EFS Storage Calculator
Cost an EFS file system across Standard, Infrequent Access and Archive tiers including the per-GB read charge.
About EFS Storage Calculator
EFS Standard is an order of magnitude dearer per GB than Infrequent Access, but the cold tiers add a per-GB charge every time data is read back, so the saving only holds for files that are genuinely idle. Lifecycle management moves files after a configurable idle period, and a policy that is too aggressive turns a storage saving into a larger access bill. All rates here are user-supplied list prices to verify on the AWS EFS pricing page for your region. EFS is often the most expensive GB in an account, so knowing the cold-tier break-even in reads per month is what makes a lifecycle policy safe to enable on a shared home directory.
Formula
EFS Storage
cost = Σ(tier share x GB x tier rate) + cold GB read x access charge, with the shares normalised to 100%.
- tier share
- Portion of the file system resident in each tier
- access charge
- Per-GB fee for reading data out of IA or Archive
Worked example
With the default values below, EFS Storage Calculator returns Monthly File System Cost of $685.20. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Data in the file systemminimum 0 GB
- 8,000 GB
- Share in Standardaccepts 0–100 %
- 25 %
- Share in Infrequent Accessaccepts 0–100 %
- 55 %
- Share in Archiveaccepts 0–100 %
- 20 %
- Standard priceminimum 0 USD per GB-month
- 0.3 USD per GB-month
- Infrequent Access priceminimum 0 USD per GB-month
- 0.016 USD per GB-month
- Archive priceminimum 0 USD per GB-month
- 0.008 USD per GB-month
- Data read from the cold tiers each monthminimum 0 GB
- 200 GB
- Cold-tier access chargeminimum 0 USD per GB
- 0.01 USD per GB
Results
- Monthly File System Cost
- $685.20
- Standard Tier Cost
- $600.00
- Cold Tier Storage Cost
- $83.20
- Cold-tier Access Cost
- $2.00
- Cost With No Lifecycle Policy
- $2,400.00
- Saving From Lifecycle Management
- 71.5%
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2EFS Storage
- 3Monthly File System Cost= 685.20
- 4Standard Tier Cost= 600.00
- 5Cold Tier Storage Cost= 83.20
- 6Cold-tier Access Cost= 2.00
- 7Cost With No Lifecycle Policy= 2,400.00
- 8Saving From Lifecycle Management= 71.5
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 9 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax 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 EFS Storage calculated?
cost = Σ(tier share x GB x tier rate) + cold GB read x access charge, with the shares normalised to 100%. EFS Standard is an order of magnitude dearer per GB than Infrequent Access, but the cold tiers add a per-GB charge every time data is read back, so the saving only holds for files that are genuinely idle. Lifecycle management moves files after a configurable idle period, and a policy that is too aggressive turns a storage saving into a larger access bill. All rates here are user-supplied list prices to verify on the AWS EFS pricing page for your region.
Why does EFS Storage matter?
EFS is often the most expensive GB in an account, so knowing the cold-tier break-even in reads per month is what makes a lifecycle policy safe to enable on a shared home directory.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 9 inputs: Data in the file system, Share in Standard, Share in Infrequent Access, Share in Archive, Standard price, Infrequent Access price, Archive price, Data read from the cold tiers each month, Cold-tier access charge. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
How many reads make Infrequent Access more expensive?
Divide the monthly per-GB saving by the per-GB access charge. With a 0.284 USD saving and a 0.01 USD access fee, a GB can be read about 28 times a month before IA costs more than Standard.