Best SD Cards For GoPro

Quick GoPro Memory Card Recommendation List

These are the best memory cards for GoPro cameras with their corresponding performance taken from a MacBook Pro.

Sandisk, Samsung, Delkin, Amazon Basics, PNY, and Gigastone are cards that are officially recommended and tested by GoPro, but I’ve found many other brands work well in the new camera models.

If you experience freezes, glitches, or crashes, it is very often a problem with SD card compatibility, and swapping to a different card can usually fix these issues.

GoPro SD Card Compatibility

All the latest GoPro cameras take micro SD memory cards. The GoPro Hero 8 to the Hero 11 will perform best with U3 memory cards and have a maximum capacity of 256GB, with the Hero 11 taking cards up to 2TB.

U3 vs U1 – This is your memory card, speed class. U1 has a minimum write speed of 10MBs, and U3 has a minimum write speed of 30MBs. To guarantee performance with the Hero 8 or the Hero 9, you must use a memory card that is the U3 speed class since the camera writes at about 12MBs – above the U1 spec.

SDXC vs SDHC – SDXC, and SDHC refer to the file structure. 32-bit vs 64-bit. SDHC is always in 32GB cards and smaller whereas SDXC is always found with 64GB cards and larger. The 32-bit file structure found in the 32 GB cards means, that you will not be able to record clips that are larger than 4GB. However, today GoPro cameras still only record clips with a limit of 4GB which is known as chaptering. Regardless of what camera you use, it won’t make a difference if you decide to go with SDHC or SDXC memory cards.

UHS-I vs UHS-II – There are now UHS-II memory cards but the GoPro cameras do not have the hardware to take advantage of these cards. They will still work, but will just run at UHS-I speeds.

GoPro SD Card Capacity

The size of the memory card you can use for your GoPro depends on which model you have.

New GoPro cameras can use memory cards up to 512GB and the Hero 11 can go up to 2TB.

Older GoPro cameras such as the GoPro Hero7 could use 256GB memory cards but there was a potential that they would cause problems when mounted to the Karma gimbal and you would have to drop down to a 64GB memory card.

This list shows the memory card reviews for each GoPro model as well as the maximum SD card capacity for GoPro cameras.

*Note: GoPro is officially now saying all their models since the Hero 7 accepts 512GB cards on their website.  However, expect some compatibility issues with 512GB cards in some of the older GoPro cameras.

What Size Memory Card Is Best for GoPro?

You will be limited by the max size of the memory card based on the model of GoPro (see the chart above). Also, starting with the Hero 9 GoPro cameras now offer higher bitrates of 100Mbps with an average bitrate of around 96Mb/s, and starting with the Hero 11 cameras offer a bitrate of 120Mbps.

GoPro Hero Record Times | Chart

Here is a handy chart on record times in minutes based on the different record formats.

On most GoPro cameras today, you have the option to record at a higher bitrate or a lower bitrate. The camera defaults to a lower bitrate on many of the presets so make sure you turn that up when programming your own recording preset.

Times are in minutes.