Short answer: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 needs 50GB of free space, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 needs 150GB. Put either one on an SSD. That gets you flying, but it doesn't count what simmers actually add: planes, airports and a bigger scenery cache. That's how a 50GB sim quietly turns into hundreds of gigabytes.
| MSFS 2024 | MSFS 2020 | |
|---|---|---|
| Space you need free | 50GB | 150GB |
| With lots of add-ons, plan for | About 300GB | About 400GB |
| How the world gets to you | Almost all streamed | Streamed, with much more installed |
| Runs on | PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5 | PC, Xbox Series X|S |
Work out your own number in 20 seconds. Tap your answers: the plan updates as you go and shows a drive that fits. On a console? Jump to Xbox or PS5.
How much space do you need?
Four questions. Your answer updates as you tap.
Your space plan
Plan for about 382GB
- MSFS 2024 50GB
- Rolling cache 32GB
- Add-ons 50GB
- Everything else 250GB
A 1TB SSD holds that. Collecting add-ons? 2TB leaves plenty of room to grow.
- Fits your plan1TB NVMe SSDCrucial P310 1TB NVMe SSDYour plan fills about 41% of it.
- Room to grow2TB NVMe SSDCrucial P310 2TB NVMe SSDYour plan fills about 21% of it.
- Put the sim and its rolling cache on an SSD, never a hard drive. Any NVMe SSD from the last few years is fast enough.
- Already have a drive for Windows? Add a second SSD just for flight sims instead: nothing to reinstall, and the sim gets the space to itself.
How much space MSFS 2024 needs (and why it's so small)
50GB free, according to its Steam listing, and the install itself is about 30GB. That's a third of what MSFS 2020 asks for, and it comes down to one word: streaming.
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StreamedIn the cloud
The whole planet: terrain, aerial photos, 3D cities and most of the aircraft. Far too big for any drive, so the sim downloads only what you fly over.
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Kept for laterRolling cache
A slice of your SSD that keeps the scenery you flew through lately. When it's full, the oldest scenery makes room. 16GB unless you change it.
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InstalledOn your drive
The sim itself (about 30GB for MSFS 2024) plus every add-on plane and airport you install. This is the part that grows.
The planet in Microsoft Flight Simulator is enormous. Microsoft said MSFS 2020 already had over two petabytes of world data in the cloud, which is two million gigabytes. MSFS 2020 streamed much of it, but still installed a lot locally: aircraft, airports, landmarks and every free World Update region.
MSFS 2024 streams almost all of it. As Microsoft put it before launch: "why install all the data for the United States when you're intending to just fly over Europe for the evening?" Planes, airports and World Updates now stream in when you need them, and what you've flown through lately sits in the rolling cache.
The catch: it needs your internet. Steam lists a 10 Mbps connection as the minimum for MSFS 2024 and 50 Mbps as recommended. In one independent measurement at launch, the sim pulled about 10 to 15GB an hour at 1440p ultra settings, and under 3GB an hour once the cache already held the area. If your internet is capped or patchy, a bigger cache (or downloading content) trades drive space for a smoother flight.
How much space MSFS 2020 needs
150GB free, according to its Steam listing. That's for the base sim on its own.
From there it grows with:
- World Updates. Free regional packs with better airports and landmarks. In MSFS 2020 you download and install each one.
- Marketplace and add-on content. Every plane and airport you buy installs to your drive.
- The rolling cache. 16GB unless you change it.
Players who install everything for MSFS 2020 report totals of more than 1TB. You don't need to go that far, but if you've been flying it for a few years, check your drive. It's probably bigger than you think.
Still on MSFS 2020? It flies fine, and everything on this page applies. Plan for at least 1TB if the sim gets its own drive.
What makes a sim grow
It always starts with one airliner. Then you need the airports at both ends of the route, a nicer version of your home field, a few liveries... The sim itself is the small part. These are what fill a drive:
Add-on aircraft. A detailed airliner is the big one. The iniBuilds A350, for example, installs at about 14GB on its own. Small planes usually take far less. Own a handful of airliners and you're at 50GB before you notice.
