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Does the Google Pixel 9 have an SD card slot?

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A person holding the Google Pixel 9, showing the camera.
Google Pixel 9 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Pixel 9 Pro may be the belle of the ball with more than a few jazzy tricks, but that hasn’t stopped the Google Pixel 9 from winning itself some praise — and for good reasons. The in-hand feel is plain fantastic, the looks are fresh, it performs reliably, and it takes photos that put far more expensive phones to shame.

It’s the Pixel camera, after all. It’s easy to be swayed, especially after seeing the results. But if you’ve been eyeing the Pixel 9 for its photography chops, storage space should be your primary consideration before you pick one, and rightfully so. As a result, you might be wondering if the Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold have SD card slots to expand your available storage. Here’s where you’ll find your answers.

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Does the Pixel 9 have an SD card slot?

The Pixel Weather app on a Pixel 9.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Unfortunately, there’s some predictable bad news. The Pixel 9’s storage situation is non-expandable, which means there’s no slot for popping in a microSD card. Not that Apple, Samsung, or OnePlus do things any differently, but the bad trend of non-expandable storage continues for yet another generation on the Pixel 9.

So, what next if you’re worried about storage space? Well, for starters, plonk extra cash on the phone’s 256GB storage version. Unfortunately, that’s as far as you can go with the non-Pro device, but the Pixel 9 Pro, or Pro XL, can expand further to 512GB or 1TB of storage. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s storage situation is different again, with 256GB and 512GB variants on offer.

But physical internal storage isn’t the only option.

But wait, there’s still a way

The back of the Google Pixel 9.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

If internal storage is starting to fill up, you can pick a cloud storage service of your choice, such as Microsoft OneDrive or Mega.

However, we would strongly suggest that you pick Google’s own, which is deeply integrated within its Photos and Drive ecosystem. The free tier is limited to 15GB of storage, but you should check out the paid Google One plans for a bunch of extra goodies, as well.

The starter plan costs $1.99 per month and raises the bar to 100GB, complete with the option of sharing it with five other people. Next, you have the $9.99 monthly plan, which raises the cloud storage space to 2TB, and also sprinkles facilities, offers unlimited photo saving with Magic Editor, and access to workspace premium features.

Finally, there’s the Google One AI Premium bundle. The storage capacity is once again 2TB, but you get access to Gemini Advanced and integration within core apps like Gmail and Docs, among a bunch of other benefits.

Nadeem Sarwar
Nadeem is the Managing Editor at Digital Trends.
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