How Much Storage Does the PS5 Have & How to Increase Space

The PlayStation 5 is also called PS5. Compared with its previous versions, it has some new and advanced features. What are they? To obtain the details, please check the PS5 specs.

PS5 Specs

Here, we list the PS5 specs in the form of table so that you can have an intuitive feel.

Recommended reading: What Is Windows Storage Spaces & How to Create/Resize/Delete It

How Much Storage Does the PS5 Have

The PS5 console comes with a PCIe Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSD with a capacity of 825GB. The SSD is faster than any PS4 hard drives (including the manually installed SSD) and bigger than the launch model’s hard drive (about 500GB).

However, the usable space is not that number. How much storage does the PS5 have? In addition, here are some other questions associated with the PS5 storage space.

You can find the answers by checking the content below.

1. What’s the exact available space?

Though the embedded SSD has a capacity of 825GB, the actual PS5 storage space is 667.2GB. It is because that items like the operating system, firmware, and updates occupy some space. Therefore, the 158GB is actually a chunk of the inaccessible storage on the PS5 console.

This is not a unique phenomenon on the PS5. For instance, the Xbox Series X has 1TB storage, but the usable space is only 802GB.

2. Why does the PS5 have an 825GB SSD instead of 1TB?

As for this question, the lead designer of the console – Mark Cerny has made a reply. Sony’s solution is proprietary, 825GB is the optimal match for the 12-channel interface. Moreover, it has other advantages. Simply to say, Sony has more freedom to adapt its design.

3. How many games can you store on the hard drive?

Since the size of games varies, the exact number of games that you can store on the PS5 hard drive is not fixed. For instance, some games require less than 1GB of space, while others may need up to 100GB.

Besides, the custom nature of PS5’s SSD could reduce overall file sizes because developers don’t need to duplicate data to reduce read speed. Nevertheless, it is very likely that the next-gen games have higher-resolution assets, which could increase the overall file sizes in the end.

4. How to see the available PS5 storage space?

You can view the usable PS5 storage space by clicking Settings > Storage > Console Storage. To see how much space the individual games are taking up, simply choose the Games and Apps.

Though 667GB is not a small amount of storage space, it can be quickly occupied by next-generation games that have ballooning install sizes. As you know, some games require dozens of or even hundreds of GBs.

Whether there is PS5 expandable storage? How to obtain the PS5 storage expansion? The section below will show you the answers.

Also read: What Can You Do When Facing the Limited PS4 Hard Drive Size?

How to Increase Storage Space for PS5

Though PS5 comes with an SSD storage expansion slot, it is disabled at present. Sony has claimed that it will activate the SSD bay in the future when the new update is released. But the specific date is unknown.

Even though, Sony has admitted that PS5 storage expansions and upgrades are possible with off-the-shelf solutions.

Here are three PS5 expandable storage options for you. Through these methods, you can obtain more space and install more games. By viewing the table below, you can learn the features of different PS5 drives.

You may also like this: How to Increase Disk Space for Laptop? Try These Methods Now

Method 1: Free up Space on the PS5

The Media Gallery in PS5 is initially established to record a video each time you win the game. Hence, you are recommended to free up space from here. You can delete these videos or directly turn off this feature with the given steps.

Step 1: Launch the PS5 console and click the gear icon to open Settings.

Step 2: In the Settings menu, click Captures and Broadcasts.

Step 3: Click Trophies > Save Trophy Videos to turn off the feature.

Another way to free up PS5 space is to plug in a regular external HDD or SSD. Then move any PS4 games on the external drive. By doing so, you can obtain more space to install games needing the PS5 NVMe SSD.

Method 2: Install a Larger Sony-certified NVMe SSD

Different from the external SSD upgrade of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, the SSD upgrade of the PS5 is expected to be off-the-self PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. This sort of drive made by any manufacturers can be installed on PS4 only if it is certified by Sony.

While the PS4 games can be stored and played on the connected drive, they can’t benefit from the advantages of being loaded quickly on the built-in NVMe SSD.

Method 3: Connect an External Hard Drive

Like PS4, PS5 also has the support of external hard drives. You can connect an external hard drive to the PS5 console, but only PS4 games can be moved onto it. Though Sony doesn’t announce the compatibility details yet, you can connect any drive that meets Sony’s specification requirements to the console.

It indicates that you can expand space without paying for the add-on of a specific brand. At present, Sony hasn’t confirmed the specific limitations for the speed and size of the additional drive.

Here are some best PS5 external hard drives for you.

• WD_Black P50 Game Drive
• Samsung SSD T5 500GB
• Crucial X6
• SanDisk Extreme Portable
• WD My Passport 4TB Portable Hard Drive

Before connecting the external hard drive to the PS5 console, you are required to format the drive. What file system should you format the drive to? As PS5 only supports exFAT and FAT32, you should format the drive to either of them.

FAT32 is widely used on devices, but it doesn’t support a single file over 4GB. Generally speaking, games files are larger than 4GB. Hence, you are recommended to format the drive to exFAT.

As a professional partition manager, MiniTool Partition Wizard enables you to format a storage device to exFAT with ease. You can format the drive by following the offered steps. In addition to drive format, this program helps you delete undeletable files, recover missing data, copy chunks of files quickly, migrate OS to SSD/HD, and execute other drive related operations as well.

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Step 1: Connect the external hard drive to your computer.

Step 2: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to enter its main interface.

Step 3: Right-click on the connected drive from the disk map and click the Format option in the pop-up menu. Alternatively, you can also click on the drive and click Format Partition in the action panel.

Step 4: In the elevated window, click exFAT from the drop-down menu of file system. You are also allowed to configure other settings like partition label and cluster size according to your demand. After that, click OK and Apply to save and execute the operation.

After formatting the external hard drive, you can connect it to your PS5 console now.

How much storage does the PS5 have? You can learn the answer in this post. Besides, it also  illustrates you how to get the PS5 expandable storage.  Click to Tweet

Bottom Line

In conclusion, this post mainly talks about PS5 specs, some questions related to PS5 storage space, and methods to increase PS5 space. If you are looking for methods to get PS5 expandable storage, this post is worth reading.

For any thoughts about PS5 storage space, you can write them down in the following comment area for sharing. If you have any issues or difficulties while formatting the hard drive with MiniTool Partition Wizard, directly send us an email via support@minitool.com. We will back you as soon as possible.

How Much Storage Does the PS5 Have FAQ