Compare IOPS and throughput characteristics across Kubernetes StorageClasses.
Kubernetes storage classes map to underlying cloud block storage tiers with very different IOPS ceilings and cost structures: gp3 offers up to 3,000 baseline IOPS at low cost, io2 scales up to 64,000 IOPS for demanding databases at a premium, and standard (magnetic/HDD-backed) tops out around 100 IOPS for cold, infrequently accessed data. This calculator filters out classes that can't meet your required IOPS, then recommends the cheapest one that can.
monthlyCost = volumeSize × costPerGiB
gp3 provides a 3,000 IOPS baseline (extendable up to 16,000 with additional provisioned IOPS on AWS) — workloads sustained above that, like high-throughput OLTP databases, typically need io2 or io2 Block Express.
No — io2's per-GiB cost is meaningfully higher, and most workloads don't need anywhere near 64,000 IOPS. Overprovisioning IOPS you don't use is pure cost waste; size to your actual measured requirement plus headroom.
Cold storage, backups, infrequently-accessed logs, or any workload dominated by sequential throughput rather than random IOPS — its low IOPS ceiling makes it unsuitable for databases or anything with random read/write patterns.