Airports and scenery. Hand-built airports and city packs add up a few gigabytes at a time.
The Community folder. That's where most add-ons from outside Microsoft's own store live. One player on the official forums reported 139GB in that folder alone.
A bigger rolling cache. The default 16GB is fine with fast internet. We'd set 32GB on a fast SSD. Go bigger only if you fly the same areas over and over, or your connection struggles.
Downloading instead of streaming. In MSFS 2024 you can install some content you own, like aircraft and airports, instead of streaming it. Players who install everything they can report totals in the 500GB range. Only worth it with slow or capped internet: with a good connection, streamed content looks the same.
Updates. Big sim updates need working space while they install. Keep about 15% of your drive free so an update never gets stuck halfway.
Already running low? See the drives we'd buy, or work out how much you need.
Do you need an SSD? Yes.
Microsoft's spec sheet just says "50GB" and leaves out what kind of drive. Here's the part it doesn't tell you: a flight sim reads from your drive constantly (scenery from the cache, textures, the plane you just loaded), and that's exactly where a hard drive falls flat.
- Hard driveSeagate BarraCuda 220 MB/s
- SATA SSDSamsung 870 EVO 560 MB/s
- NVMe Gen 4 SSDCrucial P310 7,100 MB/s
- NVMe Gen 5 SSDSamsung 9100 PRO 14,700 MB/s
- Hard drive (HDD): don't. Loading takes much longer, and scenery can pop in late as you fly. Keep hard drives for photos and backups.
- SATA SSD: a big jump from a hard drive, and still fine for flight sims. The right pick for older PCs without an M.2 slot.
- NVMe Gen 4 SSD: the sweet spot. Any decent one from the last few years is fast enough.
- NVMe Gen 5 SSD: faster on paper. In independent game-loading tests, the gains over a good Gen 4 drive are small. Spend that money on capacity, or on your graphics card.
Put the rolling cache on your fastest SSD. The cache is read and rewritten as you fly, so it belongs on the quickest drive you have.
Still flying off a hard drive? Any drive in our SSD picks is the single biggest upgrade you'll notice in loading.
Which drive fits your PC or laptop
Before you buy, check what your computer takes. There are three shapes:
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Most commonM.2 2280
22 × 80 mm. Desktops, most gaming laptops and the PS5.
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SmallM.2 2230
22 × 30 mm. Handhelds and some thin laptops.
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Older PCs2.5-inch SATA
About 70 × 100 mm. Needs a data cable and a power cable.
To see what you already have: open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), go to Performance, and click each disk. It shows the size and whether it's an SSD or HDD.
To find a free slot:
- Desktop: your motherboard's manual or spec page lists its M.2 slots. Many have two or more.
- Laptop: look up your exact model's spec page. Many gaming laptops have a second M.2 slot, and many thin ones don't. No slot? Swap the drive for a bigger one, or use an external SSD for add-ons.
Why does my 1TB drive show 931GB? Drive makers count a gigabyte as 1,000 megabytes, and Windows counts it as 1,024. Same space, smaller number. The calculator above already accounts for it.
The best SSDs for flight sims
Every drive here is fast enough for MSFS 2024 and 2020. The only real question is how much space you need:
- 1TB: the sim, a few add-ons, Windows and a few other games. Or a second drive just for flight sims.
- 2TB: our pick for most simmers. Room for a growing add-on collection and a game library, without thinking about space.
- 4TB: big collections, or downloading content to fly offline.
A word on prices: SSDs cost roughly three times their lowest prices right now, as AI data centers buy up memory chips. That's one more reason to skip pricey Gen 5 drives and put the money into space.
