Raspberry Pi Storage Options Compared: SD, USB, SSD & NVMe

When I started using Raspberry Pi, SD cards were basically the only real option. Today, you can boot from USB drives, SSDs, and even NVMe. With so many choices available, picking the right one isn’t as obvious anymore. I’ve tried them all to help you figure it out.

NVMe offers the best performance on supported Raspberry Pi models, but it’s also the most expensive option. SSDs and some USB drives provide a good balance of speed and price, while SD cards remain the simplest and cheapest choice for light projects.

That said, the best choice depends on your use case. Performance, price, and reliability all matter. I ran some benchmarks and will provide the pros and cons of each to help you pick the right one for yourself.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next Raspberry Pi project, I’ve put together a list of 75+ ideas with full descriptions, difficulty ratings, and links to tutorials. Whether you’re a beginner or more advanced, there’s something here for you. Grab the list for free here!

TL;DR: Which Raspberry Pi storage should you buy?

If you’re looking for a short answer, here are the links you should check out.

• Best performance: NVMe (check the price).
• Best value upgrade: SSD (check the price).
• Best for portability: USB flash drive (check the price).
• Best affordable option: SD card (check the price).

For more details, please continue reading the full comparison below.

SD Card

Simple and affordable.

SD cards are non-volatile flash memory and removable storage—meaning it’s easy to pop in and out of portable devices like cameras, handheld consoles, and of course, my Raspberry Pi.

Pros & Cons of SD Cards on the Raspberry Pi

I still use micro SD cards all the time: they’re cheap, easy to replace, and good enough for most projects. And, conveniently, they’re tiny, smaller than the size of my thumb.

My favorite reason to use an SD card on the Raspberry Pi is that it’s supported by default. I can boot popular operating systems with no extra config on my part. I can flash systems directly onto the SD card using network boot, or do it from another PC by buying a USB SD card reader.

Sure, it’s also the slowest option, so you should buy the best Micro SD cards to get the most performance out of your Raspberry Pi.

SD cards have relatively low write endurance, and often become corrupt or worn out from heavy use. If you’re using it for a server, you can mitigate these problems by installing Log2Ram. The latest release of Raspberry Pi OS has also incorporated new methods to extend SD card lifespan. But for servers, I avoid SD cards because I’ve had them fail under heavy writes.

What are SD Cards Best for on Raspberry Pi?

If you’re a beginner, an SD card is where I would start, as it’s the best budget option and the fastest to get going. I generally use SD cards for lightweight projects where I:

• Only need 64GB total storage capacity or less.
• Am working on simple projects that require no extra hardware.
• Need low power consumption, such as for outdoor projects.
• Don’t have to transfer large files often.

A popular combo I started with is using the Flirc case with the SD card below.

USB

A situational upgrade.

A USB flash drive (or thumb drive) is portable storage that can be plugged into any device with a USB port. I’ve used a USB drive to replace the SD card on my Raspberry Pi, so let’s discuss how they stack up against each other.

Pros & Cons of USB Drives for Raspberry Pi

From everything I’ve read, a USB flash drive is theoretically faster than an SD card, as long as it’s using USB 3.0 (the blue ports). In addition, when I needed to increase my storage a lot, I found that USB sticks cost less than SD cards at higher capacities. So a USB stick can be a nice, inexpensive upgrade for your Raspberry Pi.

The biggest benefit to using a USB flash drive is its universal portability. I’ve used a USB drive with different Pi cases out there, like the Argon ONE, and they’re always compatible. And whenever I had to move the USB drive back and forth between my Pi and another device, like copying anime TV shows, I found it faster and more convenient than using other transfer methods.

One last overlooked benefit is having multiple USB drives plugged in at the same time, which I’ve used for dual booting, fast-swapping, and other shenanigans.

However, there’s one thing I always warn people about: a USB drive might be more of a sidegrade than a definitive upgrade. In our previous comparison of SD card vs USB, we were surprised to find there wasn’t much of a performance boost in everyday use on the Raspberry Pi.

In my experience, USB drives aren’t always more reliable than SD cards. The quality of the USB drive matters a lot in this regard, but whenever I’m shopping for one, I find it difficult to find specs for this. I guess that’s why they came out with the official Raspberry Pi Flash Drive, which is supposed to give you a guaranteed boost.

Lastly, the USB drive juts out of my Raspberry Pi in a funny way. Not a big deal for the Pi sitting in my closet, but it’s something I care more about for the Pi sitting on my desk.

What are USB Drives Best for on Raspberry Pi?

