Today's best-value HDD capacity is 2TB at $19.00/TB (19 in-stock listings). The current frontier capacity, 24TB, costs 51% more per terabyte. Computed live from in-stock listings as of the date below - both figures will move as stock and prices change.
Updated
Two methods, per this site's own two-method contract. Matched restricts both sides of any capacity-to-capacity comparison to SATA-6G - the interface the large majority of buyers are actually shopping - because a handful of capacities on this site (1.2TB, 1.8TB) are tracked almost entirely as 2.5-inch enterprise SAS short-stroke drives, a different product class with different economics. Shelf is the cheapest listing at that capacity across every interface and condition - what a buyer actually sees first, but capable of measuring the interface mix rather than the capacity. The sweet spot, frontier and premium figures on this page all use the matched curve; the shelf figure is shown alongside for reference, labelled, never blended into the matched numbers.
| Capacity | Matched (SATA-6G) $/TB | In stock | Step vs prior | Shelf $/TB (any interface) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1TB | $57.00 | 9 | - | $14.99 (SAS-6G) |
| 2TBSWEET SPOT | $19.00 | 19 | -66.7% | $19.00 (SATA-6G) |
| 3TB | $31.21 | 12 | +64.3% | $15.13 (SAS-6G) |
| 4TB | $29.25 | 26 | -6.3% | $12.50 (SAS-12G) |
| 6TB | $29.17 | 21 | -0.3% | $25.00 (SAS-12G) |
| 8TB | $29.69 | 26 | +1.8% | $27.50 (SAS-12G) |
| 10TB | $24.90 | 33 | -16.1% | $21.00 (SAS-12G) |
| 12TB | $27.50 | 22 | +10.4% | $26.58 (SAS-12G) |
| 14TB | $22.07 | 14 | -19.7% | $22.07 (SATA-6G) |
| 16TB | $28.75 | 10 | +30.3% | $28.75 (SATA-6G) |
| 18TB | $27.22 | 19 | -5.3% | $27.22 (SAS-12G) |
| 20TB | $25.50 | 11 | -6.3% | $25.50 (SATA-6G) |
| 22TB | $28.14 | 7 | +10.4% | $28.14 (SATA-6G) |
| 24TBFRONTIER | $28.71 | 4 | +2.0% | $28.71 (SATA-6G) |
| 30TB | $40.00 | 1 (thin) | +39.3% | $40.00 (SATA-6G) |
| 32TB | $36.25 | 1 (thin) | -9.4% | $36.25 (SATA-6G) |
"Step vs prior" is the % change in matched $/TB against the previous smaller capacity actually in this table - the arithmetic that makes the frontier premium legible at a glance, computed fresh on every request. "Thin" marks a capacity with fewer than 3 in-stock matched-interface listings - its figure is real but rests on limited stock.
2TB currently carries the lowest live matched-interface $/TB of any HDD capacity we track: $19.00/TB, across 19 in-stock SATA-6G listings. See the live picks below for the specific qualifying drives at this capacity.
The frontier - the largest HDD capacity currently backed by at least 3 in-stock matched-interface listings, computed live rather than fixed to a specific number - is 24TB today, at $28.71/TB across 4 in-stock listings. Against the 2TB sweet spot, that is a 51% premium per terabyte.
The honest explanation, per the supply-side sources our own price forecast cites rather than re-derives: a newly-ramped capacity carries a launch premium before production volume brings its cost down, and the current shortage has widened that gap - Western Digital has been reported sold out of nearline capacity, with allocation rather than open availability deciding who receives drives, and HAMR (the recording technology behind the newest, largest capacities) raises capacity per drive without adding manufacturing lines quickly. See our HDD price forecast for the full, dated supply-side picture behind that context.
