Xbox Series X: Here's How Much Storage Space It Actually Lets You Use

Xbox Series X and Series S are coming in November, and Microsoft has taken the wraps off of the full tech specs. That includes the 1TB SSD that will store your games on Xbox Series X, but as usual for game consoles, not every bit of that storage space will actually be usable.

In GameSpot's Xbox Series X hands-on preview, Michael Higham confirmed that the usable space in the SSD is 802GB. That roughly cuts your usable space by 1/5 right from the start.

You also might need at least some space to facilitate the Quick Resume feature since it appears to need space to store those files from RAM. Microsoft's Jason Ronald previously said in a storage primer that the feature keeps the game state data as a persistent file on the internal SSD.

The Xbox Series S comes with a 512GB SSD, which will also likely have less usable space--but file sizes will also be substantially smaller. You can add another terabyte with an optional $220 NVMe SSD on either version of the hardware, and that SSD will work just like the internal one. You can also plug in any other SSD or hard drive for playing backwards compatible games or storing games that aren't in your active rotation. But to play a next-gen game it needs to be transferred to the internal storage or the expansion card. You can read our Xbox storage primer for more details.

Our hands-on time with the Xbox Series X has been positive overall, especially in regards to quality-of-life features like faster load times and the Quick Resume feature. Those two, says Higham, are "the features that make next-gen gaming feel more advanced."

Xbox Series X and Series S preorders are now open, but they're going out of stock quickly. Keep an eye on our Xbox Series X and Series S preorder guide for updates on when and where more consoles will be available.