This minuscule device can be hooked onto a keychain, to allow data to be transferred easily from one device to another. It works very simply and very fast. Because it is a new gadget manufacturers are introducing added capabilities and higher storage power. Some of the common uses of pen drives are as follows:

To transport personal data - The commonest use of USB pen drive is to transport or store personal files such as documents, pictures and video. One can also store medical alert information for emergency use.

Repairing computer- Successful usage of USB pen drive has been noticed in the PC repair field as a means to transfer recovery and antivirus software to infected PCs.

System administrators' helper-System and network administrators find USB pen drive highly handy to load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery.

As an application carrier- USB pen drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without the necessity of installation. U3, backed by pen drive vendors, offers an API to pen drive-specific functions. Portable apps, a free and open-source software, has also been developed to allow U3-like functionality on non-U3 drives

As audio players-A number of companies make solid state digital audio players in a small form factor, essentially producing pen drives with sound output and a simple user interface. The MP3 playback function is the most popular addition to USB pen drive.