You finally got your hands on a Raspberry Pi, but which model is it? There are several different Raspberry Pi models in circulation, as the Raspberry Pi Foundation has kept up with evolving technology to release better single board systems over the years. There are also different models to suit different price points, depending on your budget and how much CPU power and RAM you want your device to have. Fortunately, it is easy enough to get the information we are after.
In this tutorial, you will see how to check which Raspberry Pi model you have or are currently working on. It is possible to check the physical device itself for clues to the model number, or it is simple enough to check from the command line terminal, so even if you only have an SSH connection to the device, finding the model number is easy. Let’s see how to do it.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to check Raspberry model via command line
- How to physically check Raspberry model
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Raspberry Pi |
| Software | N/A |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to check Raspberry Pi model – command line
Assuming that your Raspberry Pi is powered on and you have command line access to it, then the easiest way to check the model number would be executing a simple Linux command.
Running this command will check the contents of the /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model file and output your Raspberry Pi’s model number:
$ cat /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5
The output from this command shows:
Raspberry Pi– type of computer4– generation number (4th generation)Model B– model numberRev 1.5– revision number
An alternative command you can run is raspi-config:
$ sudo raspi-config
The full model number and relevant information is shown at the top left of the raspi-config menu.
Physically checking Raspberry Pi model
Let’s say you have a Raspberry Pi in hand, and it is not powered on. We can still quickly determine what model number the Raspberry Pi is by physically inspecting the unit.
The most straightforward way to determine the model number would be to look for the pertinent label on the PC board. In the image below, we can see that the model number is printed on the Pi’s board just above the CPU.
You can also compare the CPU model number or the amount of USB ports to help determine the Raspberry Pi model, but looking for the writing on the PC board is the most reliable method, as shown above.
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to check the model number of a Raspberry Pi computer. This included two command line methods that we can use if the unit is powered on, as well as an alternative method that involves physically inspecting the unit, which we can do whether the device is powered on or not. Whether you have physical access to your Raspberry Pi or just an SSH terminal, it is always easy to determine what model you are working with.
