Matic is raising the price of its robot vacuum from $1,245 to $1,495 starting September 9. The company says the $250 increase is due to major jumps in the cost of memory chips and other components, according to The Verge.

At the new price, Matic's vacuum sits above most other robot vacuums on the market, including the high-end models from competitors like iRobot and Roborock. Matic has raised $60 million in funding and focuses on building better machines rather than cheaper ones. The price increase is just the company passing along what it pays for parts.

To make the increase easier to swallow, Matic is including a year's worth of replacement bags—worth $96—free with every purchase made directly from the company. The company is also letting buyers return the vacuum within six months instead of the usual 60 days. At this price, that extra time matters: it lets you test the vacuum through different seasons and cleaning situations before you have to fully commit.

Memory chip costs have jumped recently across the entire tech industry. Matic's vacuum is unusual because it does all its thinking on the device itself—it figures out where to go, how to map your home, and stores all that information right in the vacuum. Simpler robot vacuums send this information to servers in the cloud and only need basic memory onboard. Matic's approach is safer for your privacy and more reliable if your internet cuts out, but it requires much more expensive memory built into the machine.

Take water management as an example. Matic's vacuum is smart enough to drive itself to the sink to refill its mop tank when it runs dry. Most other robot mops need you to refill them manually. That convenience requires the vacuum to be very good at navigating and planning on its own, which in turn requires lots of onboard memory. The expensive parts and the clever features are directly connected.

One thing to keep in mind: Matic says memory costs have jumped tenfold, but the company hasn't shared the actual numbers to back that up. Other robot vacuum makers have absorbed rising component costs without raising prices this much. That suggests Matic may be feeling the pinch harder partly because it buys parts in smaller volumes than bigger manufacturers. The company's leaders haven't publicly explained the detailed cost breakdown.

If you already own a Matic vacuum, this doesn't affect you. The free bags and longer return period only apply to new purchases. If you're thinking about buying one, the deadline is clear: buy before September 9 to lock in the $1,245 price. Whether the free bag supply and return window make up for the $250 increase depends on how much you wanted this vacuum in the first place.

The real question ahead: Can Matic keep building customers for a vacuum that now costs over $1,500? At that price, shoppers have fewer choices and need to think harder before buying. The six-month return window shows that Matic knows this. Giving people half a year to really try out the machine is a sensible way to handle a big purchase.