Anyone thinking about adding a portable SSD to their Mac or iPad would be wise to make that purchase soon. Prices for these are already on the rise.
Why? For the same reason Apple needed to raise prices for its newest MacBooks.
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SSD prices are on the rise
Few modern Macs offer expandable internal storage, and no iPad ever has. That makes portable SSDs the best option for upgrading the capacity of your computer without replacing it. Besides, these are fast and easy to use.
But they become a lot less attractive if the price goes way up. And that is starting to happen, as noted by Bloomberg on Sunday.
“This past week, Apple updated the pricing of several different external drive offerings on both its website and at retail stores, I’m told, and it’s not pretty for would-be buyers,” wrote Mark Gurman. “For instance, a SanDisk 4-terabyte solid-state external drive that once cost roughly $500 is now $1,200, while a 1-terabyte version has gone from $120 to $360.”
Accessory makers set the prices for items sold via the Apple Store, according to Gurman, and vendors are pushing up prices for SSDs.
Portable SSDs: Buy before it’s too late
The trend goes well beyond the Apple Store. Take the Sandisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash Drive that we reviewed last fall. At that time, the 1TB version of this tiny SSD sold for $119.99. It now sells for $219.99. The other capacities have also undergone price hikes.
The Sandisk Extreme Fit USB-C Flash Drive is the world’s smallest 1TB USB-C flash drive. Designed for professionals, students, and everyday users, this new drive is perfect for high-capacity storage without compromising mobility.
- “Plug-and-stay” storage
- Compatible with Mac desktop, MacBook, iPad and iPhone
- Not fast enough for ProRes video
Last fall, the list price for a 4TB Samsung T9 portable SSD was $399. Its current list price is $799.99, though you can get it for $709.18 from Amazon. (See our review: Samsung T9 portable SSD offers big, fast storage in a tiny package)
The Samsung T9 Portable SSD delivers fast 2,000MB/s read speeds in a compact, durable design. Available from 1TB to 4TB, it’s great for quickly moving large files, editing on the go, or expanding your Mac’s storage without slowing down.
- Speedy and reliable performance
- Compact and durable design
- No IP rating
Or there’s the Kingston XS1000. The two-terabyte version of this portable SSD had a list price of $139.99 last fall. Amazon is currently selling it for $235.99. (See our review: Kingston’s tiny external SSD is quick and budget-friendly)
This portable SSD fits comfortably in your palm, making it incredibly easy to take your files on the go. And it can expand your digital library with capacities up to 2TB to preserve life’s cherished moments.
- Terabytes of affordable storage
- Fast transfers
- Cheap-looking plastic exterior
Not too late… yet
You might be confused why you’re being urged to buy a portable SSD now when the prices all just jumped. It’s because memory prices are expected to keep rising for at least another year. And no reliable expert is willing to predict when they’ll come back down.
SSD prices are being driven up by a global shortage of NAND flash memory, the core component inside every solid-state drive, combined with surging demand from artificial intelligence and cloud computing. As tech companies build out massive AI data centers, they are consuming enormous amounts of high-performance storage and memory, pulling supply away from consumer products and driving up costs.
As noted, this isn’t a short-term price spike. Costs for memory are expected to continue to rise for the rest of 2026 — and even in 2027 they’re only predicted to stabilize, not decrease.
There’s another important point, too: more than portable SSDs are affected. Apple built larger SSDs into the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models it launched earlier this month, and they came with increased prices. The Air went up $100 and the Pro jumped by $400.
So if you need to buy a Mac in a couple of years, adding a few terabytes of storage might come at a shockingly high cost. Buy a portable SSD now — even at somewhat a higher cost — and you might not need so much internal storage in the future.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
