Treating yourself to a Nintendo Switch SD card is the perfect way to ensure your console never runs out of storage space. While the Switch is pretty well served with storage, with 32GB available on the standard and Lite models and a whole 64GB to play with on the newer OLED version, if you tend to buy your games digitally from the Nintendo Switch eShop, you’re going to run short on space sooner or later. When that happens, an SD card will provide you with plenty more space for not a lot of money.

Even if you currently have plenty of internal storage space left, it makes sense to think ahead and get some SD storage now to avoid getting caught out at a later date. You don’t want to have to delete stuff to make room for new games. Thankfully Nintendo makes it nice and easy to add a Nintendo Switch SD card. Simply choose a micro SD card from our selection below, plug it into the dedicated slot and you should be good to go (note that larger micro SDXC cards may require a system update before you can use them).

With a fat new SD card installed, you’ll have loads more room for games as well as any screenshots and videos you record while playing, and you’ll also have plenty of space for the inevitable updates and patches that physical game cards might require. Finding the best Nintendo Switch SD card shouldn’t cause you any headaches; any micro SD card will do the job, but you should look for UHS-1 support and a read speed of at least 60MB/s. However, we’ve already done the hard work for you, and all the cards listed below will fit your requirements perfectly.

If you don’t yet have a Switch to plug an SD card into, take a look at our guide to the best Nintendo Switch deals to find the best prices right now. Then you can fill up your shiny new SD card with the best Nintendo Switch games or the best Nintendo Switch Lite games. And if you’re looking for more gear to complete your Switch experience, see our selection of the best Nintendo Switch accessories.

The best Nintendo Switch SD cards

If you’re looking for a Nintendo Switch SD card that’s approved by the big N itself, SanDisk has a selection of officially licensed options complete with eye-catching branding from top games. With storage options from 64GB up to an impressive 512GB, there are options with capacity for all but the very largest Switch collections, and the transfer rates won’t keep you hanging around waiting for games to load. We’d go for the 128GB option, which gives you plenty of space for great value.

If you have a larger Switch library then it’s well worth taking a look at SanDisk’s Ultra range of SD cards. This is a good, reliable name, and the cards themselves are easily fast enough for loading Switch games at a speed close to what you’d get from the console’s own internal storage. There are plenty of size options in the Extreme line-up; we’d go for the 400GB option which will hold plenty, and for considerably less money than you’d pay for the biggest 512GB card.

SD cards are generally a good and reliable means of storing data, but if you need guarantees that your card can take a bit of punishment then it’s worth checking out the Samsung EVO Plus range, with what Samsung calls 4-proof protection. They’re waterproof, temperature proof, X-ray proof and magnet proof, although you should bear in mind that your Switch definitely isn’t all four of those. The speed on offer is plenty fast enough and the price seems about right. We’d go for the 256GB option.

Here’s another safe option for your Switch storage; designed for outdoor photography and video recordings, this Toshiba SD card is made to survive extreme conditions and is also shock- and waterproof. Unfortunately, as it’s aimed at professionals you’re going to pay quite a bit more for this 128GB SD card than you would for other cards with the same capacity, but if peace of mind is what matters to you most, then you might not object to the premium price point.

If you want to play it safe when you’re after a Nintendo Switch SD card then it makes sense to stick to brand names that you know and trust. However, if you want to get your hands on more storage for less money then there are plenty of less recognisable names out there (although we’d recommend checking out reviews before paying). This PNY Elite gives you lots of fast storage for not much cash and, from what we’ve seen so far, it does the job.

Nintendo recommends a read speed of over 80MB/s for Nintendo Switch SD cards, and nearly all of the cards listed here cruise along at a respectable 100MB/s or so. But if that’s not just fast enough for you, then we’d point you in the direction of the SanDisk Extreme range, which screams along at up to 160MB/s and probably means that games have loaded before you’ve even thought of playing them. Naturally, you’ll pay a bit extra for the privilege, so you might as well go all in and get the whopping 1TB model so that you’ll never run out of space.

Amazon Basics is a brand you tend to resort to when you’re not overly fussed about high-end quality or features and just need something that works for a decent price, and its SD cards definitely fit that bill. There’s nothing to get excited about (they’re simply rebranded cards bought in from Hong Kong), but they work and seem reliable enough for the job, and the price is pretty hard to resist, especially if you need a lot of storage. You’ll have a hard time getting 1TB of Nintendo Switch SD card storage for less money than this.

Gigastone’s another brand that’s new to us, but its 256GB SD card seems to be worth taking a look at. It’s designed with game consoles in mind and it’s nice and fast with generally good reviews. It’s also waterproof, shockproof, temperature-proof and X-Ray proof. The five-year limited warranty should assuage any worries you have about buying from a lesser-known brand, on the whole, though, this isn’t a lot to pay for 256GB and we’re happy to take a punt on it.

For a lot of storage at a great price, this SD card from Silicon Power is a definite option, as long as you don’t mind buying from a brand that you hadn’t heard of five minutes ago. It’s guaranteed to be compatible with the Nintendo Switch and its transfer speeds come up to the mark, and in all honestly, that’s a pretty sweet price for 512GB of storage.

A final cheap option for anyone who needs some storage and isn’t too worried about brand names. The Arcanite range comes in two speed groupings (A1 High Speed and A2 Premium Speed). We’d go for the latter but both should do nicely with the Nintendo Switch. Like many of the other Micro SD cards covered in our list, this comes with an SD adapter just in case you find the need to plug it into older devices. On the whole, this seems like a decent enough storage solution for not a lot of money.

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