S3 Intelligent Tiering Calculator
Compare Intelligent-Tiering against all-Standard, including the per-1,000-object monitoring charge and the 128 KB rule.
About S3 Intelligent Tiering Calculator
Intelligent-Tiering charges the tier rate for wherever each object currently sits, plus a monitoring fee that scales with object count rather than bytes. Objects smaller than 128 KB are exempt from monitoring but also never move out of Frequent Access, so a bucket of tiny files pays the Standard rate with no benefit. The rates above are user-supplied list prices to reconcile with the AWS S3 pricing page for your region. The break-even is a ratio of object count to bytes stored: at roughly 0.0025 USD per 1,000 objects a month, monitoring only pays for itself when the average object is large enough to actually be demoted to a cheaper tier.
Formula
S3 Intelligent Tiering
cost = Σ(tier share x GB x tier rate) + monitored objects ÷ 1000 x monitoring charge, where the shares are normalised to 100%.
- tier share
- Portion of bytes resident in each access tier
- monitored objects
- Objects of 128 KB or larger
Worked example
With the default values below, S3 Intelligent Tiering Calculator returns Intelligent-Tiering Monthly Cost of $427.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Data in Intelligent-Tieringminimum 0 GB
- 30,000 GB
- Objects in the bucketminimum 0 objects
- 10,000,000 objects
- Share of objects smaller than 128 KBaccepts 0–100 %
- 15 %
- Share of data in Frequent Accessaccepts 0–100 %
- 30 %
- Share of data in Infrequent Accessaccepts 0–100 %
- 45 %
- Share of data in Archive Instant Accessaccepts 0–100 %
- 25 %
- Frequent Access priceminimum 0 USD per GB-month
- 0.023 USD per GB-month
- Infrequent Access priceminimum 0 USD per GB-month
- 0.0125 USD per GB-month
- Archive Instant Access priceminimum 0 USD per GB-month
- 0.004 USD per GB-month
- Monitoring and automation chargeminimum 0 USD per 1,000 objects
- 0.0025 USD per 1,000 objects
Results
- Intelligent-Tiering Monthly Cost
- $427.00
- Cost If Everything Stayed Standard
- $690.00
- Monthly Saving
- $263.00
- Monitoring and Automation Cost
- $21.25
- Objects Being Monitored
- 8,500,000
- Saving vs All-Standard
- 38.1%
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2S3 Intelligent Tiering
- 3Intelligent-Tiering Monthly Cost= 427.00
- 4Cost If Everything Stayed Standard= 690.00
- 5Monthly Saving= 263.00
- 6Monitoring and Automation Cost= 21.25
- 7Objects Being Monitored= 8,500,000
- 8Saving vs All-Standard= 38.1
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 10 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 S3 Intelligent Tiering calculated?
cost = Σ(tier share x GB x tier rate) + monitored objects ÷ 1000 x monitoring charge, where the shares are normalised to 100%. Intelligent-Tiering charges the tier rate for wherever each object currently sits, plus a monitoring fee that scales with object count rather than bytes. Objects smaller than 128 KB are exempt from monitoring but also never move out of Frequent Access, so a bucket of tiny files pays the Standard rate with no benefit. The rates above are user-supplied list prices to reconcile with the AWS S3 pricing page for your region.
Why does S3 Intelligent Tiering matter?
The break-even is a ratio of object count to bytes stored: at roughly 0.0025 USD per 1,000 objects a month, monitoring only pays for itself when the average object is large enough to actually be demoted to a cheaper tier.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 10 inputs: Data in Intelligent-Tiering, Objects in the bucket, Share of objects smaller than 128 KB, Share of data in Frequent Access, Share of data in Infrequent Access, Share of data in Archive Instant Access, Frequent Access price, Infrequent Access price, Archive Instant Access price, Monitoring and automation 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.
When is Intelligent-Tiering the wrong choice?
When access patterns are already known, or when the bucket holds a huge number of very small objects. A plain lifecycle rule is cheaper for predictable data, and objects under 128 KB never tier down at all.