Hard drive prices don't follow a schedule. They drift with supply, capacity generation changes, and retailer stock — which is why a price quoted in an article from a few months ago is nearly useless. This page shows what hard drives cost right now, from prices we collect directly from retailer listings on a rolling schedule, every day.
The number that matters: price per terabyte
Sticker price tells you almost nothing — an $80 drive can be a worse buy than a $150 one. Dividing price by capacity puts every drive on the same scale. Here is the current best cost per terabyte we're tracking in each hard drive class:
As a rule, desktop-class drives (internal 3.5" and desktop externals, which contain the same mechanisms) set the floor for $/TB, and the best value sits in the middle-to-high capacities of each line. Small drives are almost never good value per terabyte. For a deeper walkthrough of the math, see our guide to how much a terabyte costs.
Current hard drive prices by class
Cheapest first, from live tracked listings. Every product links to its own page with full price history. For today's best buys ranked by cost per terabyte — SSDs included — see the storage deals page; if you just want the lowest sticker prices, the cheap hard drives page ranks by that instead.
Internal hard drives (3.5")
External desktop hard drives
Portable hard drives (2.5")
How to read a price trend before you buy
- Check the drive's own history, not the market's. Every product page here has a price chart. If today's price is at or near the tracked low, waiting rarely pays.
- Ignore strikethrough list prices. Storage list prices are routinely inflated so that everyday prices look like discounts. The only honest comparison is against the drive's own history and its class's going $/TB rate.
- Expect drift, not cliffs. Outside of genuine stock-clearing events, hard drive prices move a few percent at a time. If a "sale" claims 40% off, the list price was fiction.
- Compare within the class. Portables carry a premium for bus power and size; externals track internals closely. The tables above keep them separate so the comparison stays fair.
An example of what tracked history looks like on a high-capacity drive:
View as table
| Date | Price |
|---|---|
| Sep 12 | $299.99 |
| Sep 8 | $299.99 |
Hunting a specific price?
If you're waiting on a particular drive, our Walmart price tracker explains how tracking works and how to set an alert, and every product page has a watch button that emails you when the price drops.