What was the storage size of the first USB flash drive?

The subject of who first invented the USB flash drive is contested. Pua Khein-Seng, CEO of Phison Electronics, claims credit for the title and is reportedly recognized locally as the “father of the pendrive.” However, similar claims have emerged from companies in Singapore, China, and elsewhere, reflecting how innovation often arises simultaneously in different parts of the world. Phison is known for designing and manufacturing controllers for NAND flash memory chips.

The first US patent for a USB flash drive was filed in April 1999 by the Israeli firm M-Systems, which was later acquired by SanDisk in 2006. M-Systems partnered with IBM to release the DiskOnKey, which featured 8 megabytes of storage, and began selling it in North America in late 2000.

Today you can purchase USB flash drives with hundreds of gigabytes of storage on the cheap.

That same year, Singaporean company Trek 2000 International introduced its own 8 MB flash drive, branded as the “ThumbDrive,” a term the company would later trademark. Both products signaled the beginning of a new era in portable data storage, offering far more convenience, durability, and capacity than floppy disks or CDs.

While 8 MB may seem minuscule by today’s standards, barely enough to store one high-resolution photo or a few MP3 files, it was a significant leap forward at the time. USB flash drives quickly gained popularity for their portability, ease of use, and rewritability. Over the following decades, advances in flash memory technology drastically increased storage capacity while reducing costs.

Today, USB flash drives are widely available with hundreds of gigabytes or several terabytes of storage, often for a fraction of the cost of their early predecessors. What started as a modest 8 MB tool has become a ubiquitous, indispensable part of everyday digital life.