NAS hard drives by cost per terabyte
Drives built to sit in a NAS: rated for 24/7 duty, firmware that gives up on a bad sector quickly instead of stalling the whole array, and tolerance for the vibration of several drives in one chassis. Only NAS-rated lines are ranked here: WD Red Plus and Red Pro, Seagate IronWolf and IronWolf Pro, and Toshiba N300, all CMR. WD's plain Red is absent on purpose, because it is the line that quietly went SMR in 2020. Every drive on this page is also on the SATA HDD page, where it is ranked against enterprise nearline drives.
As of 13 October 2026, the lowest cost per TB for NAS-rated hard drives is $15.99/TB: the Seagate IronWolf 10TB SATA, used, at $159.90 delivered (price plus shipping), from eBay. How this is calculated.
The Pro lines (IronWolf Pro, Red Pro) carry the higher workload rating; check the datasheet for your capacity, because it changes between models. Red Plus, IronWolf and N300 are rated around 180TB a year. Most home use sits well below any of these. A busy multi-user share or a video-editing array is where the higher rating earns its price.
Shingled recording (SMR) rewrites neighbouring tracks to change one, which can stall a RAID or ZFS resilver for days. Every line listed here is CMR. See the CMR vs SMR guide for how to check a model.
NAS firmware caps how long a drive retries a bad sector (WD calls it TLER, Seagate ERC), so the controller can rebuild from parity instead of dropping the drive. IronWolf Pro and Red Pro carry five years; Red Plus, IronWolf and N300 carry three. A used or refurbished listing usually carries the seller's terms instead of the manufacturer's.
For 1 to 8 bays the Plus-class lines (Red Plus, IronWolf, N300) are the sensible default; all three are rated up to 8 bays. With more than 8 bays, more drives in one chassis means more vibration, and the Pro lines are the ones the manufacturers rate for it.
| Drive | Cond. | Buy | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10TB | Used | $159.90 | $15.99 | Buy → | |
Toshiba N300 Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 8TB | Used | $147.20 | $18.40 | Buy → |
Seagate IronWolf Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 12TB | Used | $260.00 | $21.67 | Buy → |
| 18TB | Used | $397.00 | $22.06 | Buy → | |
| 12TB | New | $275.00 | $22.92 | Buy → | |
| 6TB | Used | $139.90 | $23.32 | Buy → | |
Seagate IronWolf Pro Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 6TB | Used | $145.00 | $24.17 | Buy → |
| 10TB | Used | $245.00 | $24.50 | Buy → | |
Seagate IronWolf Pro Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 16TB | Used | $398.00 | $24.88 | Buy → |
| 10TB | Used | $249.00 | $24.90 | Buy → | |
| 6TB | Used | $149.99 | $25.00 | Buy → | |
| 6TB | Used | $150.00 | $25.00 | Buy → | |
WD Red Pro Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 24TB | Used | $619.99 | $25.83 | Buy → |
| 18TB | Used | $475.00 | $26.39 | Buy → | |
Seagate IronWolf Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 8TB | Used | $219.79 | $27.47 | Buy → |
| 4TB | Used | $109.99 | $27.50 | Buy → | |
| 10TB | Used | $279.99 | $28.00 | Buy → | |
WD Red Plus Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 8TB | Used | $225.00 | $28.13 | Buy → |
| 14TB | Used | $394.68 | $28.19 | Buy → | |
WD Red Plus Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 14TB | Used | $399.00 | $28.50 | Buy → |
| 4TB | Used | $115.99 | $29.00 | Buy → | |
| 16TB | Used | $465.00 | $29.06 | Buy → | |
| 24TB | Refurb | $699.99 | $29.17 | Buy → | |
| 22TB | Used | $650.00 | $29.55 | Buy → | |
| 10TB | Used | $299.00 | $29.90 | Buy → | |
Seagate IronWolf Pro Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 12TB | Refurb | $359.99 | $30.00 | Buy → |
| 20TB | Refurb | $599.99 | $30.00 | Buy → | |
| 14TB | Used | $425.00 | $30.36 | Buy → | |
| 8TB | New | $249.95 | $31.24 | Buy → | |
| 4TB | Used | $125.00 | $31.25 | Buy → | |
| 8TB | Used | $250.00 | $31.25 | Buy → | |
| 12TB | New | $385.00 | $32.08 | Buy → | |
| 4TB | Used | $129.99 | $32.50 | Buy → | |
| 6TB | Used | $195.00 | $32.50 | Buy → | |
Toshiba N300 Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 16TB | New | $540.00 | $33.75 | Buy → |
| 20TB | New | $709.99 | $35.50 | Buy → | |
Toshiba N300 Listing identity unconfirmed. We cannot confirm this listing is exactly this model, so we do not rate it. | 14TB | New | $499.00 | $35.64 | Buy → |
| 20TB | New | $715.00 | $35.75 | Buy → | |
| 22TB | New | $809.98 | $36.82 | Buy → | |
| 4TB | Used | $150.00 | $37.50 | Buy → | |
| 12TB | New | $475.00 | $39.58 | Buy → | |
| 18TB | New | $779.00 | $43.28 | Buy → | |
| 22TB | New | $999.00 | $45.41 | Buy → |
prices last checked 2026-10-13 22:07 UTC
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