The Best Microsd Cards In 2025

Most microSD cards are accelerated capable for boosting retention abstraction and making elemental record transfers, but immoderate supply a small much worth than others. If you’ve sewage a instrumentality that still accepts microSD cards — whether it’s an older gaming handheld, nan caller Nintendo Switch 2, an action camera, a drone aliases an Android tablet — we’ve scoured nan marketplace and put adjacent to 20 apical contenders done a number of benchmark tests. You tin find our recommendations for nan champion microSD cards below, alongside immoderate wide shopping proposal earlier you buy.

Table of contents

Best microSD cards of 2025

Best microSD Express cards for nan Nintendo Switch 2

Read our afloat guideline to nan best microSD Express cards for nan Nintendo Switch 2

Let’s beryllium clear astir this: Unless you scheme to ain a Nintendo Switch 2 successful nan adjacent future, you do not request a high-speed microSD Express paper conscionable yet. Nintendo’s gaming handheld is nan only celebrated instrumentality that natively supports this modular correct now, and microSD Express cards themselves are highly costly compared to much accepted options.

Still, if you do want to summation a Switch 2’s storage, they’re your only choice. Fortunately, determining precisely which exemplary to bargain for nan console is beautiful straightforward: Get whichever 1 you tin find successful stock, successful nan capacity you want, astatine a value you tin stomach.

We benchmarked respective microSD Express cards for a separate Switch 2 guide, and for nan astir part, nan capacity differences betwixt them weren’t awesome capable to warrant paying overmuch other for immoderate peculiar model. Loading times weren’t rather identical pinch each trial we ran, but nan cards were highly adjacent successful astir games. When location was a spread — fast-traveling to a peculiarly resource-heavy region successful Cyberpunk 2077, for lawsuit — nan gulf betwixt nan slowest and fastest paper was only ever astir 3 seconds astatine most. That’s not nothing, but it’s not thing you’re apt to fret complete unless you person a stopwatch handy.

The only clip you’d announcement a awesome velocity quality is if you transportation games to your Express paper from nan Switch 2’s soul retention (and vice versa). In that case, nan SanDisk microSD Express Card and Lexar Play Pro were mostly nan quickest, while PNY’s microSD Express Flash Memory Card had peculiarly slow constitute speeds.

Moving Mario Kart World to nan SanDisk and Lexar models, for example, took astir 4 minutes and 35 seconds connected average; pinch nan PNY card, it took a small complete 7 minutes. That said, nan PNY exemplary was nan fastest erstwhile it came to moving games backmost to nan strategy storage. Either way, astir group aren’t perpetually shuffling their games backmost and distant for illustration this. Performance successful existent games is much important, and successful that respect nan results were consistently overmuch tighter.

What matters astir is getting nan astir abstraction for your budget. Unfortunately, banal for each microSD Express cards has been spotty since nan Switch 2’s launch. For your convenience, we’ll database retired each of nan models we’ve seen astatine retailers frankincense acold and their respective database prices below. The only 1 we haven’t tested is nan Walmart Onn model, which besides happens to beryllium nan astir affordable. Also statement that immoderate lower-capacity versions — nan 128GB SanDisk card, for 1 — advertise slower speeds than their much freely counterparts.

• SanDisk microSD Express Card: 128GB ($60), 256GB ($73), 512GB ($125)

• Lexar Play Pro: 256GB ($60), 512GB ($120), 1TB ($220)

• PNY microSD Express Flash Memory Card: 128GB ($47), 256GB ($61)

• Samsung microSD Express Card for Nintendo Switch 2: 256GB ($60)

• GameStop Express microSD Card for Nintendo Switch 2: 256GB ($60), 512GB ($100), 1TB ($190)

• Walmart Onn microSDXC Express Card: 256GB ($36), 512GB ($66)

Broadly speaking, we urge getting astatine slightest 256GB of storage, arsenic Switch 2 games thin to person overmuch larger record sizes than games for Nintendo’s erstwhile handheld. But we besides urge holding disconnected upgrading for arsenic agelong arsenic you can, if only because each of these cards should (tariff shenanigans aside) travel down successful value arsenic clip goes on.

There’s nary constituent successful buying a microSD Express paper for thing too nan Switch 2, but we did tally nan models supra done our accustomed PC benchmarks arsenic well. Unsurprisingly, they are miles faster than immoderate accepted paper connected nan market.

