LTO tape cartridges sorted by price per TB. The lowest cost-per-TB storage medium available.
The cheapest storage medium available. LTO tape at ~$5/TB beats all other storage technologies on raw cost per terabyte.
If your tape drive supports LTO-9, buy LTO-9 media. At $5/TB it is the cheapest storage medium available. LTO-9 drives read LTO-8 tapes, so existing libraries are compatible. Single cartridges suit testing and small volumes. 10 and 20-pack library packs offer lower per-cartridge cost for production use. Fuji and Quantum are the tier-1 manufacturers - both use BaFe media.
| $/TB ▲ | Brand / Model | Cap | Interface | Tech | Cache | Sector | Wty | Price | Cond. | 90D | Buy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
👑$5.44 ~ Fair | HPE LTO-9 Ultrium Single 18TB Q2079A | 18TB | LTO-9 | BaFe | — | — | — | $97.99 | new | ▲ | Buy →Details | ▼ |
$5.67 ~ Fair | Fuji LTO-8 Ultrium Single 12TB LTO Ultrium 8 2yr | 12TB | LTO-8 | BaFe | — | — | 2yr | $67.99 | new | ▲ | Buy →Details | ▼ |
$10.00 ~ Fair | Quantum LTO-7 Ultrium Single 6TB MR-L7MQN-01 | 6TB | LTO-7 | BaFe | — | — | — | $59.99 | new | ▲ | Buy →Details | ▼ |
$49.99 ~ Fair | Fuji LTO-9 Ultrium 10-Pack 18TB LTO Ultrium 9 2yr | 18TB | LTO-9 | BaFe | — | — | 2yr | $899.90 | new | ▲ | Buy →Details | ▼ |
$105.50 ~ Fair | Quantum LTO-9 Ultrium 20-Pack 18TB MR-L9MQN-01 2yr | 18TB | LTO-9 | BaFe | — | — | 2yr | $1,899.00 | new | ▲ | Buy →Details | ▼ |
$115.92 ~ Fair | Quantum LTO-8 Ultrium 20-Pack 12TB MR-L8MQN-20 2yr | 12TB | LTO-8 | BaFe | — | — | 2yr | $1,390.99 | new | ▲ | Buy →Details | ▼ |
$122.50 ~ Fair | IBM LTO-8 Tape 20-Pack 12TB 01PL054 | 12TB | LTO-8 | BaFe | — | — | — | $1,469.99 | new | ▲ | Buy →Details | ▼ |
LTO-9 offers 18TB native capacity (45TB compressed) versus LTO-8's 12TB. LTO-9 drives can read LTO-8 tapes, so buy LTO-9 media if your drive supports it. LTO-8 remains the sweet spot for existing library installs.
10 and 20-packs are significantly cheaper per cartridge. Singles make sense for testing compatibility or very small volumes. For bulk archival, always buy library packs.
Barium Ferrite (BaFe) is the standard coating for LTO-8 and LTO-9. It offers superior stability, longer archival life (30+ years), and better environmental tolerance compared to older Metal Particle (MP) media.
At ~$5/TB, LTO beats S3 Glacier ($4/TB/month) within months when factoring retrieval costs. Amortize the tape drive over 3+ years of archive volume. LTO wins for compliance, air-gapped security, and large datasets.
LTO-9 media requires an LTO-9 tape drive such as the HPE StoreEver LTO-9 Ultrium 45000, IBM TS2290, or Quantum Scalar i3. LTO-9 drives also read LTO-8 tapes but cannot read LTO-7 or older. Tape drives are not listed on this site - we track media only.
At $5/TB, LTO-9 tape media has the lowest upfront storage cost available. Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive costs approximately $1/TB/month ($12/TB/year). For data held longer than 5 months, tape becomes cheaper than cloud cold storage when accounting for retrieval costs. Factor in tape drive amortization (~$4,000 for an LTO-9 drive over 5 years) for full TCO.
Barium Ferrite (BaFe) is the magnetic particle technology used in LTO-8 and LTO-9 tape media. It replaced Metal Particle (MP) media from LTO-7. BaFe offers superior data stability (30+ year archival life), higher coercivity for higher density, and better resistance to humidity compared to MP.
Yes. LTO is an open standard - Fuji, Quantum, HPE and IBM tape cartridges are interchangeable in any LTO-compatible tape drive or library regardless of brand. Choose based on price and availability.