How Much Storage Do I Need on My iPad for Note-Taking?

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Ipads are great devices to take notes on. If you are buying an iPad for school to take notes, you may wonder how much storage you need.

For the current versions of iPads that Apple sells, the iPad, iPad Air, and iPad mini offer 64 GB or 256 GB storage options.

The current iPad Pro offers 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB storage options.

In general, students should have at least a 64 GB iPad for note-taking. This is enough storage for notes, but if the students want to store more audio or video and don’t want to worry about running out of storage, 128 or 256 GB of storage will be the better option.

Let’s go over how much storage different iPads offer and the factors that determine how much storage you need.

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How many GB for note-taking?

How much storage you need depends on how you will use your iPad.

People will ask questions about the size of notes if you write or type them or GoodNotes vs. Notability for storage. Typed notes and Notability use less storage, but either way, these are not the kind of factors that will determine how much storage you need since most notes do not take up much space.

People also worry about having larger scanned PDFs (especially textbooks) on their iPad. These will take up more space, but it is unlikely they will cause you to run out of space.

Factors that will take up more space, include:

if you record lecture audio with your notes (the audio files will take up more space)
how much music you store (this takes up more space)
how many videos you store (each takes up a lot of storage)
how many other apps you need on your iPad (each app takes up storage)
if you are using the iPad on its own or an iPad and a laptop/computer. You will need an iPad with more storage if this is your only device for school (which I do not recommend, learn more about why you need a laptop).
if you use your iPad for gaming or video editing (you will need more storage)

Even if you do these, you can probably still get by with less storage (64 GB).

I have an iPad (8th generation) with 128 GB of storage, but I only use 43 GB of that storage. If I were buying an iPad, iPad Air, or iPad mini, I would get the 64 GB of storage, and if I were getting an iPad Pro, I would get the 128 GB. You can get an extra 50 GB of iCloud storage for only $0.99 a month.

Ultimately, you have to look at how you will use your iPad and balance cost vs. extra storage. Let’s look at circumstances where each storage size is needed.

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Is a 32 GB iPad enough for note-taking?

While Apple doesn’t currently sell an iPad with 32 GB of storage, previous versions of iPads were 32 GB.

A 32 GB iPad is not enough storage for most students. Unless you are getting a ridiculously good deal on a 32 GB iPad and you know that you will only use it for note-taking (no audio or video files), get at least 64 GB.

Is 64GB enough for iPad for students note-taking?

In general, 64 GB is enough storage for students. A 64 GB iPad is enough storage for note-taking, email, using the internet, and writing discussion posts and essays. Students can store some music or video files and can use cloud storage if they ever run low on storage.

However, if you don’t want to save to the cloud and you want to save a lot of video, images, or audio files, you should get more storage.

Is 128GB enough for iPad note-taking?

A 128 GB iPad is enough storage for note-taking, email, writing essays, or other daily use. It is also enough storage to save plenty of images, audio, and video.

The only reason to get more storage is if 128 GB is not offered (such as with the iPad Pro) or if they are using their iPad for gaming or video editing.

Is 256GB a lot of storage for an iPad?

A 256 GB iPad is a large amount of storage. It is enough storage for someone to save what they want (including images, audio, and video) and not have to worry about running out of space. If the person intends to use their iPad for gaming or video editing, they should get at least 256 GB of storage.

If you can afford the extra price of 256 GB of storage, this would be a great choice to future-proof your purchase.

Most people do not need more than 256 GB of storage.

How to save on iPad storage

Two ways to save on storage are to:

Store things in the cloud. Not only will this save you a ton of storage space, but I recommend this for security, even if storage isn’t a problem. Your files will be safe, backed up, and easy to access from anywhere.
If you want to save your files on your device during the semester, you can transfer them to a hard drive or cloud storage at the end of the semester. You will be able to keep them, but they won’t be taking up storage.

Now that you know how much storage you need on your iPad for note-taking, learn How to Take Better Notes in College.