I like to use a USB drive on the Raspberry Pi for projects where I need:

• Between 128 GB and 512 GB of storage capacity.
• To swap between devices, such as transferring ROMs for retro gaming.
• Some medium writes to disk, like a Plex/Jellyfin media server.

Want even more ideas? I put together a free resource with over 75 Raspberry Pi project ideas, each with a quick description, tutorial link, and hardware requirements. Whether you’re just starting out or looking for something to do this weekend, this list will keep you busy for a while. Just click here to get instant access.

I think part of the confusion with USB drives is that not every drive can actually reach USB3 speeds and boot to USB3 on the Raspberry Pi. That’s why I recommend the one below.

SSD

A big step up in performance.

SSDs (solid state drives) store data on flash chips. I remember SSDs being a major revolution in PCs because they eventually replaced slow and noisy spinning hard drives. Are SSDs also worth it for the Raspberry Pi? Let’s see.

Pros & Cons of SSD for Raspberry Pi

An SSD will give you faster transfer speeds, higher write endurance, and better failsafe technologies than removable storage on the Raspberry Pi. It makes every operating system I’ve worked with boot faster, move files faster, and feel more pleasant and snappy.

Every SSD I’ve ever bought also has better fail-safe technologies (wear-levelling, over-provisioning, etc.) than SD cards or USB drives. Furthermore, traditional SSD technology is quite mature, so I never have to deal with overheating issues as I’ve had with NVMe drives, and integrating an SSD is no fuss for every mainline Raspberry Pi board.

To add an SD to your Raspberry Pi, you can buy an adapter (like this one), an enclosure, or a full external drive (like this one). Using an adapter/enclosure lets me repurpose SSDs that I have lying around after upgrading old PCs, which I’ve found to be a great value proposition.

If you’re buying new, however, it might be more cost-effective these days to buy a newer M.2 SSD (over the traditional 2.5-inch form factor). You can still use M.2 drives on older boards like the Raspberry Pi 4 if you get a USB-M.2 adapter or a case like the Argon One M.2.

Regardless of which method you choose above, they all connect through USB, so you’ll be capped at speeds that don’t measure up to true SSD speeds. Yet, even with this limitation, my benchmarks show that an SSD will still reach higher transfer speeds than a USB drive can, making it worth the upgrade in my opinion.

It’s not much work to get started, but you do have to enable SSD booting. Maybe the only thing that actually irks me is the awkward shape when used with a Raspberry Pi. For a USB adapter/enclosure, the cable and dangling drive always seem to get in my way.

What are SSDs Best for on Raspberry Pi?

I upgraded to an SSD once I decided I wanted much higher storage capacities and better file transfer needs. For example, an SSD is great for projects where I:

• Need 512GB / 1TB / 2TB of storage or greater.
• Transfer files often, such as for file servers.
• Plan to use the Pi as a replacement for a desktop PC.
• Want the maximum performance possible for a Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 400.

Warning: I learned the hard way that not all SSD adapters properly boot to USB3 on the Raspberry Pi. You can avoid this problem by buying a high-quality external SSD, like the one below.

NVMe

The absolute best performance on Raspberry Pi.

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) drives are the fastest storage technology in personal computing today, and they’re the only drives I buy when building new PCs for others. Technically, they’re still considered SSDs, but it’s common to say NVMe to differentiate them.

Are they just as fantastic when used in a Raspberry Pi? Let’s find out.

Pros & Cons of NVMe for Raspberry Pi

NVMe drives are the fastest storage available on the Raspberry Pi. In addition, NVMe drives have the lowest latency through the PCIe connector on the Pi 5.

After switching to the Pironman 5 MAX case (with NVMe), my benchmark tests showed that an NVMe drive thrashes the SD card, with speeds 5x to 10x faster. In real-world usage, it’s more than everything felt snappier on my desktop, from bootup to programs running faster.

It’s not just speed that makes me enamoured with NVMe drives. They have a much higher write endurance and superior fail-safe technologies. In my experience, they have always outlasted my SD cards or USB flash drives, especially with all the testing I do.

For those of you into looksmaxxing, I think the NVMe drives are also less clunky-looking than traditional 2.5-inch SSDs.

If NVMe drives deliver the best performance in almost every way except power usage, then why not always use them on your Raspberry Pi? Unfortunately, there are a few catches.

First, you’ll only get true NVMe support on the newest boards: specifically, the Raspberry Pi 5 or Pi 500+ (but NOT the Pi 500). Second, I think the technical hurdles aren’t that user-friendly. You’ll need to boot to NVMe on your Pi and possibly migrate your existing system to NVMe.

Lastly, an NVMe setup is the worst for my wallet on this list. You’re not just buying the drive—you’ll also need an extra peripheral to add NVMe support. That means purchasing either an M.2 HAT or a case that supports NVMe (I much prefer using a case).

