Our favourite Raspberry Pi for building into projects. Compact, low-profile and much cheaper than a Pi 5, with full-size ports and plenty of performance for embedded projects.
Raspberry Pi 3 A+ is a particularly handy Pi for robots, gadgets, displays and other projects where size, cost and convenience matter. Unlike a Pi Zero, you still get standard HDMI and USB-A ports, so you don't need a collection of adaptors and tiny cables just to plug things in.
With a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 512MB RAM, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in, there's plenty here for running Raspberry Pi OS, Python projects, web interfaces, displays, cameras, sensors and all sorts of useful background services.
The A+ is also pleasingly thin and uncomplicated. There's no Ethernet socket or bank of USB ports taking up space, making it a particularly good choice when you're designing the Pi into something rather than using it as a desktop computer.
Features
- 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor
- 512MB RAM
- Dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 4.2 / BLE
- Full-size HDMI
- Full-size USB 2.0 port
- 40-pin GPIO header
- 3.5mm analogue audio and composite video
- CSI camera connector
- DSI display connector
- microSD card slot
Smaller Pi, proper ports
At 65 × 56mm, the Pi 3 A+ takes up considerably less room than the full-size Raspberry Pi boards. It's a handy middle ground between them and the much smaller Pi Zero: compact enough to disappear inside a project, but with standard-sized HDMI and USB connections that make development and installation much less fiddly.
The standard 40-pin GPIO header means it works with a huge range of Raspberry Pi HATs, pHATs and accessories, and the built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth mean most projects won't need any additional networking hardware.
If you're building a Raspberry Pi into something, rather than putting one on your desk, the Pi 3 A+ remains one of our favourite choices.