Computers & Laptops

Storage Cost Calculator

Cost per gigabyte and per terabyte for a drive, so two of them can be compared honestly.

3 inputs Free, no sign-up

Your figures

The price in front of you. Storage prices move constantly and differ by retailer, so none is stored here.

Try an example

Result

Your result

Enter your figures and the result appears here.

Estimates only. Rates, fees and specifications change. Confirm against the official source before you rely on a figure — see our disclaimer.

About this calculator

Cost per gigabyte is how storage is compared, and it only compares like with like. An SSD and a hard disk at the same price per gigabyte are not equivalent purchases, and neither are two SSDs with different endurance ratings.

Enter a capacity and a price and this gives the figure in decimal GB, in TB, and in the binary GiB your operating system will report.

How to use this calculator

  1. Enter the drive's advertised capacity.
  2. Enter the price in front of you. No prices are stored here — they move constantly and differ by retailer.

The formula

Cost per GB  = Price / Capacity in GB
Cost per TB  = Price / Capacity in TB
Cost per GiB = Price / Capacity in GiB

Capacity here is the advertised decimal figure, which is how drives are priced. The GiB figure is shown because that is the capacity you will actually see.

SymbolMeaningUnit
Capacity Advertised capacity TB or GB
Price What it costs ₹

Worked example

A 2 TB drive at ₹9,000:

Per GB  = 9,000 / 2,000      = 4.50
Per TB  = 9,000 / 2           = 4,500
Per GiB = 9,000 / 1,862.65    = 4.83

Notes and limits

  • Price per gigabyte compares drives of the same kind. It does not compare an SSD with a hard disk in any useful way — they differ by an order of magnitude in speed.
  • Endurance is not in this figure. Two SSDs at the same price per gigabyte can differ several-fold in how much data they can be written to over their life.
  • Warranty length is part of the value and is not a number this page has.
  • Larger drives are usually cheaper per gigabyte, up to the point where the largest capacity carries a premium for being the largest.

What this calculation assumes

  • Capacity is the advertised decimal figure, which is how drives are priced.
  • No drive prices are stored in this page.
  • Speed, endurance and warranty are not in the figure.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate cost per GB?

Divide the price by the capacity in gigabytes. A 2 TB drive at ₹9,000 is ₹4.50 per GB.

Should I compare cost per GB or per TB?

Whichever gives readable numbers. Per TB is easier for large drives, per GB for small ones - they are the same comparison scaled by a thousand.

Is the cheapest drive per gigabyte the best buy?

Not necessarily. Speed, endurance, warranty and reliability all matter and none of them is in the price per gigabyte. It is a useful figure for comparing similar drives and a misleading one for comparing different kinds.

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