Cloud Storage Cost Calculator
Cost a Cloud Storage bucket across Standard, Nearline, Coldline and Archive with retrieval, operations and early-delete fees.
About Cloud Storage Cost Calculator
The colder classes trade capacity price against access price: Archive is roughly 17× cheaper per GB than Standard but charges the most per GB retrieved and per operation. Each cold class also carries a minimum storage duration, and deleting an object early bills the remaining days as if it had stayed, which is why the early-deletion line exists. Lifecycle rules that sweep data into Archive look like a saving until an audit or a re-processing job reads it all back, and short-lived objects in a cold class can cost more than leaving them in Standard. Confirm the per-GB, retrieval and operation prices for your location type in the Google Cloud pricing calculator.
Formula
Cloud Storage Cost
monthly = GB × class price + retrieved GB × retrieval price + (ops ÷ 10,000 × op price) + early-deleted GB × class price × remaining minimum days ÷ 30.
- class price
- Per-GB monthly capacity rate for Standard, Nearline, Coldline or Archive
- retrieval price
- Per-GB charge to read data out of a colder class
- remaining minimum days
- Days left of the 30, 90 or 365-day minimum when an object is deleted
Worked example
With the default values below, Cloud Storage Cost Calculator returns Monthly Cost of $239.67. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Data storedaccepts 0–100,000 TB
- 20 TB
- Storage classone of Standard (no minimum duration), Nearline (30-day minimum), Coldline (90-day minimum), Archive (365-day minimum)
- Nearline (30-day minimum)
- Standard price per GBaccepts 0–5 USD/GB-month
- 0.02 USD/GB-month
- Nearline price per GBaccepts 0–5 USD/GB-month
- 0.01 USD/GB-month
- Coldline price per GBaccepts 0–5 USD/GB-month
- 0.004 USD/GB-month
- Archive price per GBaccepts 0–5 USD/GB-month
- 0.0012 USD/GB-month
- Data read back each monthaccepts 0–100,000 TB
- 2 TB
- Retrieval price per GBaccepts 0–5 USD/GB
- 0.01 USD/GB
- Class A operations (writes, lists)accepts 0–10,000,000 thousands/month
- 500 thousands/month
- Class A price per 10,000 operationsaccepts 0–5 USD
- 0.1 USD
- Class B operations (reads)accepts 0–10,000,000 thousands/month
- 8,000 thousands/month
- Class B price per 10,000 operationsaccepts 0–5 USD
- 0.01 USD
- Data deleted before the minimum durationaccepts 0–100,000 TB
- 1 TB
- Age of that data when deletedaccepts 0–400 days
- 10 days
Results
- Monthly Cost
- $239.67
- Capacity Charge
- $200.00
- Retrieval Charge
- $20.00
- Operation Charge
- $13.00
- Early Deletion Charge
- $6.67
- Minimum Storage Duration
- 30 days
- Total Capacity
- 18 TiB
- Blended Cost per TB
- $11.98
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Cloud Storage Cost
- 3Monthly Cost= 239.67
- 4Capacity Charge= 200.00
- 5Retrieval Charge= 20.00
- 6Operation Charge= 13.00
- 7Early Deletion Charge= 6.67
- 8Minimum Storage Duration= 30 days
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 14 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Cloud Storage Cost calculated?
monthly = GB × class price + retrieved GB × retrieval price + (ops ÷ 10,000 × op price) + early-deleted GB × class price × remaining minimum days ÷ 30. The colder classes trade capacity price against access price: Archive is roughly 17× cheaper per GB than Standard but charges the most per GB retrieved and per operation. Each cold class also carries a minimum storage duration, and deleting an object early bills the remaining days as if it had stayed, which is why the early-deletion line exists.
Why does Cloud Storage Cost matter?
Lifecycle rules that sweep data into Archive look like a saving until an audit or a re-processing job reads it all back, and short-lived objects in a cold class can cost more than leaving them in Standard. Confirm the per-GB, retrieval and operation prices for your location type in the Google Cloud pricing calculator.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 14 inputs: Data stored, Storage class, Standard price per GB, Nearline price per GB, Coldline price per GB, Archive price per GB, Data read back each month, Retrieval price per GB, Class A operations (writes, lists), Class A price per 10,000 operations, Class B operations (reads), Class B price per 10,000 operations, Data deleted before the minimum duration, Age of that data when deleted. 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 moving an object between classes reset the minimum duration?
Yes. A lifecycle transition into Nearline, Coldline or Archive starts that class's minimum storage duration from the transition date, so objects rewritten frequently can incur an early-deletion charge every cycle.