I often see people complaining about how Kindles have less onboard storage space than what Amazon advertises, so I thought I’d put together a post with the real storage space numbers for each Kindle model.
Apparently some people still don’t know that the advertised storage space of Kindles isn’t accurate. It’s like that across all manner of electronics; it’s not just an Amazon thing. Phones, tablets, ereaders—they all have less usable storage space than advertised.
They advertise the full amount of storage space on a device, but what most companies fail to mention is the fact that the operating system takes up some of the advertised space, and some space might be reserved for software updates and such.
You have to look for “usable” or “user” storage space to get the real number for available storage. Some companies advertise this openly, but most don’t. Personally, I think they should be required to advertise the real numbers, but you can usually find the real numbers with a little research.
Amazon doesn’t show the actual user available storage space on the product pages for most Kindles (they did start doing this for the new Kindle Scribes), but they do show the real numbers for all Kindles on this how to identify your Kindle page.
Here are the real storage space numbers in parentheses for each current Kindle model that Amazon sells. Keep in mind the numbers might change slightly in the future with software updates.
Kindles Usable Storage Space
Kindle Scribe Colorsoft 32GB – (21.18 GB)
Kindle Scribe Colorsoft 64GB – (49.94 GB)
Kindle Scribe 3 32GB – (23.43 GB)
Kindle Scribe 3 64GB – (52.19 GB)
Kindle Scribe without frontlight 16GB – (10 GB)
Kindle Colorsoft 16GB – (11.5 GB)
Kindle Colorsoft 32GB – (25 GB)
Kindle Scribe 2 16GB – (11.2 GB)
Kindle Scribe 2 32GB – (25.1 GB)
Kindle Scribe 2 64GB – (54 GB)
Kindle Paperwhite 16GB – (11.5 GB)
Kindle Paperwhite 32GB – (25 GB)
Kindle 16GB (2022/2024) – (11.5 GB)
Check the how to identify your Kindle page on Amazon for usable storage space numbers for previous gen models.
Nothing new here because that true for all devices. The advertised value is before the operating system is installed and any other optional part of the system.
It’s not the OS, it’s the conversion from decimal bytes to binary (1024) bytes. Divide the capacity by 1024, instead of 1000, gives you the capacity in binary bytes which is being reported by Kindle & Windows.
Linux & its derivatives — including MACOS — report digital bytes.
The REST of the story, though, is that while the OS takes a fairly small additional chunk, Kindle’s incessant text indexing takes a really BIG additional amount in comparison. Depending upon the number of books on the device, this can run up to a gigabyte of additional space. AND Amazon has now blocked methods of disabling it.
Kindle’s annoying indexing — which is not only piggish but is responsible for books not showing up for hours/days if you sideload a lot .. it can take forever to do that — is unique to them.
AND indexing is a complete waste: When was the last time you searched a book for a specific word? Yet another reason to NEVER buy a Kindle.
I constantly use the search feature, both for the book I am reading and for all books on my Kindle.
I often use the search feature.
Indexed search is one of the Best features that Kindle has if you read a large amount of non fiction. It can also find a couple words. The main feature I wish Kobo would implement. Literally can find needles in haystacks.
„ When was the last time you searched a book for a specific word?“
Today. I do that all the time. The idea that someone would not want that feature never even came to my mind.
Does the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft 64GB have an different OS (and/or different functions and apps) than the 32 GB version? The 64 GB version needs 3.24 GB more for whatever. Strange.
Same on the Scribe 3 with also 3.24 GB difference.
The devices with more storage always need more for OS and whatever crap Amazon installed. What’s so different between the same kindles that the one with more storage has a more bloated OS?
This is probably why my wife has such a hard time getting her 30 thousand books to fit on her Kindle.
I don’t keep any more books downloaded than I am reading at anyone time. I seldom have more than 15 books downloaded. I seldom do searches. So my Kindle SE always has most of the storage remaining.
This is the way to live. I have no idea how people manage to navigate large libraries with thousands of books on Kindles when you can only view 5 or 6 titles at a time in the library. The indexed search feature is a must for large libraries.
I admittedly only read fiction, no comics, barely and pdfs, (and don‘t use audible), but everything I’ve ever read in electronic form is always downloaded on my Kindle – and it takes up what, less than 2GB? That‘s for 1,000 books or so.
Everything is organized in collections though.