6 ways to avoid Apple’s insane Mac storage upgrade prices

Apple offers pretty good prices on the standard configurations of its Macs. $599 for a M4 Mac mini? $999 for a new M4 MacBook Air? $1,299 for a new M4 iMac? Those are attractively priced. But those prices involve a few sacrifices, most notably the starting storage of just 256GB. A quarter of a terabyte might sound like a lot, but much of what we do on the Mac involves large files–high-resolution pictures, videos, games (literally the biggest culprit), and a lot more. 256GB runs out quickly.

Apple does give customers the option to upgrade storage at the point of purchase, of course, but their prices are steep. Upgrading from 256GB to 512GB (the minimum amount we recommend) is an extra $200/£200, and jumping to a terabyte is another $200, turning an attractive entry-level offering into a pricey one.

But if you don’t want to plunk down the extra money, you can still expand your Mac’s storage without paying Apple’s exorbitant prices. The alternatives here are mostly external storage solutions–in other words, you’ll need to carry and plug in an extra device–but the compromise can help you meet your budget.

External SSDs and hard drives

An external storage device offers the best combination of price and capacity. For example, you can get a 1TB LaCie Mobile Drive for un$80der /£56 on Amazon that connects to your Mac via USB-C. LaCie sells that same drive with 5TB of storage for less than $170/£115–still lower than the upgrade to 512GB of internal storage on a Mac.

With external drives, you can opt for a hard drive or a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs (which are used internally on the Mac) are faster and higher-priced than hard drives. You can also choose between desktop drives that have a larger design and require you to plug it into a power outlet, or portable drives that are small enough to fit in a bag or pocket and are powered through the Mac’s Thunderbolt or USB port.

External drives use either USB-C or Thunderbolt to connect to the Mac. Thunderbolt drives are more expensive but faster, while cheaper USB-C-only drives often support slower data transfer rates. Learn more about the differences between Thunderbolt and USB.

Macworld has guides to the best external SSDs and the best external hard drives to help you find the best device for you.

USB flash drives

Often called “thumb drives” or “memory sticks,” a USB flash drive is essentially a stick of flash memory that plugs into a USB port. They’re small and easy to stash in a bag or pocket. They are available in capacities as high as 2TB, but 128GB and 256GB capacities are most commonly found, often for less than $30, such as this Samsung flash drive.

USB flash drives vary in price based on capacity and speed. Some have additional features such as a USB-A plug on one end and a USB-C plug on the other, or built-in encryption.

You can leave a USB flash drive plugged in, but if you are going to frequently read and write to the drive, you’ll want to opt for a portable or desktop drive instead. USB flash drives are more prone to wearing out than a full-fledged drive because flash memory has limited durability and USB flash drives don’t have the measures in place to maintain proper health. Also, they tend to use lower-quality parts so they can be cheap and treated as commodities (for example, the corner near my home sells USB flash drives).

While you don’t want to rely on USB flash drives are primary storage, they’re handy for, say, storing photos or videos from a shoot, file management when you want to keep files for a project separate from everything else, backups, and more.

SD cards

SDXC cards are memory cards often used in cameras and other portable devices, but you can also use them on the Mac. Only two Macs (MacBook Pro and Mac Studio) have built-in SDXC Card slots, however. For every other Mac, you must buy an SD Card adapter, which is inexpensive at about $10/£10. You can also find hubs and Thunderbolt docks with card slots if you plan to buy one anyway.

SDXC cards are good for uses similar to USB flash drives: file transfers, specifically storing files for projects, backups, and more. They have similar issues regarding the memory chips wearing out; they are more reliable because they use higher-quality memory, but they aren’t ideal as a drive that is always connected and you are frequently reading and writing files to.

If you plan to use an SDXC card and a method of transferring files between Macs or other devices, consider buying another card as a backup. I’ve had instances where the metal contacts for the card get worn out or damaged from frequent insertions into devices. These cards did have several years of mileage on them but understand that they’re delicate relative to other storage devices mentioned here.

Cards are available in capacities between 32GB and 2TB and are available at different speeds. The higher capacity/faster cards can be more expensive than an external SSD drive of the same capacity as you’re paying a premium for the extremely small size.

Network-attached storage

If you’re not familiar with network-attached storage (NAS), think of it as cloud storage, but specifically for your home. A NAS device connects to your home network, and your Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Windows PC and Android devices can access it whenever necessary. A NAS device is a good way to store files that need to be accessed by several devices or users, or it can be a way for individual users to move files from a device to free up space.

Because the NAS device connects to a network, the setup isn’t as simple as plug-and-play, but it’s not too difficult. Once it’s up and running, you can access it either through the Network menu in the Finder, or through an app, browser, or both. Some NAS devices can provide access when you’re away from home, but this may require using a paid service from the device’s company.

NAS devices range from ones with fixed hard drives starting at 2TB for $150/£150 to drives with multiple removable hard drives with capacities over 8TB and other features for several hundreds of dollars. Check out our picks for the best NAS drive for Mac if you’re interested.

Cloud storage

Cloud storage is provided by a service online for a fee, usually a subscription. Apple offers iCloud, which includes iCloud Drive along with other services. Other popular cloud storage providers include Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Box. Learn more about the best cloud storage services for the Mac.

What’s great about cloud storage is that it is accessible by almost any device that has an internet connection. But because your ability to access it is reliant on the internet, cloud storage shouldn’t be used as primary storage. It’s good for storing files you want to access but not ones you use frequently, things like backups, photo and video storage, and file transfers. But it’s a great way to free up space on your Mac’s drive.

Also, since you have to pay a recurring fee, you’ll need to figure out how the cost benefits you. Many services have a free tier with a small allocation of storage; for example, iCloud Drive offers 5GB free. That limits what you can do.

Mac mini and Mac Studio SSD upgrades

The M4 Mac mini and the Mac Studio have internal SSDs that are installed in slots, which makes them upgradeable but Apple doesn’t officially support upgrades after purchase, either by the company, a third party, or by do-it-yourselfers. Some small companies have released SSD upgrade kits, such as Expand Mac mini and PolySoft Services with video instructions on their websites.

The installations for these kits aren’t trivial and if your mechanical aptitude is limited, you should be able to do this. But there is a risk of damaging your Mac and this installation could void your warranty, especially if there is obvious evidence of your work.

Learn more about how to upgrade an M2 Mac mini.