Choosing a Memory Card for your GoPro

tools of the trade

Feb 16, 2018

We often get asked what MicroSD card to get for a GoPro. And while there are some baseline requirements, there are plenty of considerations to take into account when choosing the best card to suit your needs. Capacity, write speeds, reliability, and cost should all be considered when choosing a MicroSD card, so let's break these down a bit.

Capacity (or card type) really fall into two relevant options: SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) and SDXC (Secure Digital extended Capacity). Really, the major difference is the 32GB threshold. SDHC are found in 32GB and lower capacity, and SDXC are typically 64GB and above.

Next, you need to take write speed or speed class of a MicroSD card into account. For all GoPros, we recommend a minimum of Class 10, which really means that it writes data at a minimum of 10MB per second. Additionally, newer cards may also have a secondary UHS (Ultra high Speed) or VSC (Video Speed Class) classification. Class 10 cards will have a C with a numeral 10 inside of it. UHS will have a U with a 1 or a 3 inside it. U-1 icon writes at the same as Class 10 so 10MB/sec. U-30 writes at 30MB/sec. Similarly, VSC will be annotated with V10, V30, V60, and V90 (currently), representing write speeds of 10MB, 30MB, 60MB and 90MB per second respectively. See below for a less confusing explication.

Graphic via SD Association

Sounds like a lot to remember, ya? So, let's try to make it as simple as possible.

If you have a new HERO6 or Fusion, we recommend a SanDisk Extreme / Extreme Plus / Extreme Pro UHS-I/U3, at equal to or greater than 32GB capacity, like this one. As well, the Lexar Professional microSDHC UHS-II U3 1000x card, shown above, works great.

HERO4 and newer cameras all capture up to 4K video, and write speeds are as important as capacity to properly capture your high-resolution video. Of course, these higher speed cards will work for all previous iterations of HERO and Session cameras.

If you don't have a high performing card in your camera, it will impede your camera's performance; it may well affect functionality altogether. If you already have some previously-bought microSD cards in your camera bag, and want to know how they will fare with your model of GoPro, check out this reference table.

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