$/TB is not the only number that matters. A chassis has a fixed number of bays, and once that number is set, the question stops being "which capacity is cheapest per terabyte" and becomes "which capacity gets me to my target with the bays I have." A capacity with a real premium can still be the correct buy for that reader - the arithmetic below prices exactly what that trade costs at today's live numbers.
| Bays | 2TB × bays | 24TB × bays | Extra TB from 24TB | Extra cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 8TB total · $152 | 96TB total · $2756 | +88TB | +$2604 |
| 8 | 16TB total · $304 | 192TB total · $5512 | +176TB | +$5208 |
| 12 | 24TB total · $456 | 288TB total · $8268 | +264TB | +$7812 |
Read the table as a real trade, not a verdict: filling a fixed enclosure with the frontier capacity instead of the sweet spot costs more in total and per terabyte, and it also buys real additional capacity you would otherwise need more bays - or a second enclosure - to reach. Whether that is worth it depends on your bay count and your target capacity, not on which row has the better $/TB. See what it costs to fill a NAS for the same arithmetic against specific chassis models, and rack disk shelves for the 12-25 bay version of this same math.
Our cheapest-per-tb page already lists the cheapest live $/TB at every capacity, across every drive type this site tracks - it is the raw ranking, and this page does not repeat it. What this page adds is the analysis that ranking does not do on its own: the step-change between adjacent capacities, a named sweet spot and frontier computed against a live threshold rather than eyeballed, the matched- interface correction so a thin SAS capacity does not distort the picture, and the bay-count arithmetic for when the expensive capacity is still the right buy. If you want the full cross-category ranking, that page is the one to read; if you want to know specifically where the $/TB curve bends and what that bend costs you, this is that page.
Both live-pick lists above are restricted to CMR or ePMR-verified drives from a known manufacturer, currently in stock - the same discipline this site's /best pages apply, reused rather than re-derived here. A listing without a confirmed recording technology is excluded rather than assumed safe: an SMR drive dropped into a rebuild-dependent array is a real failure mode, and a page whose whole purpose is to route a buyer toward a specific capacity should not route them toward a drive it cannot vouch for. The result is sometimes a shorter list than the full in-stock population at that capacity - that is the gate working, not a bug.
CMR/ePMR-verified, known-brand, in-stock listings - cheapest $/TB first at each capacity.
Cheapest per TB across every drive we track · HDD price forecast · What it costs to fill a NAS · Rack disk shelves · Best $/TB, the overall verdict
See the Quick Answer above - it's computed live on every page load from the matched-interface (SATA) floor at every capacity we track, so the named capacity and figure are always today's, not a remembered one.
See the frontier premium section below for today's live figure. The general pattern, per the supply-side sources our price forecast cites: the newest, largest capacities carry a launch premium before production volume catches up, and the current NAND/HDD supply shortage has widened that gap further - manufacturers are reported allocating rather than selling nearline capacity freely, which pushes the newest tiers' prices up before volume brings them down.
That's a bay-count question, not a $/TB question alone - see the bay-count arithmetic section below. At a fixed number of bays, a larger capacity holds more total data even at a worse $/TB, and whether that trade is worth it depends on what your chassis actually has room for, not on which capacity's $/TB looks best in isolation.
Yes, for a specific and common reason: a fixed bay count. If your chassis has a set number of slots and you have a capacity target, $/TB becomes secondary to how many bays you'd otherwise need to reach that target - see the arithmetic below for exactly what that trade costs at today's live prices.
No. Every figure on this page is live price data - $/TB, computed from in-stock listings - never a performance or reliability ranking. Capacity, price and stock are what we can measure directly; nothing here claims one drive is faster or better than another.
See the two-method note in the curve section - a handful of capacities on this site (1.2TB, 1.8TB) are tracked almost entirely as 2.5-inch enterprise SAS short-stroke drives, a different product class with different economics. Blending them into one capacity ranking would measure the interface mix, not the capacity, so the sweet spot and frontier premium use the matched (SATA-only) comparison, with the raw shelf figure shown alongside for reference.