Don't Pay Apple's Storage Tax: How to Get More Mac Storage for Less

01 Jul, 2026
Posted by: Marian Bohacek

When you're configuring a new Mac on Apple's website, the storage upgrade options look deceptively reasonable. Going from 512GB to 1TB? That'll be £200 more. From 1TB to 2TB? Another £200 on top of that. By the time you've clicked through to the storage you actually need, you've added £400 to the price of a laptop for something that costs a fraction of that to produce.

This is what people in the Mac community call the storage tax — Apple's markup on internal storage that you pay upfront, at checkout, with no ability to change your mind later. And for most Mac buyers, it's entirely avoidable.

Why Apple's Storage Upgrades Are So Expensive

Apple's internal storage is soldered to the logic board on every current Mac — MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. There's no slot, no user-serviceable component, nothing to swap out. Whatever you choose at the Apple Store is permanent. Apple knows this, and prices accordingly.

The per-GB cost of Apple's internal storage upgrades is significantly higher than the per-GB cost of a fast external NVMe SSD. In many cases, you can buy a high-quality 2TB external SSD for less than Apple charges to go from 512GB to 1TB internally. The performance difference for most workloads? Negligible — especially for the tasks that actually benefit from extra capacity, like storing media files, project archives, and backups.

The Smarter Approach: Buy the Base Storage, Add External

The strategy that saves most Mac buyers a significant amount of money is straightforward: configure your Mac with the base or one-tier-up storage at checkout, then add a fast external SSD for the capacity you actually need. Your Mac's internal SSD handles macOS and your applications — the things that genuinely benefit from the fastest possible storage. The external SSD handles everything else: media libraries, project files, downloads, backups, and archives.

Here's what that looks like in practice with drives we stock:

For Most Users: OWC Envoy Pro FX

The OWC Envoy Pro FX is the drive we recommend most often for this exact scenario. It connects via Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C, delivers speeds up to 2800 MB/s, is IP67 rated, completely bus-powered, and available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB. One cable, no power adapter, sits on your desk permanently or goes in your bag when you need it. Backed by a 3-year OWC warranty.

Compare: Apple charges £200 to go from 512GB to 1TB internally on a MacBook Pro. A 1TB Envoy Pro FX costs considerably less, is removable, works with any Mac or PC you'll ever own, and can be passed on or sold independently if you upgrade your machine.

For Maximum Speed: OWC Express 1M2 USB4

If you have a newer Mac with USB4 — M-series MacBook Pro, Mac mini M4, Mac Studio — the OWC Express 1M2 USB4 delivers up to 3151 MB/s. That's faster than the internal SSD on many Mac configurations. Available from 1TB to 8TB. One cable, bus-powered, aircraft-grade aluminum housing. For the users who want external storage that genuinely matches or exceeds internal performance, this is it.

What About the iMac and Mac Mini?

The same logic applies to the iMac (M1, M3) and Mac mini (M4). Both have Thunderbolt 4 ports, both support fast external NVMe drives, and both are machines where many users keep them at a desk permanently — making an external SSD a completely natural addition that doesn't affect portability at all.

For Mac mini M4 owners specifically, the Acasis Mac mini M4 Dock is worth a look — it's a dock/stand that sits underneath your Mac mini and adds an M.2 NVMe slot (up to 8TB), dual HDMI, and extra USB ports all in one. The storage lives inside the stand rather than as a separate drive on your desk, which is a much tidier solution.

The Exception: When You Should Pay for More Internal Storage

To be fair, there are cases where paying Apple's storage upgrade price is the right call:

MacBook Air users who travel light and genuinely don't want to carry anything extra. If the whole point of your setup is one laptop with nothing attached, 512GB or 1TB internally might be worth it for simplicity.
Heavy Xcode or virtual machine users whose scratch disk and build caches benefit from the absolute fastest internal NVMe speeds. Internal storage is faster than even the best external drive for sustained random I/O.
Mac Studio and Mac Pro users buying 8TB+ configurations — at that capacity tier, external drives become a more complex proposition, and the internal SSD array on Mac Studio delivers performance that external drives can't match.

For everyone else — photographers, video editors, music producers, general professionals — the base storage plus a quality external SSD is both cheaper and more flexible.

One More Thing: The 2013–2019 MacBook Exception

If you have an older Intel MacBook Pro or MacBook Air from 2013 to 2019, you actually can upgrade the internal SSD — these models use a proprietary Apple blade SSD that is removable and replaceable. The OWC Aura Pro X2 is available up to 4TB and delivers speeds well beyond what Apple shipped originally. If you're still using one of these machines and you're living with the original storage, this upgrade is worth knowing about.

Free Shipping to the UK and Ireland

All drives ship free to the UK in approximately 2 working days. Orders to Ireland over £100 include free shipping. If you want a recommendation based on your specific Mac model and how you use it, get in touch — we're happy to help you make the right call before you spend anything.