about $320 of the increase. ASUS upgraded the G14's screen, chassis, and graphics between 2020 and 2025, adding about $750 to the sticker price. It then jumped by another $1,400 in a single generation as memory prices went to the moon and cheaper configurations were dropped from the U.S. lineup. Almost two-thirds of the price increase came this year alone.

How did the price get to where it is today?

In 2020, the base G14 paired a Ryzen 7 4800HS with 8GB of RAM, a GTX 1650 and a 60Hz 1080p display. Meanwhile, the $1,450 review configuration (which we, at the time, called ultraportable gaming done right) had a Ryzen 9 4900HS, an RTX 2060 Max-Q, 16GB of RAM and a 120Hz screen. It weighed roughly 3.5 pounds and came in at 0.7 inches thick. The Zephyrus line had only been around for three years at that point, starting in 2017 with the 15-inch GX501. That was a $2,699 machine, and the G14 brought it down to less than half that price.

In 2022, ASUS rebuilt the G14 around AMD Radeon graphics, inflating the starting price to around $1,650 for the RX 6700S model. A year later, NVIDIA GPUs returned, and an RTX 4060 config retailed at around $1,600. The top model with an RTX 4090 and a mini-LED screen had more than double the price tag at $3,299. Another redesign in 2024 brought a 3K 120Hz OLED panel and cut the weight to 3.31 pounds, with the price starting again at $1,600 with a Ryzen 9 8945HS, 16GB of RAM, and an RTX 4060.

A year later, the 2025 model launched at $2,499 with an RTX 5070 Ti and twice the usual RAM at 32GB, topping out at $3,200 with an RTX 5080. ASUS did quote a $2,199 starting price at January's CES 2025 event, but no configuration at that price went on sale at launch. A cheaper RTX 5060 version was eventually announced in May 2025 for $1,800. That left the cheapest G14 costing $750 more than the OG, though it came with an OLED screen and 16GB of RAM. 

What $3,200 buys you in 2026

Dave Meikleham for Engadget

This year's G14 pairs Intel's Core Ultra 9 386H with an RTX 5070 Ti, with the $3,200 config sporting 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 2880 x 1800 OLED panel. The version with 32GB RAM is $3,600 directly from ASUS. The RAM here is soldered, so you're stuck with 16GB in the cheaper model, and its thickness and weight are almost exactly the same as the original. Interestingly, in its benchmarks, GamesRadar found that the 2026 RTX 5070 Ti model sometimes outran last year's RTX 5080 version. 

This dramatic price increase largely comes down to the AI-fueled memory crisis. In January 2025, ASUS told its partners that it would raise prices on some products, citing memory costs driven by AI demand. Unfortunately, a thin gaming laptop like the G14 with 16GB or 32GB of fast soldered memory and a 1TB SSD is exposed to both DRAM and flash pricing. While it's true that ASUS does make a cheaper 2026 G14 with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 and an RTX 5060, it isn't currently available from the U.S. store. That leaves the RTX 5070 Ti model as the entry point for U.S. buyers, and at $3,200, it now costs what the top-spec RTX 5080 model did at launch. The same chip and GPU in the dual-screen ROG Zephyrus Duo, which we called outrageously expensive yet totally awesome, will set you back $4,500.

When we account for inflation, the 2020 G14's $1,050 is about $1,370 today, and no model in the G14 lineup comes close to that price. The nearest thing is last year's RTX 5060 model, which tops our list of the best gaming laptops for 2026. It's still available at Best Buy, and if you want the cheapest G14 going, that's the one to buy while you still can.