Are SSD Prices Going Up? Why, and When They May Drop

Are SSD prices going up?

For consumer SSDs, only slightly now. TrendForce reported on October 29, 2026 that client SSD contract prices are still rising in the fourth quarter, but the gains have narrowed sharply from the previous quarter. It describes the market as having shifted from a shortage-driven rally to a standoff between buyers and sellers.

Enterprise SSDs are a different story. TrendForce forecasts enterprise SSD contract prices up 23% to 28% quarter over quarter in Q4 2026, the only memory category where price growth is expected to speed up. It projects enterprise SSD demand to grow more than 80% in 2026 as cloud providers expand AI services, and its October 30 report says North American buyers keep raising their orders.

Three kinds of price matter here, and they don't move together. Contract prices are what PC makers and other large buyers pay the memory makers. Spot prices come from short-term trading on the open market, mostly between module makers and resellers. Store prices follow both with a lag, which is why shelf prices can look different from the wholesale market.

How much have SSD prices risen?

The steepest increases came in the first half of 2026. These are TrendForce's quarter-over-quarter forecasts for NAND flash contract prices:

• Q4 2025: +5% to 10% — the start of the upturn.
• Q1 2026: raised three times, from +33–38% (January) to +55–60% (February) to +85–90% (March), with client SSDs at least +40%.
• Q2 2026: +70% to 75%.
• Q3 2026: +10% to 15% — a sharp slowdown driven by consumer affordability limits, not better supply.
• Q4 2026: +15% to 20% overall, enterprise SSDs +23% to 28%, consumer SSDs only minimal increases.

Retail prices followed. Tom's Hardware found that the Samsung 990 Evo Plus 2TB cost $113 in July 2025 and $363 in July 2026 — up 221% — while the WD Blue SN5000 4TB went from $214 to $449.99. Its SSD price tracker, updated November 6, 2026, listed the Samsung 990 Pro 1TB at a best US price of $259 against a lowest-ever $59, and the 990 Pro 2TB at $389 against a lowest-ever $119.

Today's live SSD prices are in the box below.

Why are SSD prices going up?

AI data-center demand comes first. It is the cause TrendForce names first in every release. According to Counterpoint Research, enterprise SSDs took 48% of all NAND bits in Q2 2026, up from 26% a year earlier. On October 29, 2026, SanDisk estimated that data centers have grown from about 20% of industry NAND bits early in the decade to roughly half today.

Memory makers shifted capacity away from NAND. They moved factory capacity toward DRAM and HBM — the high-bandwidth memory used by AI chips — and held back NAND output, according to TrendForce, IDC, and Micron's June 24, 2026 earnings call. Less NAND supply lifts prices for every product built on it.

Hard drive shortages pushed cloud buyers to SSDs. According to TrendForce, cloud providers that couldn't get enough hard drives bought high-capacity QLC SSDs instead, which set off the upturn in late 2025.

New factories are still years out. TrendForce says new NAND factory capacity doesn't arrive until 2027–2028, so supply can't catch up with demand before then.

Tariffs are not the main driver. SSDs have been exempt from the US "reciprocal" tariffs since April 2025, and credible industry sources don't cite tariffs as a cause of the 2026 increases.

Are SSD prices starting to level off?

For consumer drives, the climb is close to ending. TrendForce's October 29 report says weak PC demand, rising system costs, and leftover inventory have buyers firmly resisting price increases. Aggressive order-grabbing by Chinese suppliers and module makers is also weighing on average prices. TrendForce expects seasonal weakness and new capacity to push client SSD prices into a "high-level plateau" in the first quarter of 2027.

Spot prices have already turned down. TrendForce reported on November 5, 2026 that NAND spot prices are weakening rapidly as module makers with high inventories cut prices. Spot prices have fallen below their previous lows and show no sign of bottoming out soon, and TrendForce expects consumer-grade prices to stay under pressure until the memory makers change how they allocate supply. Buyers are pulling back too: SanDisk's consumer revenue fell 29% from the previous quarter "as the market adjusts to higher pricing."

Leveling off is not the same as falling. A plateau means prices stop climbing at today's high level; it does not bring back last year's prices.

When will SSD prices drop?

The sources disagree on timing. TrendForce expected a 4% to 5% NAND supply shortfall in 2026, and it forecasts looser supply in the second half of 2027 as new capacity comes online while consumer demand stays weak — which would push prices down.

Micron is less optimistic. On September 30, 2026, it said it expects memory and storage "supply-demand conditions to be much tighter in calendar 2027 and 2028 than they were in 2026," with the NAND industry supply constrained in both years. Its new NAND facility in Singapore is expected to begin output in the second half of 2028.

SanDisk said on October 29, 2026 that it expects pricing to "continue to increase modestly" through its fiscal year. About half of its fiscal 2027 supply and two-thirds of its fiscal 2028 supply is already committed to customers under long-term agreements.

So relief could start in the second half of 2027, or it could stretch into 2028. None of these sources expects a meaningful drop before the second half of 2027.

SSD prices move in cycles

Today's prices won't last forever. In 2023 the market went the other way: NAND prices bottomed at the end of Q3 2023, after Samsung cut its NAND output by 50% from September. TrendForce then raised its Q4 2023 forecast from 0–5% to +8–13%, and industry revenue rose 24.5% that quarter.

The difference this time is what has to change. In 2023, prices turned when makers cut supply. Now they fall only when new supply arrives — and TrendForce and Micron place that new supply between the second half of 2027 and 2028.

Should you buy an SSD now or wait?

If you need storage now, buy what you need now. Consumer price increases have nearly stopped, so waiting no longer protects you from a sharp rise — but no real drop has started either, and Micron and SanDisk expect supply to stay tight.

If your needs are flexible and you can wait until the second half of 2027 or later, holding off is a reasonable bet — but the forecasts above disagree, so it is a bet either way. Whatever you decide, a few habits keep the cost down:

• Compare by price per TB, not sticker price — the live box above shows today's typical and lowest price per TB for 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB NVMe and SATA drives.
• For games and your operating system, a mid-range NVMe drive is enough; you don't need a flagship.
• For bulk storage like media and backups, hard drives cost far less per TB than SSDs — see the hard drive guides linked below.
• A SATA SSD can be a cheaper way to add fast storage to an older PC or as a second drive.