With nan 256GB SanDisk card, for instance, sequential publication speeds checked successful conscionable nether 900 MB/s successful CrystalDiskMark and ATTO, while sequential writes topped retired astir 650 MB/s. Sustained writes speeds were slower (around 210 MB/s), but that was still accelerated capable to move our 12GB trial record to nan paper successful 52 seconds connected average. It took a specified 20 seconds to publication nan record backmost to our PC. The constitute trial pinch our smaller 1.15GB trial folder, meanwhile, averaged conscionable 4.5 seconds.

It each adds up to capacity that's astatine slightest doubly arsenic accelerated arsenic nan champion UHS-I models we’ve tested successful position of sequential sounds and writes, pinch 3 aliases 4 times nan speeds successful immoderate cases. The gulf successful random sounds and writes is similar, and successful immoderate benchmarks moreover greater. But you request a pricey SD paper reader to moreover spot those increases connected a PC, truthful only those pinch a Switch 2 successful manus aliases superior rate to pain should see 1 of these things.

Other notable microSD cards

Samsung Pro Ultimate

The Samsung Pro Ultimate was nan closest competitor to nan Lexar Professional Silver Plus crossed our benchmark tests, but it's tangibly worse successful position of sequential constitute speeds, typically costs much and doesn’t connection a 1TB option. The Samsung Pro Plus is simply a spot slower for sequential reads, but it’s adjacent capable different and usually easier to find astatine a little price.

Lexar Professional Gold

We haven't utilized it ourselves, but if you’re consenting to salary for a much powerful UHS-II paper built for heavy-duty video recording, nan Lexar Professional Gold has tested well elsewhere and should present importantly faster sequential constitute speeds than our UHS-I picks above. It’s 1 of nan fewer UHS-II cards we could really find successful stock, but it’s pricey, pinch a 128GB exemplary usually priced successful nan $35 to $40 range.

SanDisk Extreme

The SanDisk Extreme efficaciously matched nan Pro Plus successful a fewer of our sequential tests, but that was partially owed to america only being capable to unafraid nan 256GB model, which is higher-rated than nan 128GB version. It’s a good prime if you spot it connected waste astatine a reputable seller, but it’s broadly slower than our apical prime and often costs more.

SanDisk GamePlay

The SanDisk GamePlay performs likewise to nan SanDisk Extreme but costs a bully spot other arsenic of our latest update. We couldn’t get it to scope its advertised speeds pinch nan company’s ain “Pro” paper scholar aliases different third-party options, truthful it fell short of our apical picks.

SanDisk Pokémon

The SanDisk Pokémon does outperform its advertised publication and constitute speeds, but not by capable to outpace nan Lexar Silver Plus aliases Samsung Pro Plus. It fundamentally charges other for having a image of Pikachu (or Gengar, aliases Snorlax) connected a merchandise you’ll ne'er look at.

SanDisk Extreme Pro

The SanDisk Extreme Pro is simply a adjacent analog to nan Samsung Pro Ultimate but, arsenic of this writing, is either unavailable astatine astir trusted retailers aliases priced excessively precocious by comparison. The Lexar Professional Silver Plus has faster sequential constitute speeds arsenic well.

PNY XLR8 Gaming

The PNY XLR8 is an affordable paper that comes pinch up to 512GB of space. Its sequential and random writes speeds checked successful a small spot supra those of Samsung’s Evo Select, positive it comes pinch a life warranty. But its sequential sounds were much, overmuch slower, putting it retired of contention.

PNY Elite-X

The PNY Elite-X often goes for inexpensive and wasn’t excessively acold disconnected nan random read/write capacity of Samsung's Pro Plus successful CrystalDiskMark. Like nan XLR8, it’s besides somewhat supra nan Evo Select successful constitute speeds. But its sequential sounds were excessively acold down each of our apical picks, and it nary longer appears to beryllium disposable successful capacities supra 256GB.

What to look for successful a microSD card

Capacity

The first point to fig retired erstwhile buying a microSD paper is really overmuch retention abstraction you need. Modern cards are commonly disposable successful sizes ranging from 32GB to 512GB, pinch respective models now disposable successful 1TB aliases 1.5TB capacities arsenic well. The first 2TB cards from major brands person started to get arsenic well, which is exciting, but those are still reasonably uncommon (and very expensive) by comparison.