What is NVMe Best for on Raspberry Pi?

I go with an NVMe drive when I want the absolute highest speeds, period. For example, I love using an NVMe for projects where I am:

• Looking for the max performance possible on a Raspberry Pi 5 or Pi 500+.
• Regularly using 512GB / 1TB / 2TB of storage capacity or greater.
• Working on projects that write to disk heavily, like AI applications.
• Using the Pi as a replacement for a desktop PC.

By the way, not every NVMe drive works on every Pi setup! Check the compatibility list of the case you’re buying to see if it supports your particular NVMe. That’s why I recommend the case below, which supports many popular drives.

Performance Benchmarks

Let’s do a quick by-the-numbers comparison of the read and write speeds amongst the different storage technologies. These averages are taken from PiBenchmarks.

	SD Card	USB Drive	SSD	NVMe
Model	SanDisk Extreme Pro	Samsung Fit Plus USB	SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD	Samsung PM991 M.2 NVMe
Sequential Read (HDParm)	83 MB/s	280 MB/s	278 MB/s	419 MB/s
Sequential Write (dd)	72 MB/s	59 MB/s	171 MB/s	357 MB/s
Random Read 4K (FIO)	3,566 IOPS	3,185 IOPS	19,033 IOPS	107,225 IOPS
Random Write 4K (FIO)	1,064 IOPS	6,432 IOPS	7,664 IOPS	81,920 IOPS

Note: This isn’t a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, as speeds vary widely depending on the specific model, total capacity, and Pi hardware setup. This chart is meant to give you an idea of relative performance.

If comparing quality drives, then SD card < USB Drive < SSD < NVMe. The USB drives were the most inconsistent, and the SSDs still outperformed the USB flash drives, even though they both connect via USB3. The NVMe drives were the fastest in every benchmark category.

Which Storage Option Should You Use?

There are lots of factors other than speed that affect what storage option to go with for your Raspberry Pi. Here’s a summary of things you might want to consider:

	SD Card	USB Drive	SSD	NVMe
Compatibility	All Pi boards	Pi 4 / 400 Pi 5 / 500 / 500+ Pi 3/2/1 (USB2)	Pi 4 / 400 Pi 5 / 500 / 500+	Pi 5 / Pi 500+
Cost	low	low	medium	high
Performance	low	medium	high	highest
Reliability	low	medium	high	high
Form Factor	small (15 x 11 x 1 mm)	medium (dimensions vary)	large (100 x 70 x 7 mm)	medium (22 x 30 x 2.5 mm)
Power Usage	low	medium	medium	high
Recommended product	SanDisk Extreme Pro	Raspberry Pi Flash Drive	SanDisk SSD	CanaKit with Official SSD and HAT

Still need help deciding? Let me give you some of my personal recommendations.

Choose an SD card if you want something easy and affordable, when you need 64GB of storage or less for basic projects, or if you’re using a Raspberry Pi 3 or older.

I recommend upgrading to a USB flash drive when you need 128GB to 512GB of storage, or if you need portability—maybe transferring files between other devices or working on projects where you have to swap drives often.

Upgrading to an SSD is a great value all around, and it’s something I recommend for almost everyone because the gains are significant and consistent. It’s best for the Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5 series boards when you want 512GB or more of storage, and for write-heavy projects.

For the absolute peak performance, go for an NVMe drive. I’d only recommend this upgrade if you have a Raspberry Pi 5 and are willing to shell out extra for a specialized case. It’s best at large capacities (512GB or greater) and will handle any cutting-edge project you throw at it.

Regardless of where you start out, you can always upgrade later by cloning your system and migrating it over. It’s similar to the process I use when I upgrade storage on a regular PC, and that’s why the Raspberry Pi is both a great learning tool and a lot of fun to tinker with!

Whenever you’re ready, here are other ways I can help you:

Test Your Raspberry Pi Level (Free): Not sure why everything takes so long on your Raspberry Pi? Take this free 3-minute assessment and see what’s causing the problems.

The RaspberryTips Community: Need help or want to discuss your Raspberry Pi projects with others who actually get it? Join the RaspberryTips Community and get access to private forums, exclusive lessons, and direct help.

Master your Raspberry Pi in 30 days: If you are looking for the best tips to become an expert on Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Learn useful Linux skills and practice multiple projects with step-by-step guides.

Master Python on Raspberry Pi: Create, understand, and improve any Python script for your Raspberry Pi. Learn the essentials step-by-step without losing time understanding useless concepts.

You can also find all my recommendations for tools and hardware on this page.