Which S3 storage class is cheapest?

It depends on how often you access your data. Glacier Deep Archive has the lowest storage rate ($0.00099/GB/mo) but charges for retrieval, so it only wins for data accessed once a year or less. Standard-IA beats Standard for data accessed less than once a month. Intelligent-Tiering is a good default when access is unpredictable.

What is the minimum storage duration for Standard-IA and Glacier?

Standard-IA and Glacier Instant Retrieval have a 30-day minimum storage duration. Glacier Deep Archive has a 180-day minimum. If you delete objects before the minimum, AWS still charges for the full duration.

Does Intelligent-Tiering add overhead costs?

Yes — AWS charges a per-object monitoring fee of $0.0025 per 1,000 objects per month for objects over 128 KB. For small objects or large numbers of tiny files, this overhead can exceed the savings from automatic tiering.

Are egress costs included?

No. Data transfer out (egress) applies equally across storage classes (first 100 GB/month free, then $0.09/GB to internet). This tool focuses on storage, request, and retrieval costs where the tiers differ.

Are these prices accurate for all regions?

Prices shown are for us-east-1 (N. Virginia). Other regions cost 5–15% more. Check the AWS S3 pricing page for your specific region before making budget decisions.

S3 Storage Class Cost Estimator

Name: S3 Storage Class Cost Estimator
Availability: InStock
Author: Nham Vu

Compare AWS S3 monthly costs across Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, Glacier Instant Retrieval, and Glacier Deep Archive for your data volume and access pattern.

Workload Parameters

Storage size

Total data stored in this bucket

Monthly GET requests

GetObject, HeadObject requests per month

Monthly PUT / COPY / LIST requests

Write and list operations per month

Monthly data retrieved (GB)

Applies to IA and Glacier retrieval fees

Number of objects

Used to compute Intelligent-Tiering monitoring fee

Enter your workload parameters and click Calculate

Prices based on us-east-1 published rates. Egress, data transfer, and lifecycle transition fees not included. Minimum storage durations apply: Standard-IA & Glacier Instant = 30 days; Deep Archive = 180 days.

Summary

Compare AWS S3 monthly costs across Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, Glacier Instant Retrieval, and Glacier Deep Archive for your data volume and access pattern.

How it works

Enter your total storage size in GB or TB.
Set your estimated monthly GET and PUT/COPY/LIST request counts.
Choose how often data is retrieved (rarely, monthly, weekly, daily).
The calculator applies each tier's per-GB storage rate, per-request fee, and retrieval charge.
Results show a monthly cost for each S3 class and highlight the cheapest option.
Hover over any tier to see its storage, request, and retrieval line items.

Use cases

Decide whether to move infrequently accessed backups from Standard to Standard-IA.
Estimate savings from archiving old logs to Glacier Deep Archive vs keeping them in Standard.
Evaluate Intelligent-Tiering overhead against actual access savings for a mixed-access dataset.
Budget the right S3 tier for a new data lake or media archive.
Validate that a proposed lifecycle policy actually reduces costs before implementing it.
Compare retrieval costs for Glacier Instant vs Standard-IA for a disaster-recovery bucket.
Model the break-even point between Standard and Standard-IA as access frequency changes.
Justify storage-class migration to stakeholders with concrete monthly savings figures.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 2026-07-01 · Reviewed by Nham Vu