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TechExternal SSDs: brands AI assistants recommend
Portable solid-state drives for backups, video editing and travel. Below: which brands AI assistants name when US shoppers ask about external ssds.
This market is updated monthly, on the first Monday of each month. The results below are from the latest published update, so between updates you see the previous one.
Ranking, Week of Oct 19, 2026
Share is the percentage of sampled answers in which the brand was recommended. Showing the top 8. Change appears once a second update exists.
| # | Brand | Share of answers | Avg. position | OpenAI | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crucial | 1.4 | 80% | 80% | |
| 2 | Samsung | 1.8 | 80% | 40% | |
| 3 | SanDisk | 3.3 | 40% | 20% | |
| 4 | OWC | 1.5 | 20% | 20% | |
| 5 | Kingston | 2.5 | 20% | 20% | |
| 6 | LaCie | 1.0 | 0% | 20% | |
| 7 | Corsair | 2.0 | 0% | 20% | |
| 8 | SanDisk Professional | 2.0 | 20% | 0% |
With 10 answers, one answer moves a brand by about 10 points, so treat gaps of a few points as ties. Position is the order of first mention in an answer (1 is first). Read the methodology.
Sources the assistants cited
Domains cited most often across the answers for this category, by number of citations.
- crucial.com5
- samsung.com4
- storagereview.com4
- pcmag.com3
- adorama.com2
- amazon.com2
- bechtle.com2
- bestbuy.com2
- expertreviews.co.uk2
- frontdeskreview.com2
The questions we asked
Every month we ask AI assistants these 5 questions, written the way shoppers type them.
- What is the best external SSD? Best overall
- best portable SSD under $100 Budget
- best Thunderbolt SSD for video editing, $300 or more Premium
- best external SSD for backing up a laptop Specific need
- alternatives to the Samsung T7 SSD Alternative
Cite this
You may quote these figures with a link back to this page. Suggested citation:
Dopbot Index, External SSDs, Week of Oct 19, 2026, dopbot.com/index/external-ssds
See where your brand stands in external ssds
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For brands in this category
Brands that are recommended in the latest update can show a badge on their own site.