Retention Storage Cost Calculator

Work out retention storage cost instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Retention Storage Cost Calculator

Retention cost is dominated by the hot searchable tier, which is both uncompressed and priced at object-store rates many times higher than archival storage. Moving older data to a compressed cold tier at roughly eight-to-one compression and a twelfth of the price typically cuts total cost by an order of magnitude while keeping the compliance window intact.

Formula

Tiered retention cost

hot GB = daily x hot days; cold GB = daily x cold days / compression; monthly = hot GB x hot price + cold GB x cold price

Worked example

With the default values below, Retention Storage Cost Calculator returns Monthly retention cost of $1,093.75. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Daily data volumeminimum 0.01 GB: 250 GB
Hot tier retentionminimum 0 days: 14 days
Cold tier retentionminimum 0 days: 350 days
Hot tier price per GB-monthminimum 0: 0.25

Results

Monthly retention cost: $1,093.75
Hot tier volume: 3,500 GB
Cold tier volume after compression: 10,938 GB
Annual cost: $13,125.00

Step by step

1Values used
2Tiered retention cost
3Monthly retention cost= 1,093.75
4Hot tier volume= 3,500 GB
5Cold tier volume after compression= 10,938 GB
6Annual cost= 13,125.00

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 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 long should the hot window be?

Long enough to cover incident investigation, which is usually 7 to 14 days. Older data is queried rarely and can tolerate a restore delay.

Are retrieval costs significant?

For archival classes yes. Restoring a large volume from deep archive can cost more than a month of storage, so model retrieval frequency before choosing the cheapest tier.