The Ultimate Guide to Amazon S3 Pricing 2024

Wondering how Amazon S3 pricing works and how it calculates the storage costs? Interested in managing and reducing your Amazon S3 storage bill?

This guide breaks down Amazon S3 pricing and shows you how to figure out your S3 storage costs. We’ll go through the chargeable aspects and the factors that affect S3 storage pricing.

Breaking Down Amazon S3 Pricing: What You Pay For

Amazon S3 object storage service bills you based on your actual usage, which goes beyond just the data volume stored in your S3 buckets. You are charged for utilizing various components of the Amazon S3 pricing model:

• Storage & Storage Class: The total data (in Gigabytes) stored and the specific storage class it is kept in.
• Requests & Data Retrievals: The number of operations like GET, POST, LIST, COPY, PUT, SELECT, Lifecycle Transition, and Data Retrievals
• Data Transfer: Data Transfer out From Amazon S3 to Internet and to other AWS Regions and S3 Multi-Region Access Points
• Management and Insights: The storage management and analytics tools such as (S3 Inventory, S3 Object Tagging, S3 Batch Operations, S3 Storage Lens and S3 Storage Class Analysis)
• Security access & Control: Encryption & Access Grants
• Replication: Options like Cross-Region Replication (CRR), Same-Region Replication (SRR) and Batch Replication
• Transform and Querying: Tools like S3 Object Lambda, S3 Select & S3 Glacier Select
• Bucket location or data transfer destination: This refers to the AWS Region or Availability Zone you choose to create your bucket in

S3 Storage Classes Explained

Storage costs are a central factor in Amazon S3 pricing. Customers are charged primarily based on the amount of storage space utilized.

The costs for S3 Storage are calculated in gigabytes per month, but the rates are not consistent across all scenarios. Instead, they differ based on factors such as the region, the total volume of data, the duration of storage, and most critically, the storage class.

Amazon categorizes its S3 Storage into eight main classes, each designed for specific needs and priced accordingly. These classes include:

• S3 Standard Storage Class: Ideal for all types of data, particularly those you need to access frequently. This general-purpose storage is versatile and robust.
• S3 Standard – Infrequent Access Storage Class: Best for data that is less frequently accessed but requires rapid retrieval when needed.
• S3 One Zone – Infrequent Access Storage Class: A cost-effective solution for infrequently accessed data that does not require the high availability and durability of S3 Standard or S3 Standard Infrequent Access.
• S3 Express One Zone - High-performance, single-Availability Zone storage class purpose-built to deliver consistent single-digit millisecond data access for your most frequently accessed data and latency-sensitive applications
• S3 Intelligent-Tiering Storage: Automatically shifts data to a more cost-effective storage tier based on access frequency, utilizing S3 Lifecycle policies to move data at intervals of 30, 90, or 365 days.
• S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Storage Class: Designed for long-term data storage, this archive class offers the lowest cost for storing data that is rarely accessed but needs to be available in milliseconds when retrieved.
• S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval Storage Class: This class offers a 10% cost reduction for archival data accessed only once or twice a year, with asynchronous retrieval options.
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive Storage Class: The most economical option for long-term data storage, perfect for data stored for up to 10 years and accessed infrequently, such as once or twice per year.

We will explore the use cases and pricing details for each storage class.

Please note that the prices mentioned throughout this blog are for the most popular region, us-east-1 (N. Virginia). You can view prices for your preferred region by using the AWS Pricing Calculator or consulting the official Amazon S3 pricing documentation page

S3 Standard Pricing:

S3 Standard Storage serves as the primary storage class for S3 users. It offers high throughput and low latency, ideal for numerous applications that need regular data access.

For example, you can use S3 Standard Storage for applications that manage large volumes of user-generated content, like videos and photos.

The pricing structure for Amazon S3 Standard Storage is tiered. For the first 50 TB per month, the cost is $0.023 per GB. For the next 450 TB, the price drops to $0.022 per GB, and for usage exceeding 500 TB per month, the rate is $0.021 per GB. (The pricing mentioned applies to the us-east-1 (N. Virginia) region.

S3 Standard – Infrequent Access Pricing

Also known as S3 Standard-IA, this storage class shares many characteristics with S3 Standard but is designed for less frequent data access. Despite this, it still supports millisecond-level data retrieval when necessary.

