iPhone 13 storage: which size should you get?

But let us consider each storage option and see if you fit the term "most users" or you're likely to need more than the base storage of 128GB.

Is 128GB enough for iPhone 13?

If you answered yes to both questions, then more than likely – yes, 128GB will be plenty enough storage for your needs. Within 128GB of storage you can fit many hours of video recordings, thousands of songs and photos, and likely all the apps and games you may ever want to download.

Even if you love watching movies, so long as you watch them on streaming services like Netflix and listen to your music on the likes of Spotify, you needn't worry about storage at all, as streaming online doesn't take up any.

But if you record videos excessively, or you want to have a good number of your movies or shows downloaded on your iPhone, or all of your music albums – you may eventually hit that storage limit. If you believe this is you, then it's probably safer to go with the next storage option.

Is 256GB enough for iPhone 13 Pro Max?

If you plan on taking full advantage of the iPhone 13 series' camera capabilities and record lots of 4K videos, you're going to need more than the base storage, as 4K video files can get plenty large, fast.

For $100 extra you can get an iPhone 13 Pro Max with 256GB and will likely never have to worry about filling that up, at least not with casual video recordings, say of family and children, within reasonable length. Of course, not everyone will buy the iPhone 13 just for casual use, in which case…

Get the 512GB iPhone 13 if you're really into video recording

Whether you're an aspiring YouTuber or social media influencer, the iPhone 13 camera will serve you well and can easily be your main camera for semi-professional or even professional use.

With the iPhone 13, as long as it's one of the Pro models and has 256GB of storage or more, you can shoot ProRes 4K videos at 30 frames per second, which will look great on your channel, but you'll really need that 512GB of storage, if not more.

If you can't backup your latest recorded videos in cloud storage like iCloud, or on external flash drives and hard disks, your iPhone 13 has to indeed have at least 512GB, which should be enough to store a good number of vids for a while.

In addition, of course, 512GB can fit countless songs and movies or shows you may want to store directly on your iPhone for offline listening and watching.

Is the 1TB iPhone 13 worth it?

But again, it's very unlikely that the huge price tag this storage option comes with will be worth it for most users. Ultimately, the 128GB or 256GB iPhone 13 variants will be plenty enough for almost everyone.

You won't get the exact iPhone 13 storage that's advertised

This is something worth noting – if, for example, you get the 128GB iPhone 13, you'll actually have around 120GB free out the box, as the iPhone operating system – iOS 15 – takes around 7.3GB, if not more.

In addition, built-in iPhone apps, some of which you can delete (e.g. Garage Band), will take some of your storage out the box.

This is normal and applies to all smartphones, but it's worth keeping in mind nonetheless.

How to check your iPhone 13 storage

This method applies to any modern iPhone – simply open the Settings app, then tap General, then iPhone Storage.

You'll notice that in the iPhone storage graph there's a System section. That's the storage taken up by the iOS 15 operating system, as mentioned earlier, which you cannot free up, as your phone needs it to function.