The 6 Best 1TB Flash Drives in 2023
We update this article in June to cover new 2023 releases. Our top picks remain the same, but we’ve added a couple of alternatives in certain categories.
1TB pen drives! I remember when 1GB was impressive, what a world we live in.
That being said, there are a number of fake 1TB flash drives around, and even the legitimate ones vary in quality.
Today’s feature is here to take you through the best 1 terabyte flash drives available today (and some very portable SSD alternatives for those more focussed on speed).
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Premium 1TB Flash Drive Pick
Corsair 1TB Flash Voyager GTX
Our Rating: 9/10
A Quick Word on Fake 1TB Thumb Drives
“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.
This is a motto you’ll definitely want to have when looking at where to buy a genuine 1TB flash drive. There are unfortunately loads of fake products. And what’s more, some of these sellers are deceptive.
Take this one. Very cheap, tons of verified 5-star reviews, seems legit right? Well, the seller originally sold a 1GB flash drive on this listing, for which all of the positive reviews (2-10 years old) are referring to. Recently it was deceivingly changed to 1TB and is clearly well below the expected price (around $150-250). We’re sorry to say you’re not going to be getting the largest flash drive size for $50 for a long time.
We’d recommend sticking to the below picks as much as possible. If you’re looking at anything else, be it Amazon or any other site, make sure you’re getting a reputable pen drive brand (Sandisk, Corsair, etc.).
Now with that said, let’s get started…
Overall Best 1TB Flash Drive: SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO USB 3.2
Now, if you’re not particularly bothered about speeds, you can go to our cheap/budget picks further below.
But when purchasing such a large drive, we think it’s worth paying a tiny bit extra for a device that can transfer masses of data at a fantastic rate.
This is where this SanDisk 1TB USB flash drive shines. For only a little bit more than our cheaper options, you’re getting a pen drive from arguably the best storage brand in the game, with fantastic read and write speeds (up to 420 and 380 MB/s respectively).
The Extreme PRO’s design is sturdy (with aluminum reinforcement), includes SanDisk’s secure encryption software for sensitive data, and is fully USB 2.0 / 3.0 backward compatible.
If you are purchasing such a large storage solution, we think it’s a no-brainer that you’ll go with a trustworthy brand with great read/write speeds.
The Extreme PRO is comfortably our pick for the best 1TB pen drive available today
Quick note: As much as we love this SanDisk offering, flash drive availabilities are often quite sporadic. If this isn’t available or is listed for say 30%+ the price of our cheap/alternative choices, then go with the other models.
2023 update: The Extreme is still our comfortable top pick for this year, representing the best balance between speed, durability, and price. That said, it’s worth pointing out that SanDisk has released a 1TB USB-C flash drive at a very impressive price point (about 20% cheaper than the Extreme). The problem lies in its read speeds at 150Mb/s, a notable decrease; if this, however, isn’t a big concern for you, the Luxe is a great alternative.
Best Premium 1TB Flash Drive: Corsair 1TB Flash Voyager GTX
Our next pick is for those after the best 1TB USB drive possible regardless of price.
With speeds up to a mouth-watering 440Mb/s read and write, the Voyager is the fastest 1TB flash drive on the market today.
On top of that, the zin-alloy reinforced casing and sturdy design make this the most durable USB drive too. Perfect for a professional user who will be consistently changing content on the drive and wants something built to last.
We’ll be clear: coming in at around 30% more expensive than our other choices, this Corsair 1TB thumb drive will have diminishing returns for most users (who will be fine with the SanDisk, PNY, or Arcanite options).
But if you’re really after the best, most durable 1TB flash drive, regardless of budget, this is for you.
Best Cheap 1TB Pen Drive SSD: KESU Portable External SSD
OK so, this isn’t a USB thumb drive, but a solid-state drive.
We know that this is a list for the former, but we think that a lot of you will actually prefer this solution, so wanted to present it to consider.
1TB Flash Drive vs External SSD
Traditionally, this battle would be decided by size vs speed. External SSDs are usually faster readers/writers but are significantly bulkier & heavier.
However, the reason we’re presenting this KESU offering (and an even smaller alternative at the bottom of the list) is that it’s tiny for an SSD.
This drive has higher read/write speeds than any pen drive on this list (despite being one of the cheapest options) with up to 540MB/s on both.
This is seriously impressive speed.
The downside? Well because this is an external SSD, the input on the drive is female as opposed to male like the rest of the one-terabyte USB flash drives on this list.
That means that instead of being able to plug the drive in straight from the pen, you need to carry around a USB cable to put into the drive and your PC.
For some of you, this might be a deal-breaker as we know a big part of buying a pen drive is the ultra-portability.
KESU also isn’t the big brand that SanDisk and Corsair are, but this drive has had decent reception and we think it’s a fine option for those after a budget 1TB drive.
Overall, if you’re more interested in fast read/write and low price tags than avoiding carrying around the wire alongside your tiny drive, this is a fantastic choice.
Best Cheap 1TB Flash Drive: PNY Pro Elite 1TB USB 3.0
For those after a budget 1TB flash drive, this PNY offering is a fantastic choice.
A popular product, this has already been tried and tested by many other consumers, the Pro Elite holds up in a lot of ways, and value-wise is an incredible offering for the price.
Prices on flash drives are sporadic depending on availability. At the point of writing this 1TB flash drive review, the PNY stick was 15% cheaper than our top SanDisk choice. Bear that in mind when choosing between them if the prices you’re seeing are different relatively.
So what’s the drawback/why do we consider this a budget pick? Well, the write speed is notably slower than most of the other items on this list at up to 250MB/s.
Now for many of you, this likely isn’t to be that big a deal and you’d rather save the money (PNY is an established enough brand too that you don’t need to feel like you’re “cheating out” on quality).
We prefer the SanDisk 1 TB flash drive as its write speed seems more appropriate for such a large storage solution.
But it’s really up to you. If you’d rather save some money, this PNY USB drive is a great choice.
2023 update: The PNY Pro is still a great choice, but I’ve seen it run into stock issues over the past several months. Another excellent option is the Buffalo External SSD 1TB Drive. This one is an excellent choice as it boasts some great speeds at one of the cheapest prices on the list.
The only reason I don’t replace this PNY choice with it directly is that the Buffalo has a rather flimsy build quality. For some of you, this may be minor, but given the very portable nature of a flash drive, it’s really important for them to be built to last to not risk random data loss. That said, if you think this is a secondary point and you could take care of something more delicate, the Buffalo is your best cheap option.
Alternative Pick – Best of the Rest
The above options are our main picks for the best 1TB pen drives available today. That said, we’ve thrown a couple of other options worth quickly considering for certain requirements.
1TB Thumb Drive Alternative: ARCANITE 1TB USB 3.1 Flash Drive
In quality, Arcanite is in-between the PNY and SanDisk picks. But price-wise? It’s more in line with SanDisk (i.e. slightly less valuable). If however, the SanDisk/PNY sticks aren’t available, we recommend you go with this as a fantastic backup option.
Smallest SSD (1TB Thumb Drive Alternative): Sabrent Rocket Nano 1TB USB 3.2
If you liked the sound of our cheap SSD pick, there is an even smaller option available in the Sabrent Rocket Nano.
Note that although this pick is pretty much the smallest thing on the list (even with wire included), we didn’t rank this as highly as there are some performance degradation concerns over time; still worth considering if ultra-portability is the most important thing to you.