Pricing for Amazon S3 Standard-IA begins at $0.0125 per GB per month. Additional charges apply for each data access or retrieval operation.

S3 One Zone – Infrequent Access Pricing

Typically, Amazon distributes data uploaded to AWS S3 across at least three availability zones within your selected region. This ensures enhanced durability, redundancy, and availability for all S3 Standard Storage classes, including those for Infrequent Access.

However, S3 One Zone Storage adopts a different strategy by storing data in a single availability zone. This setup is ideal for data that is rarely accessed but requires quick retrieval, and can afford less availability.

Due to this reduced availability, Amazon offers this storage option at a cost 20% lower than its standard infrequent access storage. Thus, pricing for Amazon S3 One Zone – Infrequent Access begins at $0.01 per GB per month.

S3 Express One Zone Pricing

Introduced at AWS re:Invent 2023 Amazon S3 Express One Zone is a high-performance storage class tailored for immediate access to frequently accessed data and applications sensitive to delays. It provides data access speeds up to 10 times faster and cuts request costs by half compared to S3 Standard. Setting itself apart from other S3 classes, S3 Express One Zone allows users to choose a specific Availability Zone within a region, rather than being limited to regional distribution. This storage class employs Amazon S3 directory buckets capable of handling hundreds of thousands of requests per second, and it integrates smoothly with other AWS services such as Amazon SageMaker, Athena, EMR, and AWS Glue to boost ML and analytics workflows. The auto-scaling feature of S3 Express One Zone aligns with your usage patterns, thereby streamlining the management of applications that require low latency.

The cost for using S3 Express One Zone is $0.16 per GB per month.

S3 Intelligent-Tiering Pricing

S3 Intelligent-Tiering is not a standard Amazon S3 storage class but a cost optimization strategy. It enables you to establish S3 Lifecycle policies that dynamically shift your data between frequent and infrequent access tiers based on usage patterns.

This system uses automation and continuous monitoring to smartly transition less frequently accessed data to the next infrequent access tier at intervals of 30, 90, or 365 days. If the data is accessed again, it moves back to the S3 Standard class, and the cycle of transitioning to lower-cost tiers restarts.

Pricing depends on the storage class where your data resides at the time of billing. For instance, data in the frequently accessed S3 Standard Storage is charged at $0.023 per GB per month, while data in the S3 Glacier Deep Archive Access is billed at $0.00099 per GB per month.

Additionally, there is a monitoring fee of $0.0025 per 1,000 objects each month. Retrieving data is free.

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Pricing

This storage class is designed for archiving data that is accessed infrequently, but requires quick access in milliseconds when needed.

Glacier Instant Retrieval storage offers up to 68% cost savings compared to Standard Infrequent Access, while maintaining the same access speed and throughput as S3 Standard and S3 Standard Infrequent Access.

You have the flexibility to upload objects directly to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage or utilize S3 Lifecycle policies to automatically move data to a more cost-effective S3 storage class as it becomes less frequently accessed (e.g., S3 Intelligent-Tiering).

Pricing for Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Storage begins at $0.004 per GB per month

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval Pricing

This class offers a 10% cost reduction compared to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, making it a more affordable option for archived data that doesn’t need millisecond retrievals. Instead, retrieval times can range from a few minutes to 12 hours.

This S3 Storage class is commonly utilized for long-term archiving and large-scale data retrievals. It's particularly suited for archiving non-essential compliance data, as well as for data backups and disaster recovery plans that require accessing large datasets where immediate access is not critical.

Pricing for Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval storage stands at $0.0036 per GB per month.

S3 Glacier Deep Archive Pricing

S3 Glacier Deep Archive, the most affordable storage option among all classes, allows you to store data for long periods at the lowest costs within the S3 Glacier range. Be aware, though, that data retrieval might take up to 12 hours.

The pricing for Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive begins at $0.00099 per GB per month.

