Don't overthink the cost per gigabyte.

Not much, and that’s not the real question. The price per GB between a single 16GB stick and two 8GB sticks is usually within a buck or two—sometimes identical, sometimes the kit is slightly cheaper because it’s sold as a matched pair. You’re not going to save or lose meaningful money either way.

The real decision is about performance versus upgrade path. Two 8GB sticks let you run dual-channel memory, which gives you a solid performance boost on most CPUs (especially Ryzens). A single 16GB stick leaves one slot open for future expansion, but locks you into single-channel speeds until you add a second stick. If you’re building a budget PC that you’ll never upgrade, two 8GB sticks are the smarter bet. If you plan to eventually hit 32GB, start with one 16GB now and add another later.

So stop crunching the per-GB math. Pick the configuration that matches your build plan. Future You deserves better than saving three bucks on the wrong layout.