For many, a 128GB aliases 256GB exemplary should beryllium a saccharine spot betwixt value and retention space. But if you request much room — say, for stashing a bunch of games connected a Steam Deck — a 512GB paper aliases greater could make much consciousness and often provides a amended cost-per-GB ratio. These days, you tin find a decent 128GB paper for astir $15, a bully 256GB paper for little than $30 and a coagulated 512GB paper for astir $40 (with faster models priced a small higher). There’s a starker summation erstwhile you spell up to 1TB cards, which often costs person to $100, though we’ve seen immoderate autumn into nan $70 to $80 scope much often complete nan past year. The first 2TB cards are a bigger leap: nan 2TB SanDisk Extreme, for example, now has a database value astir $200, which is down a spot from its original MSRP but still acold from cheap.

Note that a microSD card’s capacity whitethorn disagree depending connected what capacity you buy. SanDisk says its 128GB Extreme card delivers sequential constitute speeds up to 90 MB/s, for example, while nan higher-capacity models successful nan aforesaid statement connection up to 130 MB/s.

When we talk astir microSD cards today, we mostly mention to cards that usage nan microSDXC (eXtended Capacity) standard, which person a capacity betwixt 32GB and 2TB. Your instrumentality needs to support this for it to activity pinch a microSDXC card. This will almost ne'er beryllium an rumor these days, but immoderate older devices (a Nintendo 3DS, for instance) are only compatible pinch microSDHC (High Capacity) cards, which scope from 2GB to 32GB.

Read and constitute speeds

MicroSD cards are chiefly judged connected their publication and constitute speeds, which are usually measured successful megabytes per 2nd (MB/s). Generally, astir microSD cards person faster publication speeds than constitute speeds.

These metrics tin past beryllium surgery down into sequential and random performance. Sequential publication and constitute speeds matter erstwhile you’re trying to entree (read) aliases prevention (write) long, changeless streams of data, specified arsenic opening a ample video aliases copying a large batch of files from a PC. If you want to usage a microSD paper for media storage, this is peculiarly important. Random performance, meanwhile, is astir really quickly a paper tin publication and constitute mini files scattered passim nan device.

Since random read/write speeds are overmuch little than sequential ones, retention instrumentality makers thin not to advertise them arsenic loudly. But they’re important if you usage a paper pinch a gaming instrumentality aliases a single-board machine for illustration nan Raspberry Pi, wherever it often has to quickly prevention and entree mini bits of information successful random locations.

Speed ratings

If you look astatine a microSD card, you’ll spot a buffet of numbers, letters and symbols. Most of these mention to nan card’s speed class and capacity ratings, which are wished by nan SD Association.

A card’s Video Speed Class, aliases V-rating, specifications its minimum sequential constitute speed, which is particularly important erstwhile signaling video from a camera. It ranges from V6 to V90. Most of nan cards we tested had a V30 rating, truthful they person a sequential constitute velocity of astatine slightest 30 MB/s. This should beryllium capable to support up to 4K video astatine little bitrates. Higher-rated V60 and V90 cards are usually amended for capturing 8K, but they travel astatine a overmuch higher cost.

The UHS Speed Class, aliases U-rating, besides refers to a card’s minimum sequential constitute speed. It comes successful 2 varieties: U3, which mandates a minimum of 30 MB/s, and U1, which is rated for 10 MB/s.

The older Speed Class standing overlaps pinch nan different 2 systems. It’s signified by a C awesome and goes from Class 2 to Class 10, pinch nan number (again) indicating minimum sequential constitute speed. This standing is little applicable nowadays, but you whitethorn still spot a “C10” logo connected immoderate cards.

The Application Performance spec, marked by an A symbol, is an parameter of random read/write speeds. This is measured successful IOPS, aliases input/output operations per second, alternatively than MB/s. There are 2 categories here: A1 cards connection a minimum random publication velocity of 1,500 IOPS and a minimum random constitute velocity of 500 IOPS, while A2 cards bump those up to 4,000 IOPS and 2,000 IOPS, respectively. Both ratings besides guarantee sequential constitute speeds of astatine slightest 10 MB/s.

To support it simple, astir group should look for a paper pinch V30, U3 and A2 ratings. It’s wholly imaginable to get a coagulated paper without those: A U1 paper mightiness beryllium worthy it if you conscionable request a cheap, high-capacity option, for example. V60 and V90 cards are worthy a look if you’re superior astir shooting high-resolution photos and video arsenic well. But overall, cards pinch nan certifications supra should supply nan champion blend of value and capacity today.

It’s important to stress that these ratings are baselines. Most V30 cards connection importantly higher constitute speeds than 30 MB/s, for instance, and immoderate A1 cards tin outperform immoderate A2 models successful practice. The speeds advertised by manufacturers aren’t ever 100 percent accurate, either: Sometimes nan paper will beryllium slower successful real-world use, different times it whitethorn really beryllium a spot faster.

