AXIS Surveillance Card

The AXIS Surveillance Card is a high-endurance microSDXC™ edge storage card purpose-built for video surveillance, available in 128 GB (part number 01491-001), 256 GB (02021-001), 512 GB (02365-001) and 1 TB (02366-001) capacities, each also offered as a 10-pack (01678-001, 02021-021, 02365-021, 02366-021) for multi-camera deployments. Every card ships with a full-size SD card adapter and is backed by the Axis 5-year warranty.

What is edge storage?

Edge storage means recording video directly inside the camera on an SD card instead of — or in addition to — a server, DVR, NVR or the cloud. It enables flexible, de-centralized recording architectures: a small site can run entirely serverless, a bandwidth-limited site can stream low-resolution live video while recording full-resolution evidence locally, and any site gains failover recording that keeps capturing video if the network or recorder goes down. Combined with Axis Zipstream technology, even high-resolution 4K video can be recorded efficiently on the card as primary storage, with long retention times.

Why choose an AXIS Surveillance Card over a consumer SD card?

Not all SD cards are created equal — surveillance writes video continuously, 24/7, which wears out ordinary consumer cards designed for cameras and phones that write occasionally. AXIS Surveillance Cards are engineered for that duty cycle:

• High endurance, made to last: rated from 384 TBW (terabytes written) on the 128 GB card up to 1200 TBW on the 1 TB card — several times the endurance of typical consumer cards.
• Health monitoring ready: in AXIS OS devices the camera reads the card’s actual wear level and can raise an event before the card reaches end of life — so you replace cards on schedule, not after a recording gap.
• Surveillance-grade environmental range: operates from -25 °C to 85 °C, matching the outdoor cameras it lives inside.
• Guaranteed compatibility: tested and supported in all Axis products with an SD card slot — one less variable when you troubleshoot.
• Axis 5-year warranty: the same warranty term as the camera it protects; consumer cards used for surveillance typically void their warranty.

Choose your capacity

As a rule of thumb, higher capacity buys longer retention: a camera averaging 2 Mbit/s with Zipstream writes roughly 20 GB per day, so a 256 GB card holds around two weeks of continuous video, and a 1 TB card well over a month. Actual retention depends on resolution, scene activity, compression and whether you record continuously or on motion.

Common questions

Will this card work in my Axis camera?
Yes — AXIS Surveillance Cards are compatible with all Axis products that have an SD card support, including cameras, intercoms and door stations. Check your camera’s datasheet for the maximum supported capacity.

Can I use edge storage instead of an NVR?
For smaller sites, yes. Cameras record to their own cards and video is retrieved over the network on demand — AXIS Companion and AXIS Camera Station both support this architecture. Larger sites typically use edge storage as redundant/failover recording alongside a recorder or VMS.

What does TBW mean?
Terabytes Written — the total amount of data that can be written to the card over its life. A 1200 TBW rating on the 1 TB card means the full card can be overwritten roughly 1,200 times before wear-out, which is why these cards last years under continuous surveillance workloads where consumer cards fail.

How do I know when the card needs replacing?
AXIS OS reads the card’s wear status and can trigger a notification when remaining endurance runs low — enable the storage health monitoring event in the camera’s settings and replace cards proactively.