Card capacity can be kind of confusing. But it doesn’t have to be. In this post, you’ll learn how many photos per GB of memory. And how many each memory card size can hold. We’ll also answer the following questions: How many pictures can 32GB hold? And how many photos a 64GB memory card can hold?
Guide to Memory Card Capacity
It’s important to know the capacity of your memory cards. There isn’t much worse than running out of space before you run out of subject matter.
To help you figure it all out, we created two main sections to this post.
- First, we cover how many images per gigabyte of data, according to image resolution.
- Second, we breakdown how many photos will fit on each size memory card. They range from 16GB all the way up to 1TB.
To help you understand image size, here are four factors that can increase/decrease the available storage space on your memory card.
4 Factors Affecting Photo Size
There are a number of factors that will affect the size of each image. And the space you’ll have available on your storage device.
- Image resolution: This is the most significant factor when comparing memory card capacity.
- Image compression: Shooting in jpg (compressed) will increase your card capacity significantly when compared to uncompressed image formats (like RAW).
- Video files: It would be uncommon to shoot only photos and no videos. Don’t forget to take into account your video size. These can add up quickly and reduce available space for photos.
- Other files on the card: Some devices create additional files, other than the video and image files. GoPro cameras, for example, create LRV and THM files that will take up space on your card.
How Many Photos Per GB? (Chart)
How many photos per GB? You can hold as many as 580 and as few as 192 in one GB of digital storage. This is for an average image resolution of 5.5MP up to 18MP. And it’s based on a compressed image format.
For more detail, check out this chart showing the effect of image resolution on storage capacity.
For GoPro cameras, the most common image resolution is 12MP. This includes the Hero8 Black, and the older Hero7 Black and Hero6 Black. Hero7 White and Silver both shoot in 10MP. And the 360 cameras (Max and Fusion) shoot 16.6MP photos in 360 degrees.
Please note that the file size is approximate. I’ve seen file size for a 12MP GoPro photo range from 3.3MB to 5MB. The more complex the photo, the larger it can be. I chose 3.6MB as an average photo size for 12MP resolution.
Number of Photos Per GB
How many pictures per GB can you store on a memory card? 277 images at 12MP resolution will take up one GB of storage space.
For many years, the standard photo resolution of GoPro cameras is 12MP.
How Many Photos Can My Memory Card Hold?
To help you plan card usage, here is a chart that breaks down the image capacity of each memory card size.
How many photos can it hold? 16GB to 1TB (Chart)
|Card Size||GoPro Hero8||GoPro Max||Canon 80D|
|Image Resolution||12MP / 3.6MB||16.6MP / 5MB||24.2MP / 49MB|
A couple notes about the data in this chart:
- GoPro image sizes based on maximum photo resolution for each of the Hero8 Black (12MP) and the GoPro Max (16.6MP).
- Canon 80D image size is based on 24.2MP resolution, uncompressed RAW/DNG 16 bits/pixel.
The maximum SD card capacity for GoPro Hero8 Black is 256GB. Of course, you can use memory cards with larger capacity for media storage, but they won’t work in-camera.
Interested in more options? Here are the best microSD cards for GoPro cameras (all models).
How many photos can 16GB hold?
A 16GB memory card can hold approximately 4,400 photos. This is based on jpg file format, at 12MP, a standard GoPro image resolution.
Here are how many images from each of these cameras can fit on a 16GB card.
- 12MP: 4,400 photos
- 16.6MP: 3,200 photos
- 24.2MP: 326 photos
How many photos can 32GB hold?
A 32GB memory card can hold approximately 8,889 photos. This is based on jpg file format, at 12MP, a standard GoPro image resolution.
Here are how many images from each of these cameras can fit on a 32GB card.
- 12MP: 8,889 photos
- 16.6MP: 6,400 photos
- 24.2MP: 653 photos
How many photos can 64GB hold?
Here are how many images from each of these cameras can fit on a 64GB card.
- 12MP: 17,778 photos
- 16.6MP: 12,800 photos
- 24.2MP: 1,306 photos
How many photos can 128GB hold?
A 128GB memory card can hold approximately 35,556 photos. This is based on jpg file format, at 12MP, a standard GoPro image resolution.
Here are how many images from each of these cameras can fit on a 128GB card.
- 12MP: 35,556 photos
- 16.6MP: 25,600 photos
- 24.2MP: 2,612 photos
How many photos can 256GB hold?
A 256GB memory card can hold approximately 71,111 photos. This is based on jpg file format, at 12MP, a standard GoPro image resolution.
Here are how many images from each of these cameras can fit on a 256GB card.
- 12MP: 71,111 photos
- 16.6MP: 51,200 photos
- 24.2MP: 5,224 photos
How many photos can 512GB hold?
A 256GB memory card can hold approximately 142,222 photos. This is based on jpg file format, at 12MP, a standard GoPro image resolution.
Here are how many images from each of these cameras can fit on a 512GB card.
- 12MP: 142,222 photos
- 16.6MP: 102,400 photos
- 24.2MP: 10,448 photos
How many photos can 1TB hold?
A 256GB memory card can hold approximately 277,778 photos. This is based on jpg file format, at 12MP, a standard GoPro image resolution.
Here are how many images from each of these cameras can fit on a 1TB card.
- 12MP: 277,778 photos
- 16.6MP: 200,000 photos
- 24.2MP: 20,408 photos