UHS autobus speeds

The different spec to statement is nan card’s autobus interface. Most microSD cards disposable coming are UHS-I, which has a theoretical maximum velocity of 104 MB/s. There are besides UHS-II cards, which person an other statement of pins connected nan backmost and tin scope up to 312 MB/s. (A UHS-III modular technically exists arsenic good but hasn’t seen wide adoption.) These are branded connected nan paper pinch a Roman numeral I aliases II.

UHS-II cards are typically nan ones pinch those higher V60 aliases V90 ratings. If you sprout tons of 4K to 8K video aliases often usage burst mode to seizure ultra high-res photos, nan capacity gains of a bully UHS-II paper tin prevention you time.

However, these are typically overmuch much costly than UHS-I cards: This 128GB Lexar Professional Gold model, for instance, is simply a comparative bargain astatine $35. While that's little than galore UHS-II models we’ve seen successful nan past, it's still much than double nan communal thoroughfare value of our apical prime above. You request a instrumentality that’s compatible pinch nan UHS-II interface to spot immoderate benefits, too, and banal for UHS-II cards is often spottier. For now, nan higher speeds aren’t worthy nan value premium for astir people, truthful we stuck mostly to UHS-I cards pinch our recommendations.

microSD Express and nan Nintendo Switch 2

The absolute fastest microSD cards you tin buy, however, are based connected a different interface called SD Express. This has technically been around for respective years and now includes its ain subset of velocity classes, but nan gist is that it's overmuch faster than UHS-I aliases UHS-II: SanDisk’s precocious released microSD Express card, 1 of nan first commercially disposable models, advertises sequential publication speeds up to 880MB/s. That’s quicker than immoderate older SSDs.

It’s a important upgrade that has mostly held up successful our testing, but very fewer celebrated devices natively support SD Express today. The first awesome objection is nan Nintendo Switch 2, which is only compatible pinch nan newer standard, arsenic it’s needed to support up pinch nan capacity demands of caller handheld games.

Besides SanDisk, manufacturers for illustration Samsung, Lexar and PNY person already launched microSD Express cards to spell pinch nan console. The presumption is that having specified a celebrated instrumentality clasp nan tech will only further its take and thrust prices down.

But it’s still early days, and correct now each microSD Express cards costs overmuch much than nan champion UHS-I aliases moreover UHS-II options. Beyond nan Switch 2, it’s imaginable to return advantage of these cards’ superior speeds pinch a dedicated SD Express paper reader, but that adds moreover much to nan last cost. It’s besides worthy noting that SD Express cards are not backwards compatible pinch UHS-II (or UHS-III), truthful if you effort to plug 1 into a instrumentality pinch a UHS-II slot, it’ll beryllium constricted to UHS-I speeds. Still, they’re a must for Nintendo fans going forward, and nan tech should person plentifulness of entreaty if much gadgets that support nan interface do arrive.

For much connected really nan first activity of Express cards execute connected nan Switch 2, we've put together a dedicated buying guide conscionable for Nintendo's console.

A statement connected paper readers and reaching advertised speeds

While nan UHS-I interface has a theoretical maximum of 104 MB/s, immoderate UHS-I cards tin transcend that velocity done proprietary extensions. However, you request a compatible paper scholar and big instrumentality to return advantage of that other performance. If you find a UHS-I paper advertizing speeds higher than 104 MB/s, this is what’s going on. You tin spot these limits successful action pinch an original Nintendo Switch aliases Steam Deck: Both of those gaming devices support nan UHS-I interface but don’t spell beyond its charismatic speed, flattening immoderate sequential gains immoderate cards whitethorn person elsewhere. (Differences successful random publication and constitute speeds tin still matter, though.) The aforesaid point will hap if you plug a much powerful UHS-II aliases SD Express paper into a instrumentality that doesn’t judge those interfaces.

The takeaway: Your microSD paper will only beryllium arsenic accelerated arsenic nan slowest nexus successful your chain.

Warranty

Many microSD cards are designed to beryllium durable, pinch protection from water, utmost temperatures, X-rays and drops. Still, successful lawsuit of catastrophe, a agelong warranty is ever bully to have. Many manufacturers connection life aliases 10-year constricted warranties, though we’ve noticed that “endurance” cards marketed to withstand much hours of penning are usually covered for a shorter play of time. For example, Samsung's Pro Endurance, a exemplary aimed astatine information cameras and different monitoring devices, comes pinch a five-year warranty.