SSDs for PC: our picks
| Part | Our pick | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Best for most simmers Room for Windows, MSFS, a healthy add-on collection and your other games. | Crucial P310 2TB NVMe SSD A budget Gen 4 drive with plenty of speed for streaming scenery. It's the drive in our MSFS PC builds too. | Check price |
| Step up The same 2TB of space on a faster drive from Samsung. | Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB NVMe SSD Rated up to 7,250 MB/s. Worth the extra if you also edit video or shuffle big files around. | Check price |
| A second drive just for sims Room for MSFS, its cache and a few add-ons when Windows lives on another drive. | Crucial P310 1TB NVMe SSD The cheapest way to stop juggling space. Needs a free M.2 slot. | Check price |
| Big add-on library Years of aircraft, airports and scenery, or content downloaded for offline flying. | WD_Black SN850X 4TB NVMe SSD A proven high-end Gen 4 drive. Also in our 4K and VR build. | Check price |
| PC without an M.2 slot A 2.5-inch SATA SSD for older PCs. | Samsung 870 EVO 2TB SATA SSD Slower than NVMe on paper, but a huge jump from a hard drive. Needs a SATA data cable and a power cable. | Check price |
| Laptop with no free slot A pocket-size external SSD for your add-on collection. | Samsung T9 2TB Portable SSD Full speed needs a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port. Keep the sim itself on the internal drive. | Check price |
Links go to Amazon, where you'll see today's price. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.
Building a new PC? Our MSFS 2024 PC builds already include the right drive for each budget. Shopping for a prebuilt or laptop? Check the storage line: some still ship with 512GB, which fills up fast. See our best PCs for Microsoft Flight Simulator and the laptop rankings.
More room on Xbox Series X and S
MSFS 2024 is about 30GB on Xbox. MSFS 2020 is much bigger. How much room you have depends on your console:
| Console | Space for games out of the box |
|---|---|
| Xbox Series X (1TB) | 802GB |
| Xbox Series S (512GB) | 364GB |
A Series X has plenty of room for MSFS. A Series S fills up fast once you add other big games.
The one rule to know: a USB drive can store Xbox Series X|S games, but it can't run them. To play MSFS from extra storage, you need an official expansion card that plugs into the slot on the back of the console.
Xbox Series X|S expansion cards: our picks
| Part | Our pick | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Expansion card, 1TB Plugs into the slot on the back and runs MSFS just like the built-in drive. | Sandisk Optimus GX C50 1TB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Officially licensed for Xbox Series X|S. It's the WD_Black C50 under Sandisk's new name. | Check price |
| Expansion card, 2TB For Series S owners and anyone with a big game library. | Sandisk Optimus GX C50 2TB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Same card, twice the space. | Check price |
Links go to Amazon, where you'll see today's price. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.
More room on PlayStation 5
MSFS 2024 is on PS5 (MSFS 2020 isn't). It streams the world just like on PC and Xbox, so the install is small. If your PS5 is full, you can add an M.2 SSD in the spare slot inside the console. Sony's rules for that slot:
- A PCIe Gen 4 NVMe M.2 SSD, from 250GB to 8TB
- 5,500 MB/s or faster read speed recommended
- It must have a heatsink (or another way to shed heat)
Both drives below tick every box, with the heatsink already fitted.
PlayStation 5 SSDs: our picks
| Part | Our pick | Price |
|---|---|---|
| PS5 SSD, 1TB Goes in the PS5's spare M.2 slot and runs games like the built-in drive. | WD_Black SN850P 1TB NVMe SSD for PS5 Officially licensed for PS5, heatsink already fitted. | Check price |
| PS5 SSD, 2TB Room for MSFS and a big game library. | WD_Black SN850P 2TB NVMe SSD for PS5 Officially licensed for PS5, heatsink already fitted. | Check price |
Links go to Amazon, where you'll see today's price. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.
Check your free space under Settings, then Storage. PS5 models have shipped with different drive sizes, so yours may have more room than a friend's.
