S3 Glacier Cost Calculator
Cost a Glacier archive with per-object metadata overhead, retrieval fees and the early-deletion minimum duration.
Inputs
Glacier Flexible Retrieval list price; Deep Archive is roughly a quarter of it.
90 days for Glacier Instant and Flexible, 180 for Deep Archive.
Monthly Archive Cost
$382.29
Billable Capacity
100,076.29GB
Per-object Metadata Overhead
76.29GB
Retrieval Cost
$22.02
Early-deletion Exposure
$0.00
Effective Rate on Real Data
0.0038USD per GB-month
Step by step
Values used
Data archived = 100,000 GB; Objects archived = 2,000,000 objects; Archive storage price = 0.0036 USD per GB-month; Share of the archive retrieved each month = 2 %; Retrieval price = 0.0100 USD per GB; Retrieval request price = 0.0500 USD per 1,000 requests; Minimum billable storage duration = 90 days; How long objects actually stay = 24 months
S3 Glacier Cost
billable GB = data + objects x 40 KB; cost = billable GB x rate + retrieved GB x retrieval price + retrieval requests ÷ 1000 x request price.
Monthly Archive Cost
= 382.29
Billable Capacity
= 100,076.29 GB
Per-object Metadata Overhead
= 76.29 GB
Retrieval Cost
= 22.02
Early-deletion Exposure
= 0.00
Effective Rate on Real Data
= 0.0038 USD per GB-month
How it works
Glacier classes add about 40 KB of index and metadata per object, so ten million small files carry roughly 380 GB of overhead you pay for on top of the data itself. Retrieval is billed twice, per GB restored and per restore request, and deleting before the 90-day (Flexible and Instant) or 180-day (Deep Archive) minimum still bills the remaining days. Prices here are user-supplied list prices — confirm them on the AWS S3 pricing page for your region. Archive tiers only pay off for large objects kept for a long time; the overhead and minimum-duration terms are what turn an apparently 10x cheaper tier into a more expensive one for small, short-lived files.
Formula
S3 Glacier Cost
billable GB = data + objects x 40 KB; cost = billable GB x rate + retrieved GB x retrieval price + retrieval requests ÷ 1000 x request price.
- 40 KB
- 32 KB of Glacier index plus 8 KB of S3 name-index metadata per object
- shortfall days
- Minimum duration minus the days actually stored
Frequently Asked Questions
How is S3 Glacier Cost calculated?
billable GB = data + objects x 40 KB; cost = billable GB x rate + retrieved GB x retrieval price + retrieval requests ÷ 1000 x request price. Glacier classes add about 40 KB of index and metadata per object, so ten million small files carry roughly 380 GB of overhead you pay for on top of the data itself. Retrieval is billed twice, per GB restored and per restore request, and deleting before the 90-day (Flexible and Instant) or 180-day (Deep Archive) minimum still bills the remaining days. Prices here are user-supplied list prices — confirm them on the AWS S3 pricing page for your region.
Why does S3 Glacier Cost matter?
Archive tiers only pay off for large objects kept for a long time; the overhead and minimum-duration terms are what turn an apparently 10x cheaper tier into a more expensive one for small, short-lived files.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 8 inputs: Data archived, Objects archived, Archive storage price, Share of the archive retrieved each month, Retrieval price, Retrieval request price, Minimum billable storage duration, How long objects actually stay. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Should I aggregate small files before archiving?
Almost always. Packing many small files into a single archive object amortises the 40 KB per-object overhead and cuts retrieval request charges, at the cost of having to restore the whole container to read one member.