News roundup
LTO tape storage news for October 2026: 40 TB LTO-10 cartridges sold for about $494, well below their list price, Spectra Logic added an Italian distributor, cheap used LTO-5 drives drew homelab interest, TapeArk began moving old tape archives into cloud virtual tape libraries, and still no half-height LTO-10 drive is on sale.
Prices
LTO-9 cartridges cost $92.45 to $129.00 ($5.14 to $7.17 per TB) and 30 TB LTO-10 cartridges $259.00 to $299.99, checked on 23 October 2026. Media prices have been broadly flat through 2026, while hard drive prices rose sharply. Every listing is in the LTO price tracker, and earlier months in the price history.
News
Chinese tech site IT Home reported Fujifilm's 40 TB native LTO-10 cartridge selling for about $494, far below the $888.89 suggested retail price. Our September price check found 40 TB cartridges at $491 to $555 at US sellers.
IT Home (via ifeng Tech), 27 September 2026. Source
Tape library maker Spectra Logic signed a distribution agreement with ICOS S.p.A., giving ICOS's Italian channel partners access to Spectra's storage products.
Spectra Logic, 6 October 2026. Source
Hackaday covered a homelab builder backing up to a second-hand LTO-5 drive, noting that used tapes cost far less per terabyte than the cheapest new hard drives. Used drives need care: see our buying advice for used drives.
Hackaday, 12 October 2026. Source
TapeArk reads customers' legacy tapes at its own ingest centres and loads the data into virtual tape libraries in public cloud, accessed through its Nexus platform.
Blocks & Files, 13 October 2026. Source
As of mid-October 2026, IBM and Quantum sell LTO-10 drives only as full-height units inside their libraries, and HPE's current drive specifications list LTO-8 and LTO-9 only. Stand-alone buyers are still choosing LTO-9 drives.
IBM, Quantum and HPE product pages, October 2026. Source
The LTO Program reported 160.3 EB shipped in 2025, down from the 176.5 EB record in 2024, and a 57% year-on-year rise in the first quarter of 2026. The LTO Program re-posted the coverage on 10 October.
The Register, 2 September 2026. Source
More guides
Pricebook
Request current LTO media and drive pricing before you budget a migration or a refresh.
Yes again in 2026. The LTO Program reported 160.3 EB shipped in 2025, down 9% from the 2024 record, and a 57% rise in the first quarter of 2026.
Yes. 40 TB LTO-10 cartridges from Fujifilm and IBM began shipping in 2026 and work in existing LTO-10 drives.
Not as of October 2026. IBM and Quantum sell LTO-10 drives as full-height units inside their libraries, and HPE's current drive line covers LTO-8 and LTO-9.