Set up your drive for flight sims
Got your new drive? Five minutes and you're done.
- Install the drive. Desktop: it goes in a free M.2 slot on the motherboard, held down by a small screw or clip. Laptop: follow your model's service guide.
- Set it up in Windows. A new drive won't show up until you set it up. Search the Start menu for Create and format hard disk partitions, accept the prompt to initialize the new disk, then right-click its empty space and choose New Simple Volume.
- Install the sim there. In the Xbox app or Steam, choose the new drive when you install. Already installed? Both can move an installed game without downloading it again.
- Point the rolling cache at it. In the sim's data settings, set the cache location to your fastest SSD and pick a size. 32GB is a good start.
- Leave some room. Keep about 15% free for updates.
Clearing the cache: if scenery looks wrong after an update, close the sim and delete the file called ROLLINGCACHE.CCC. The sim builds a fresh one next time.
Mistakes that cost simmers space (and money)
- Buying for the sim alone. The sim is 50GB. Your add-ons won't be. Buy for the collection you'll have in a year.
- Using a hard drive. It works on paper. It's miserable in practice.
- Filling the drive to the brim. Updates need working space, and a full SSD slows down.
- Putting a USB drive on an Xbox and expecting MSFS to run from it. Only an expansion card does that.
- Fitting a PS5 SSD with no heatsink. Sony says it needs one, so get a drive with one fitted.
- Downloading everything with fast internet. You'll spend hundreds of gigabytes for scenery that streams in looking the same.
- Paying for Gen 5 instead of space. For a flight sim, a 2TB Gen 4 drive is a better buy than a 1TB Gen 5 drive.
The bottom line
- MSFS 2024 needs 50GB, MSFS 2020 needs 150GB. Your add-ons decide the rest, so plan for the collection you'll have in a year.
- Use an SSD. Any NVMe Gen 4 drive is fast enough. Spend on space, not on Gen 5 speed.
- On PC, 2TB is the sweet spot. On Xbox, only an expansion card runs the sim. On PS5, the SSD needs a heatsink.
One pick per platform: the short list
| Part | Our pick | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Windows PC 2TB covers the sim, a growing add-on collection and your other games. | Crucial P310 2TB NVMe SSD Needs a free M.2 slot. No slot? See the SATA and external picks above. | Check price |
| Xbox Series X|S Plugs into the back and runs MSFS like the built-in drive. | Sandisk Optimus GX C50 1TB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Officially licensed. A USB drive can't run MSFS on Xbox. | Check price |
| PlayStation 5 Fits the PS5's spare M.2 slot, heatsink included. | WD_Black SN850P 1TB NVMe SSD for PS5 Officially licensed for PS5. | Check price |
Links go to Amazon, where you'll see today's price. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.
Storage words in plain English
- SSD (solid-state drive): a drive with no moving parts. Much faster than a hard drive.
- HDD (hard disk drive): the older kind, with a spinning disk inside. Cheap and big, but slow.
- NVMe: the fast way modern SSDs talk to your PC. The drive plugs straight into the motherboard.
- M.2: the stick-shaped slot (and drive shape) most NVMe SSDs use. 2280 means 22mm wide and 80mm long.
- SATA: an older connection. SATA SSDs are slower than NVMe but still far faster than a hard drive.
- Gen 4 / Gen 5: the generation of the PCIe connection. Higher means faster, and costs more.
- Rolling cache: the slice of your drive where the sim keeps scenery you've flown through recently.
- Community folder: where most add-ons from outside Microsoft's store are installed.
- World Update: a free regional pack of better airports and landmarks. Installed in MSFS 2020, streamed in MSFS 2024.
Where these numbers come from
We don't run a storage lab. Sim sizes come from the official requirements on Steam and from Microsoft; drive speeds from each maker's spec sheet; add-on sizes from their makers; big-collection totals from players sharing their own installs. We round up, because running out of space halfway through an update is worse than having some to spare.