Storage space inside our consoles is at an absolute premium these days. Even though the Xbox Series X ships with 1 TB of built-in storage (the Series S has just 512 GB, unless you buy the 1 TB carbon black version of the Series S), you may be amazed — no, terrified — by how quickly that space can get gobbled up by games, updates, apps, and saves. Game Pass members in particular should be warned that going on a downloading spree will likely end in sadness — that is, until you upgrade your storage.
If you’re constantly shuffling around game installations and wondering where you’re going to find space for that next 50 GB update, or that next 148 GB game, you should purchase some extra storage for your console. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the best supplementary storage options for your Xbox.
At least 1 TB of storage
It’s not uncommon to see new Xbox games and their updates with huge install sizes (some nearing 100 GB each). To prevent running out of space, it’s important to buy at least a 1 TB SSD that can ideally fit many games, depending on their size. If you have a flexible budget, and an itchy trigger finger for trying new Game Pass games, we recommend buying an even bigger 2 TB SSD.
Speed
Xbox Series X games have a need for speed. By that, I mean they need fast storage to run at all. If you’re running out of internal solid-state storage on your console, you need one of a small selection of SSDs made for its rear expansion card slot. Only these can provide speeds that match the performance of the console’s internal SSD. That’s not to say bigger, slower drives are needless purchases. In fact, these can stream Xbox One and Xbox 360 (but not Xbox Series X) games over USB without having to copy them to your Xbox’s internal storage.
Best bang for your buck
Getting the most for your money is always our north star in recommending Xbox SSDs, though compared to the PS5 — which supports off-the-shelf M.2 SSDs — prices are significantly higher for Microsoft’s proprietary storage setup. Until more manufacturers develop expansion cards, prices will likely remain much higher than we prefer.
The best Xbox Series X SSD
External Xbox hard drives
There are bigger external hard drives that are significantly less expensive than the official expansion cards. We’ve listed three below, but be warned: These can only be used to store a Series X game’s installation files. If you want to play a game that’s on the external hard drive, you will have to transfer the files to the console’s internal SSD (Xbox One-era games can be both stored and played via the external drive).
Having some bulk storage set aside isn’t quite as helpful as expanding the console’s SSD storage, but transferring a game’s files is still faster than having to re-download them every time you want to boot up a particular title.
