SSD Prices Have Fallen 15 to 30 Percent Since January

SSD Prices Falling
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The price of SSDs is in rapid decline. Anyone who has been following the market for the last few months should not be surprised. We've long known that a glut of NAND flash memory and lowering manufacturing costs are now being passed along to the consumer, with typical reductions of 15 to 30 percent in just the last 60 days.

Back in October, analysts predicted that, by mid-2023, the price of drives would drop by 50 percent. At the time, major suppliers such as Kioxia and Micron announced that they would reduce the production of NAND to keep supplies lower. However, there's only so much that a memory manufacturer can do to limit output before they are losing money by maintaining idle production facilities.  

Recently, we've seen a number of mind-blowing SSD deals on individual drives, but we wondered: just how much has the price of the average drive declined recently? To find out, I surveyed the current prices for 21 popular SSDs at 1TB, and then compared them to their price on  January 3rd (approximately two months ago). I repeated the exercise for 2TB and 4TB capacities, though not all of the drives were available with these higher capacities. 

1TB SSD Price Cuts

Swipe to scroll horizontally
DrivePricePrice Per GBJan PriceInterfacePrice Cut
WD Black SN770$59.99$0.06$89.99PCIe 433.34%
Crucial P3 Plus$54.99$0.05$79.99PCIe 431.25%
Intel 670p$49.99$0.05$69.99PCIe 328.58%
Samsung 870 Evo$64.98$0.06$89.99SATA27.79%
Crucial MX500$51.99$0.05$69.99SATA25.72%
Solidigm P41 Plus$52.99$0.05$69.99PCIe 424.29%
WD Blue SN570$52.99$0.05$69.99PCIe 324.29%
Samsung 980 Pro$99.99$0.10$129.99PCIe 423.08%
Silicon Power UD90$57.99$0.06$74.99PCIe 422.67%
Samsung 980$69.98$0.07$89.99PCIe 322.24%
Crucial P3$49.99$0.05$63.99PCIe 321.88%
SK hynix Gold P31$107.99$0.11$136.99PCIe 321.17%
Samsug 970 Evo Plus$79.98$0.08$99.99PCIe 320.01%
Kingston KC3000$86.75$0.08$106.99PCIe 418.92%
Kingston Fury Renegade$91.76$0.09$111.99PCIe 418.06%
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus$99.99$0.10$119.99PCIe 416.67%
Crucial P5 Plus$89.99$0.09$99.99PCIe 410.00%
Sabrent Rocket Q$79.99$0.08$79.99PCIe 30.00%
Samsung 990 Pro$169.99$0.17$169.99PCIe 40.00%
SK hynix Platinum P41$149.99$0.15$149.99PCIe 40.00%
WD Black SN850X$99.99$0.10$99.99PCIe 40.00%

It seems that the biggest percentage price cuts have come on 1TB SSDs. Of the 21 models we researched, 17 had lower prices today than they did on January 3rd, with only one drive being cut less than 16 percent, and a 23 percent average cut. 

The best value here, by far, is the WD Black SN770. This DRAMless PCIe 4.0 SSD promises sequential reads and writes of 5,150 and 4,850 MBps and costs only $0.06 per GB after a 33.3 percent price cut. When we reviewed the WD Black SN770 last year, we gave it 4.5 stars out of 5 thanks to its blazing-fast performance and excellent value. While it's not the fastest drive on the market, it's just a step or two behind competitors that cost 50 to 75 percent more per GB.

In fact, most of the drives that saw no price cut at all were among the fastest on the market: the industry-leading Samsung 990 Pro, the blazing WD Black SN850X and the speedy SK hynix Platinum P41. The 990 Pro and SN850X are ranked first and second on our list of the best SSDs.

2TB SSD Price Cuts

Swipe to scroll horizontally
DrivePricePrice Per GBJan PriceInterfacePrice Cut
Crucial P5 Plus$131.99$0.06$194.99PCIe 432.31%
Samsung 970 Evo Plus$139.99$0.07$189.99PCIe 326.32%
Intel 670p$99.99$0.05$129.99PCIe 323.08%
Crucial MX500$119.99$0.06$149.99SATA20.00%
WD Black SN770$119.99$0.06$149.99PCIe 420.00%
WD Black SN850X$159.99$0.08$189.99PCIe 415.79%
Kingston KC3000$162.72$0.08$192.99PCIe 415.68%
Kingston Fury Renegade$177.55$0.09$202.99PCIe 412.53%
Solidigm P41 Plus$109.99$0.05$124.99PCIe 412.00%
Samsung 980 Pro$159.99$0.08$179.99PCIe 411.11%
Crucial P3$107.99$0.05$119.99PCIe 310.00%
Crucial P3 Plus$112.99$0.06$124.99PCIe 49.60%
Silicon Power UD90$109.49$0.05$119.99PCIe 48.75%
WD Blue SN570$109.99$0.05$119.99PCIe 38.33%
SK hynix Platinum P41$249.99$0.12$259.99PCIe 43.85%
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus$199.99$0.10$199.99PCIe 40.00%
Samsung 990 Pro$286.19$0.14$286.19PCIe 40.00%
SK hynix Gold P31$208.24$0.10$208.24PCIe 30.00%
Samsung 870 Evo$169.99$0.08$159.99SATA-6.25%

The WD Black SN770 is a great value at 2TB as well, costing just 6 cents per GB after its 20 percent price cut. However, the faster Crucial P5 Plus, which is only a few dollars more, has a built-in DRAM cache, better performance and saw a 32.3 percent price cut since January. 