Amazon S3 Storage Class Pricing: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Unpacking the Additional Costs for S3 Storage

Storage is just one factor impacting your S3 expenses. Additional fees are also tied to the following components:

• Requests and Data Retrievals
• Data Transfer
• Management and Insights
• Security access & Control:
• Replication
• Transform and Querying

Costs Associated with Amazon S3 Requests and Data Retrieval

Amazon S3 groups requests and data retrieval costs together because data retrieval is a type of S3 request.

Common S3 requests include Lifecycle Transitions, SELECT, GET, LIST, POST, COPY, and PUT, each incurring specific charges. These costs are added to your overall S3 storage expenses and vary by tier class, request type, and volume of requests.

S3 Standard Storage in the US adds a charge of $0.005 per 1,000 LIST, POST, COPY, or PUT instances. S3 Standard Infrequent Access charges $0.01 for the same amount of S3 Requests, while S3 Glacier Deep Archive costs $0.05 per 1,000 requests.

DELETE and CANCEL requests remain free for all users. However, Data Retrievals incur charges only on the Infrequent Access tiers of S3 Storage. In the US, every 1,000 bulk data retrievals from S3 Glacier Deep Archives will cost an additional $0.025. Conversely, expediting the same volume of retrievals on the S3 Glacier tier incurs a $10 fee.

AWS S3 Data Transfer & Amazon S3 Multi-Region Access Costs

Data Transfer Pricing

Amazon charges for outbound data transfers while allowing free inbound transfers to S3 Storage buckets. For outbound data, fees are based on the data volume, source and destination locations, and transfer speeds. Small-scale users who send up to 1 GB per month incur no data transfer charges.

For larger transfers, the pricing structure is as follows:

• Up to 9.999 TB per month: $0.09 per GB
• The next 40 TB: $0.085 per GB
• The next 100 TB: $0.07 per GB
• Beyond 150 TB: $0.05 per GB

Amazon also offers an accelerated data transfer option for an additional $0.04 per GB, catering to those requiring faster transfer rates.

Multi-Region Access Points Pricing

Amazon S3 Multi-Region Access Points allow applications to use a global endpoint to access S3 buckets across multiple AWS Regions. Utilizing these access points incurs a data routing fee of $0.0033 per GB, in addition to standard S3 charges for requests, storage, data transfer, and replication.

AWS S3 Management and Insights Pricing

Several functionalities contribute to increased S3 Storage costs, including S3 Object Tagging, S3 Storage Lens, S3 Storage Class Analytics, and Amazon S3 Inventory. Each feature incurs a specific charge per million items.

For instance, opting for S3 Storage Lens with advanced metrics results in a monthly fee of $0.20 per million objects. S3 Analytics Storage Class Analysis costs $0.10 per million items monitored each month. Additionally, using S3 Inventory increases your costs by $0.0025 for every million objects listed.

AWS S3 Security Access & Control Pricing

S3 Encryption

• SSE-S3 (Managed Keys): Free encryption for all new objects in S3, no performance impact.
• SSE-C (Customer-Provided Keys): Free, using your own keys without additional S3 charges.
• SSE-KMS (AWS Key Management Service): Encryption is free; charges apply for key management. See AWS KMS pricing for details.
• DSSE-KMS (Dual-Layer Encryption): $0.003 per gigabyte plus standard AWS KMS fees.

S3 Access Grants

Amazon S3 Access Grants facilitate the mapping of identities from directories like Active Directory or AWS IAM Principals to datasets in S3, streamlining data permission management at scale. This feature automatically assigns S3 access based on corporate identities and is charged per 1,000 requests at a rate of $0.03.

AWS S3 Replication Costs

CRR & SRR

AWS S3 Replication involves duplicating your S3 storage data, where data is mirrored from the source in AWS S3 to another S3 destination. This replication process utilizes additional resources, thereby increasing cloud usage costs.

It’s important to note that replication costs are generally billed as standard S3 usage. The pricing mainly varies depending on the data transfer methods employed.

Same Region Replication (SRR) is typically the most cost-effective option. Charges for SRR are based on regular S3 storage rates, plus any data transfer fees associated with PUT requests during replication. For those using Infrequent Access tiers, additional charges for data retrieval are also applied.

These costs are aggregated with the primary copy’s S3 storage expenses to calculate the total cloud usage bill.

However, costs can escalate with Cross Region Replication (CRR). In contrast to SRR, CRR incurs additional charges for inter-region data transfers from S3 to each target region.

