How Many Photos Can a 32 / 64 / 128 / 256 GB Memory Card Store

There are many factors that will determine how many photos you can store on your memory card including the camera’s resolution (the higher the better), the number of megapixels (MP) on your camera, the size of the photos you shoot, the image file format used and how big the photo files are.

Camera Resolution: The highest resolution you can shoot is 4,096 x 3,072 (16M). This means that there are 16 million pixels available on the sensor for your image.

Megapixel Count: When you choose a high resolution setting the camera will produce large, high quality files. This usually results in large files, so storage space is an issue. If you have a digital SLR, you can use the ‘large print’ setting.

File Size: The maximum size of a single image file is 30MB. So, a large file size would be around 15,000 x 10,000 pixels. To store more photos you will need more storage space, as each photo is about 2MB each.

The quality of the photo: A higher quality photo will require more space.

How much compression you’re using:

The most common file format for digital cameras is JPEG and this uses lossy compression to reduce file sizes. This means that some data is thrown away in order to make photos smaller. The amount of compression used varies depending on what software you use to create your photos, but as a rule of thumb, if you’re storing images from a point-and-shoot camera or smartphone, then expect to lose around 10% of your file size using standard quality settings.

If you’re storing RAW files (which are uncompressed), they’re already huge and your devices may not store so many files as you wish.

In general:

If one single image size is 1 MB per image, A 32GB SD card can store up to 32,000 photos. 64GB will hold 64,000 photos and 128GB will hold 128,000 photos. 256GB will store 256,000 photos.

If your image size is 10 MB per image:

  • 32 GB memory card can store about about 3,000 photos in JPEG format (10 megapixels). The exact number of photos will depend on the dimensions of your images and the compression level used by your camera.
  • A 64 GB memory card can store about 6,000 photos in JPEG format (10 megapixels).
  • A 128 GB memory card can store about 13,000 photos in JPEG format (10 megapixels).
  • A 256 GB memory card can store about 25,500 photos in JPEG format (10 megapixels).