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What enterprises actually paid for vSAN per terabyte in North America.

vSAN unit economics on subscription contracts vary by more than a factor of three across the same buyer cohort. The Desk's North America renewal book through Q1 2026 produces a defensible band the buyer can carry into the room.

By The Negotiation Desk · VMware · Archetype: The Benchmark

Published 8 Nov 2024 · Updated 10 Dec 2025

The single most useful number in a vSAN renewal conversation is the unit price the seller's other buyers are accepting this quarter. Broadcom does not publish that number. The 2026 quote engine in the field anchors to a stated list and a tier discount, and the buyer reads the result without a reference point to push back against. The Desk's renewal book through the first four months of 2026 gives us 31 closed or near-closed vSAN engagements in North America, ranging from 40 terabytes raw to roughly 6.4 petabytes raw. The unit price band is what this article reports. It is the buyer's reference point, not the seller's.

vSAN pricing inside VCF subscription is meter on raw capacity at the cluster level, expressed as terabytes per year and bundled into the core unit price of the VCF subscription where the vSAN entitlement is included by default. Where vSAN is bought separately, either as an addition to a VCF subscription or on a standalone basis for an estate that has not yet moved to VCF, the unit becomes the directly visible number on the quote. This article works the standalone and addition pricing because that is the pricing the buyer can negotiate at the unit level. The bundled case is covered in the VCF socket benchmark article.

The 31 North America engagements segment cleanly by buyer scale and by deal posture. Scale is the dominant driver. Posture matters more than most buyers expect. The numbers are below, in three bands, with the median and the spread inside each band.

Mid market: 40 to 500 terabytes raw

The mid market band on the Desk's book is 11 engagements in 2026, all under 500 terabytes raw. The list price the quotes anchored to was tight, within a 4 percent spread, but the realised unit price ranged from $312 per terabyte per year at the low end to $578 per terabyte per year at the high end. The median realised price was $447 per terabyte per year. The driver of the spread was not the buyer's scale within the band. It was whether the buyer brought a documented alternative quote or a documented migration option to the conversation. Buyers who walked in without one of those two artifacts cleared the renewal at a median of $521. Buyers who brought one cleared at a median of $389. That is a 25 percent unit price differential on a single procurement choice.

The standard objection at the mid market band is that an alternative quote is expensive to produce. The Desk's view is that the cost of producing the alternative is between $8,000 and $14,000 in advisor time and is recouped within the first year of the renewal on any estate above 120 terabytes raw. Below 120 terabytes, the math is closer and the buyer should test it before committing the advisor spend.

Mid enterprise: 500 to 1500 terabytes raw

The mid enterprise band is 13 engagements in 2026, spanning North America regulated and unregulated buyers. The realised unit price band tightened on the high end and widened on the low end. The range was $208 per terabyte per year to $516 per terabyte per year, with a median of $367. The two outliers on the low end were both buyers who came into the renewal with a signed letter of intent for a competing storage platform at a comparable scope. The seller's response to that posture was a unit price concession that the rest of the band did not see. The two outliers on the high end were buyers with a renewal cycle that had been allowed to drift inside 60 days of the contract anniversary, which removed the buyer's ability to threaten timing.

The mid enterprise band is also where the bundled inclusion question becomes financially material. Where the buyer is at this scale, the question of whether to take vSAN as the storage inside a VCF subscription rather than as a standalone addition becomes a multi million dollar decision. The bundled path is generally cheaper per unit but constrains the future exit. The standalone path is more expensive per unit but preserves the option. The Desk's view is that the bundled path is the right answer for buyers with a five year storage horizon and the standalone path is the right answer for buyers with a three year horizon or a migration scenario in active planning.

"On vSAN, the unit price is not a market price. It is a negotiated price. The variance inside the same buyer cohort, on the same product, in the same quarter, is wider than the variance between competing storage platforms. The buyer who treats the quote as a market signal pays the seller's premium for the misread."vSAN Engagement Lead, The Desk

Large enterprise: above 1500 terabytes raw

The large enterprise band on the 2026 book is 7 engagements, the smallest of the three bands but the largest by aggregate spend. The realised unit price range was $144 per terabyte per year to $342 per terabyte per year, with a median of $234. The spread inside the band is wider in dollar terms than either of the smaller bands because the scale magnifies the unit differential. A 50 cent per terabyte per year movement on a 4 petabyte estate is $2 million in renewal value. Buyers in this band who walked in with two alternative quotes and a written migration plan cleared the renewal at the low end of the band. Buyers who walked in with the renewal as the only path on the table cleared at the median or above.

The Desk has not yet seen a North America vSAN renewal above 1500 terabytes close at the low end of the band without the buyer producing at least one of those two artifacts. The seller's deal desk is not authorised to clear the low band in the absence of documented buyer optionality. That is the buyer's actionable insight from the entire benchmark exercise. The unit price the buyer pays is a function of the optionality the buyer brings, more than a function of the scale the buyer represents.

North America vSAN renewals reviewed in 202631

Mid market median realised unit price$447 per TB year

Mid enterprise median realised unit price$367 per TB year

Large enterprise median realised unit price$234 per TB year

Median unit price delta with documented alternative25 percent off

What we have seen on live deals

A regional healthcare network in the North America mid enterprise band brought a 920 terabyte vSAN renewal to the Desk in February 2026. The opening quote was $498 per terabyte per year against a list anchor in the mid 600s. The buyer had not produced an alternative quote and had no migration option in active planning. The Desk's first move was to commission a six week alternative quote process with two storage platforms at comparable scope. The alternative quotes came back inside the six weeks at unit equivalents in the low 300s. The renewal cleared at $324 per terabyte per year, a 35 percent reduction on the opening quote, on the same scope and same term. The artifact that produced the price was the alternative quote. The actual buying decision was to renew with vSAN. The buyer did not need to move. The buyer needed to be able to.

The takeaway

North America vSAN realised unit prices in 2026 cluster in three bands by scale, with medians of $447, $367, and $234 per terabyte per year. The bands are the buyer's reference. The seller will not provide them.
Inside every band, the dominant driver of where the buyer lands is documented optionality. An alternative quote or a written migration plan moves the realised unit price by a median of 25 percent. The cost of producing the artifact is recouped in year one above 120 terabytes raw.
The bundled inclusion path inside VCF subscription is the right answer at long horizon. The standalone path is the right answer where exit optionality matters more than unit price. The choice is contractual, not technical.