S3 Batch Replication

S3 Batch Replication, unlike live replication methods such as CRR (Cross-Region Replication) and SRR (Same-Region Replication), is designed to replicate existing objects in your bucket. This is achieved through S3 Batch Operations, which manage the replication as fully automated Batch Operations jobs.

Costs for S3 Batch Replication include:

• Storage Charges: For the primary copy and the selected destination S3 storage classes.
• Replication PUT Requests: Charges apply for each PUT request made during replication.
• Infrequent Access Storage Retrieval Charges: If applicable, depending on the data access patterns.
• Inter-Region Data Transfer OUT Fees: When replicating across AWS Regions, additional fees are charged for data transferred out of S3 to each destination region.
• S3 Batch Operations Charges:
  • Jobs: $0.25 per job.
  • Objects: $1.00 per million objects processed.
  • Manifest (optional): $0.015 per million objects in the source bucket.

AWS S3 Transform & Query Costs

S3 Object Lambda

AWS S3 Object Lambda enhances your existing applications by processing S3 data on-the-fly. Utilizing AWS Lambda functions, this service modifies data as it's retrieved from S3, transforming it for use in applications that would otherwise be incompatible.

Simply incorporate your custom code, and Object Lambda will transform the retrieved data before delivering the processed output back to your application.

The cost for this service is $0.005 per GB of data returned, which will be included in your overall Amazon S3 Storage costs. For a detailed breakdown, refer to our guide on AWS Lambda pricing.

S3 Select & S3 Glacier Select

S3 Select and S3 Glacier Select enable efficient data retrieval from S3 objects using SQL expressions. S3 Select works with standard S3 data, while Glacier Select operates on archived Glacier data, both enhancing efficiency by retrieving only needed data.

Pricing for Data Scanned and Data Returned:

• S3 Standard, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Standard - Infrequent Access: $0.002 per GB for both scanning and returning data.
• S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval: Scanned data costs $0.002 per GB; returned data costs $0.03 per GB.
• S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval:
  • Expedited: $0.02 per GB scanned, $0.03 per GB returned.
  • Standard: $0.008 per GB scanned, $0.01 per GB returned.
  • Bulk: $0.001 per GB scanned, $0.0025 per GB returned.
• S3 One Zone - Infrequent Access: $0.002 per GB scanned; $0.01 per GB returned.

Calculate Your Amazon S3 Costs with the AWS Pricing Calculator

You can use AWS Pricing Calculator to accurately estimate your expenses for S3 and other AWS services. This tool provides a user-friendly interface that allows you to input your expected usage details and get a detailed forecast of potential costs.

Try Amazon S3 for Free with the AWS Free Tier

You can try Amazon S3 for free thanks to the AWS Free Tier. Ideal for new customers, this opportunity includes 5GB of storage in the S3 Standard class, plus 20,000 GET Requests, 2,000 PUT, COPY, POST, or LIST Requests, and 100 GB of Data Transfer Out each month. This is your chance to explore how S3 can serve your storage needs without any initial investment.

Keep in mind that free tier usage does not roll over month-to-month, so make sure to use these benefits within each calendar month. The free resources are automatically applied to your bill and are available in all AWS Regions, except for AWS GovCloud.

Conclusion

Navigating Amazon S3 pricing can seem daunting due to the variety of options and detailed cost structures. However, this guide aims to simplify understanding by breaking down the expenses associated with different S3 storage classes and related services. By being informed about how charges are applied—whether for storage type, data retrieval, or advanced features like S3 Object Lambda and Glacier Select—you can make smarter decisions that align with your data usage and budget requirements.

Remember, the AWS Pricing Calculator is an excellent resource for estimating costs tailored to your specific needs, ensuring you only pay for what you use. As you adapt and scale your AWS usage, continue to monitor and adjust your selections to optimize your investment in cloud storage.

For additional insights and updates, always refer to the official Amazon S3 pricing documentation  and use tools like the AWS Pricing Calculator to stay informed and cost-effective. Additionally, you can check out our blog, How to Optimize Amazon S3 Storage Costs, for more on cost optimization

Thank you for diving into this guide, and happy storing with Amazon S3!

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