We asked, you told us: Here's how much storage the average AA reader uses

After you finally decide on what model of new phone you plan to buy, the next most important question becomes how much internal storage you want to outfit it with. That’s a choice that can often be very personal. After all, we all use our phones differently and prioritize different things. For some, the photos they snap are the most important thing they have on their device, while others can’t imagine leaving home without their favorite tunes in lossless quality.

At the start of November, we asked you how much storage you use on your phone. Here’s what you told us.

How much storage do you use on your smartphone?

The results

Unsurprisingly, the most popular choice, by a significant margin, was the 64GB to 128GB option. Among the nearly 4,000 people who voted in the poll, approximately 1,650 of you said that’s how much storage you have on your phone. That amounts to 41.7% of the vote skewing in that direction. Most popular devices like the Samsung Galaxy S20 and OnePlus 8T come with 128GB standard, and if they don’t, it’s usually not expensive to add additional storage — either by upgrading to a variant with more space or by buying a microSD card.

Related: Phone storage showdown: Who is price-gouging you the most?

With approximately 1,300 votes, the next most popular choice was the 64GB or less option. Nearly 33% of you said that’s how much storage you use on your phone. Again, the fact the poll played out this way is not surprising. Before 128GB became the standard on most mid- to upper-end phones over the last year or so, 64GB was the base amount of storage on most devices. I would know, I’m still rocking a Pixel 3 with 64GB of storage. What’s more, if you’re disciplined about not installing too many apps and make good use of apps like Google Photos and Spotify, you can make 64GB work easily.

Rounding out the poll, with almost exactly 1,000 votes between the two, were the 128GB to 256GB and over 256GB options. Nearly 20% of you voted for the former, while 5.5% of you voted for the latter. It can get quite expensive to buy a phone with more than 256GB of storage. Moreover, some companies, such as Google, don’t even offer a 256GB option with their phones. Unless you have an expansive music and movie library, it also must be said most people don’t need 256GB or more storage on their phone.

Here’s what you had to say

• Makapav: I don’t delete my WhatsApp messages and backup with video – so now you can imagine why that is alone at 40GB :-D
• Joe Black: I usually have phones with 128GB, but when I have a phone with a SD card I often fill up it’s space with mp3/flac files, so I do not have to rely on wifi to play music everywhere.
• Meh…: I’m hovering around 35 GBs of my Pixel 4’s 64. It really makes me nervous that my phone doesn’t have the space I wish it would, but I manage. I just wish it would have an SD card slot.
• Tristan Lofgren: My phone only has 64GB, and I am constantly reaching the limit. I wish I had more space, if I did obliviously I would use more.
• Chris Laarman: I feel uncomfortable with less than 128 GB on a smartphone, but I keep my data in the cloud. I tend to have many apps installed, as I consider my smartphones small tablet stand-ins.
• Jdrch: My Note9 has 912 GB storage total. It’s probably around 75 to 80% full.

That’s it for this poll. As always, thanks for taking part by voting and commenting. If you have any final thoughts, share them below.