Archive Cost Calculator
Compare two archive tiers over a full retention period including per-object overhead and restore charges.
Inputs
Glacier Deep Archive list price.
Glacier Flexible Retrieval list price.
Deeper Tier Total Cost
$46,179.12
Faster Tier Total Cost
$156,679.15
Saving From the Deeper Tier
$110,500.03
Deeper Tier Restore Charges
$3,585.34
Per-object Overhead Billed
190.7GB
Deeper Tier Cost per TB per Year
13.19USD per TB-year
Step by step
Values used
Data to archive = 500 TB; Objects to archive = 5,000,000 objects; Retention period = 7 years; Deeper tier storage price = 0.0010 USD per GB-month; Faster tier storage price = 0.0036 USD per GB-month; Share of the archive restored each year = 5 %; Deeper tier retrieval price = 0.0200 USD per GB; Faster tier retrieval price = 0.0100 USD per GB
Archive Cost
tier total = (data GB + objects x 40 KB) x rate x months held + restored GB x retrieval rate, with restored GB = billable GB x restore share x years.
Deeper Tier Total Cost
= 46,179.12
Faster Tier Total Cost
= 156,679.15
Saving From the Deeper Tier
= 110,500.03
Deeper Tier Restore Charges
= 3,585.34
Per-object Overhead Billed
= 190.7 GB
Deeper Tier Cost per TB per Year
= 13.19 USD per TB-year
How it works
Over a multi-year retention period the storage rate is multiplied by 84 or more months, so a 3.6x difference in per-GB rate becomes the dominant term and the deeper tier almost always wins on paper. What claws the gap back is restore behaviour: the deeper tier charges more per GB retrieved and takes hours rather than minutes, so a compliance archive that is read often is not the same decision as one that is never read. Both rate pairs are user-supplied list prices to confirm on the AWS S3 pricing page for your region. Retention periods are usually fixed by policy rather than by engineering, so the only real lever is tier choice, and that choice turns entirely on how often the archive is actually restored.
Formula
Archive Cost
tier total = (data GB + objects x 40 KB) x rate x months held + restored GB x retrieval rate, with restored GB = billable GB x restore share x years.
- 40 KB
- Per-object index and metadata overhead added by Glacier classes
- months held
- Retention years x 12
- restored GB
- Cumulative bytes read back over the whole period
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Archive Cost calculated?
tier total = (data GB + objects x 40 KB) x rate x months held + restored GB x retrieval rate, with restored GB = billable GB x restore share x years. Over a multi-year retention period the storage rate is multiplied by 84 or more months, so a 3.6x difference in per-GB rate becomes the dominant term and the deeper tier almost always wins on paper. What claws the gap back is restore behaviour: the deeper tier charges more per GB retrieved and takes hours rather than minutes, so a compliance archive that is read often is not the same decision as one that is never read. Both rate pairs are user-supplied list prices to confirm on the AWS S3 pricing page for your region.
Why does Archive Cost matter?
Retention periods are usually fixed by policy rather than by engineering, so the only real lever is tier choice, and that choice turns entirely on how often the archive is actually restored.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 8 inputs: Data to archive, Objects to archive, Retention period, Deeper tier storage price, Faster tier storage price, Share of the archive restored each year, Deeper tier retrieval price, Faster tier retrieval price. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Does the retrieval time matter more than the price?
Often yes. Deep Archive standard retrieval takes up to 12 hours and bulk up to 48, so an archive with a recovery time objective measured in minutes cannot use it regardless of how much cheaper the storage is.