What Is LTO Tape? Linear Tape-Open Explained in Under 2 Minutes

LTO (Linear Tape-Open) is still the cheapest place to keep a petabyte of data. This short explainer covers what LTO tape is, how a drive writes it, how capacity has grown from LTO-5 to LTO-10, the read-back compatibility rule, what it costs in 2026 and why people keep it offline. Prices quoted are September 2026 street prices (LTO-9 18 TB cartridge about $92 to $112, roughly $5 to $6 per TB). Live prices, updated monthly: https://tapebackup.org/lto-tape-price-trend LTO tape guide: https://tapebackup.org/lto-tape Capacity chart LTO-1 to LTO-14: https://tapebackup.org/lto-tape-capacity Backup cost calculator: https://tapebackup.org/backup-calculator Chapters 0:00 What LTO tape is 0:21 How it works 0:31 Capacity by generation 0:45 The compatibility rule 0:57 What it costs in 2026 1:11 Offline, trade-offs and the one rule #LTO #TapeBackup #DataStorage #LTO9 #LTO10 #Backup #Archive ## Tags lto tape, what is lto tape, linear tape open, lto storage, lto-9, lto-10, tape backup, lto tape explained, data archive, air gap backup