Avoiding counterfeits

The representation paper marketplace has had a peculiar problem pinch scammers trading clone products. To defender against this, only bargain from a known marque and a reputable retailer specified arsenic Best Buy, B&H Photo aliases Adorama. If you shop astatine Amazon, only bargain if nan shipper and seller is Amazon.com. (That said, a fistful of users have reported receiving counterfeits moreover from Amazon straight successful nan past, truthful workout caution.) Remember: If a value seems excessively bully to beryllium true, it astir apt is. Be wary of immoderate retailer offering a importantly little value than everyone else.

Once you person a card, cheque its packaging for immoderate irregularities. You tin tally benchmark tests for illustration CrystalDiskMark aliases BlackMagic Disk Speed Test to verify its speeds aren’t drastically little than what’s advertised (or possible, fixed its specs). You tin besides usage package that’s designed to verify nan existent capacity and capacity of your card, specified arsenic H2testw and FakeFlashTest.

How we trial microSD cards

We've put astir 20 microSD cards done a bid of tests to verify their sequential and random performance. These included benchmarks for illustration CrystalDiskMark, BlackMagic Disk Speed Test, ATTO Disk Benchmark and AJA System Test, arsenic good arsenic a fewer “real-world” tests. We copied and pasted a mini files of photos astir 1.15GB successful size to and from each card, past did nan aforesaid pinch a larger 12.2GB files containing aggregate record types and subfolders, timing nan process each time. We besides checked really each paper performed connected nan Steam Deck, downloading games of varying sizes — including Stardew Valley, Aperture Desk Job, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Apex Legends — past timing really agelong it took to motorboat each crippled and load prevention files. We do aggregate runs of each trial to verify our findings and relationship for imaginable outliers.

Where applicable, we utilized a Kingston USB 3.2 UHS-II reader to trial each paper connected some Windows 11 and macOS Sequoia. However, if a paper could beryllium bundled pinch (or is specifically advertised to use) a proprietary reader, we chiefly tested pinch that, since we fig that’s nan 1 astir willing buyers will extremity up using. For Windows testing, we utilized an Alienware gaming PC pinch an Intel Core i9-10900F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. For macOS, we utilized a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro pinch an Apple M1 Pro chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. If a scholar couldn’t link complete USB-C, we utilized CalDigit’s TS4 dock to trial nan corresponding paper connected nan MacBook.

We tested nan 128GB type of each paper whenever we could, though we were only capable to trial higher-capacity models for a fewer options. We besides reformatted each paper earlier testing pinch nan SD Association’s Memory Card Formatter tool.

For microSD Express cards, we ran each exemplary done a bid of tests circumstantial to nan Switch 2, since that is nan only celebrated instrumentality that really supports nan tech. You tin publication much astir that process successful our abstracted buying guideline linked above.

Recent updates

August 2025: We’ve fleshed retired our proposal connected buying a microSD Express paper for nan Nintendo Switch 2. We scheme connected testing a fewer much caller releases from Kingston, SanDisk, Lexar and PNY successful a early update.

May 2025: We’ve updated this guideline to guarantee our proposal is meticulous and to bespeak nan caller Nintendo Switch 2’s usage of microSD Express cards. We’ve besides added testing notes for nan Lexar Play Pro microSD Express paper and nan much modular PNY XLR8. We’ve removed mentions of a fewer cards that person seemingly been discontinued, including nan original Kingston Canvas Go Plus, nan Lexar Professional 1066x and nan 2021 Samsung Evo Select. We scheme to trial much caller microSD Express cards for a early update.

February 2025: We’ve updated this guideline pinch a caller apical pick: nan Lexar Professional Silver Plus. The Samsung Pro Plus, our erstwhile recommendation, stays arsenic a runner-up. We’ve besides added SanDisk’s precocious released microSD Express paper arsenic a prime for those who want nan absolute fastest paper possible, albeit pinch dense caveats. This is 1 of nan first microSD cards to usage nan SD Express autobus interface, truthful we’ve included much specifications connected what that entails successful our “what to look for successful a microSD card” section. Lastly, we’ve removed our write-up for SanDisk’s Apex Legends card, arsenic it appears to person been discontinued, and included testing notes for a mates of nan company’s much caller releases.

November 2024: We've checked backmost pinch this guideline to guarantee our recommendations are still meticulous and made ray edits for clarity.

August 2024: We’ve updated this guideline to statement nan precocious released 1TB models for 3 of our apical picks: nan Samsung Pro Plus, nan Kingston Canvas Go Plus and nan Samsung Evo Select. We’ve besides made judge each pricing specifications are arsenic up to day arsenic they tin be.