Among SSDs with elite performance, the WD Black SN850X is the best value at just 8 cents per GB after a 15 percent price cut. The drive boasts sequential read and write speeds of 7,300 and 6,600 MBps and is second only to the extremely-expensive Samsung 990 Pro in performance.

The average price cut among the 19 drives in this category was 15.3 percent. Here we saw much more modest price cuts among top performers and we even saw one drive, the SATA-powered Samsung 870 Evo, go up in price by $10. 

4TB SSD Price Cuts

Swipe to scroll horizontally
DrivePricePrice Per GBJan PriceInterfacePrice Cut
Kingston KC3000$399.77$0.10$537.00PCIe 425.55%
Samsung 870 Evo$299.99$0.07$379.99SATA21.05%
Kingston Fury Renegade$418.66$0.10$529.99PCIe 421.01%
Crucial P3$219.99$0.05$249.99PCIe 312.00%
Crucial P3 Plus$264.99$0.06$299.99PCIe 411.67%
Crucial MX500$239.99$0.06$269.99SATA11.11%
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus$584.99$0.14$599.99PCIe 42.50%
WD Black SN850X$399.99$0.10$399.99PCIe 40.00%

As NAND prices fall, we expect to see a greater selection of 4TB drives on the market.  However, right now, only 8 of the 21 drives we researched had 4TB capacities available. 

Among these 8 drives, the average price cut was 15 percent, with only one drive, the WD Black SN850X not lowering its price at all. The biggest discount was on the Kingston KC3000, which had a 25.55 percent price cut. But this speedy drive, which promises 7,000 MBps sequential reads and writes, is not the cheapest, with a cost of 10 cents per GB. 

The best 4TB value right now is the Crucial P3, which clocks in at just 5 cents per GB. However, it's a PCIe 3.0 drive and, as such, is limited to maximum sequential reads and writes of 3,500 and 3,000 MBps. For a bit more, you can get the Crucial P3 Plus, which ups the performance to 5,000 and 4,200 MBps.

Bottom Line

Now is a great time to buy an SSD, because prices have dropped substantially. However, there's a decent chance that we're not at the bottom yet. 

If you're putting together a low-cost build, it's easy enough to get a name-brand, high-quality 1TB SSD for less than $60, and that's just amazing at a time when the price of so many things has gone up. And, if you're looking to add a secondary drive, you can do so more affordably than ever. Will prices be significantly lower when we revisit this list of drives next month? Only time will tell. 

Avram Piltch
Avram Piltch is Tom's Hardware's editor-in-chief. When he's not playing with the latest gadgets at work or putting on VR helmets at trade shows, you'll find him rooting his phone, taking apart his PC or coding plugins. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram developed many real-world benchmarks, including our laptop battery test.
  • That sure is a great s on ssd
    Reply
  • peachpuff
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    I want cheap cheap crucial mx 500 sata ssd. Have Ten slot's to put a good use. Cold storage :)
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Get them now before they skyrocket. Samsung is losing billions on memory this year so they're cutting back, other manufacturers are doing the same.

    https://wccftech.com/ssd-memory-manufacturers-to-lower-production-focus-on-price-increases-as-demand-slumps/
    Reply
  • TechieTwo
    With a worldwide economic recession a lot of prices will drop and jobs will be lost.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    Still Jan prices downunder, unfortunately.
    Reply
  • Alvar Miles Udell said:
    Get them now before they skyrocket. Samsung is losing billions on memory this year so they're cutting back, other manufacturers are doing the same.

    https://wccftech.com/ssd-memory-manufacturers-to-lower-production-focus-on-price-increases-as-demand-slumps/
    There’s no need for high pressure sales tactics. Should the economic downturn continue they still won’t be able to demand the price they were asking. Even if they cut supply because most people have what they need already.
    Reply
  • PEnns
    Let them drop, it's still not enough for me.

    The sweet spot that defines cheaper SSDs for me is when a 2 TB SSD costs no more than $100.
    Reply
  • Lafong
    PEnns said:
    Let them drop, it's still not enough for me.

    The sweet spot that defines cheaper SSDs for me is when a 2 TB SSD costs no more than $100.


    https://www.newegg.com/intel-2tb-670p-series/p/20-167-473
    Reply
  • abufrejoval
    Amdlova said:
    I want cheap cheap crucial mx 500 sata ssd. Have Ten slot's to put a good use. Cold storage :)
    I understand the want, but it may not be such a terribly good idea: electrons don't actually like being trapped and tend to wander eventually: all the wonderful software which makes multi-level cells work reliably by compensating ECCs and even rewriting drifting blocks, can't manage, when the power is off.

    Consumer SSDs need to retain data for five years, when powered off, I believe it's much shorter than that for data center drives, but that I don't know if they are tested against that after they have reached single digits on remaining life expectancy and temperatures >60°C, both of which can be rather detrimental to proper data retention.

    I've not yet lost any data to any older SSD lying around for years. But then I've also generally tried to avoid leaving them unused. Perhaps it would be interesting to check some of the 1st generation drives, some of which are actually still IDE, 120GB but also SLC or MLC, certainly no TLC or QLC.

    In any case spinning rust is really much better for truly cold storage, these Crucial drives are more suited to a standby archive, perhaps with some versioning.

    I also use SATA in RAID0 as Steam game cache, where an eventual failure just means having to reload from the Internet: RAID5/6 are too much of an SSD killer because of the write amplification, another reason why I stick with conventional HDDs there.

    Too bad all those SATA ports are disappearing from mainboards and sacrificing one of 1-3 NVMe PCIe 5.0 slots on a 250GB NVMe 3.0 drive, seems out of question: recycling older NVMe stuff still technically viable becomes an economic no-go.
    Reply