Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is the ultimate cloud storage service for users who want to build and deploy workloads seamlessly. It provides users with a fast, highly reliable, and scalable data storage platform that’s essentially inexpensive.

Despite the high reliability and scalability, understanding S3 storage classes cost can be an uphill task. The numerous sub-services and features of the buckets can be highly confusing. Understanding how S3 classes function has always been a problem for many users, and as a result, they end up paying more than they should. 

In this detailed guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about S3 pricing and how to save on cost. 

How Amazon S3 Pricing Works

Amazon S3 pricing is made up of several components beyond just storage. Here’s a breakdown of the key cost drivers to help you understand what you’re paying for:

Amazon S3 Cost Component What It Means
Storage Charged per GB per month. Pricing varies by storage class (e.g., Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Glacier).
Requests Operations like PUT, GET, LIST, DELETE incur request-based charges, depending on request type.
Data Transfer Outbound transfers to the internet or other AWS regions are billed separately. Intra-region transfers are usually free.
Retrieval Fees Applies mainly to archival storage classes like Glacier and Deep Archive, based on access frequency.
Replication & Transfer Acceleration Extra cost for cross-region replication or using Transfer Acceleration to speed up uploads/downloads.
Lifecycle & Analytics Monitoring objects, running analytics, or setting lifecycle policies may incur additional charges.
 

Amazon S3 Storage Classes Costs

Amazon S3 offers multiple storage classes to help balance cost, performance, and access frequency. S3 storage classes pricing depends on how often you access the data, how quickly you need it, and how long you plan to store it.

The AWS S3 storage classes are:

  • S3 Standard
  • S3 Standard – Infrequent Access 
  • S3 One Zone — Infrequent Access
  • AWS S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
  • Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval 
  • S3 Glacier Deep Archive
  • S3 Intelligent Tiering
  • S3 One Zone Infrequent Access Storage (S3 One Zone-IA)

The most suitable storage class depends on your usage. Also, data storage costs differ with the Availability Zone. Here is a detailed breakdown to help you understand S3 costs depending on the storage classes for the US East (Ohio) Zone. 

S3 Standard Storage Class

The AWS S3 Standard is the default tier that you use for frequently accessed data. It offers high performance, availability, and durability for data you often use. It’s essential for workloads such as gaming and mobile applications, big data analytics, dynamic websites, and more.

The cost of data storage in S3 Standard is 0.023/GB for the first 50 TB in a month. The cost of data exceeding 50 TB but less than 500 TB is $0.022/GB. Additional storage costs $0.021/GB.

S3 Standard – Infrequent Access Storage Class

The S3 Standard IA stores data that you don’t need all the time, but that might require rapid access. It is ideal for storing disaster and backup recovery files, and has high throughput performance and low latency, just like the S3 standard.

The S3 Standard-IA does not have tiers, and storage costs $0.0125/GB per month. 

S3 One Zone – Infrequent Access Storage Class

S3 One Zone-IA provides the same retrieval performance and durability as Standard-IA but stores data in a single Availability Zone instead of across multiple zones. This makes it more cost-effective—ideal for non-critical, re-creatable data such as secondary backups or easily regenerated files.

Because it lacks multi-AZ redundancy, it’s best used for data that can tolerate availability risks. Pricing is lower than Standard-IA, around $0.01 per GB per month.

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Storage Class

The Amazon S3 Glacier provides high durability, security, and low-cost data storage. This class stores archived data used infrequently, but that you must archive for regulatory or compliance purposes. It is relatively cheaper, although data retrieval may take more time.

The cost of S3 Glacier storage is 0.004/GB per month. 

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval Storage Class

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is a low-cost archival storage class designed for data that is rarely accessed but must be retained long-term. It offers a balance between cost and retrieval flexibility, with options to retrieve data in minutes or hours depending on the urgency.

This class is ideal for compliance archives, long-term backups, and other data that is infrequently needed but can’t be deleted. It’s significantly cheaper than active storage classes—typically around $0.0036 per GB per month—with separate charges for data retrieval depending on the speed (Expedited, Standard, or Bulk).

While it’s not suited for real-time access, it’s a strong choice when cost is a higher priority than immediate availability.

Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive Storage Class

The S3 Glacier Deep Archive stores archived data that you access rarely. As a result, it is the cheapest S3 data storage class. It costs $0.00099/GB per month, or about $1/TB. The S3 Glacier Deep Archive holds long-term data, especially for users who want to keep data for over ten years for regulatory and compliance purposes.

S3 Intelligent Tiering Storage Class

The S3 Intelligent Tiering provides automatic cost optimization by moving data between frequent- and infrequent-access tiers. This storage class is ideal for data that keeps changing, unknown data, and instances of unpredictable access patterns. If you are working on new applications, analytics, or data lakes, S3 Intelligent Tiering could be the best storage class. 

Data stored in both the infrequent and frequent access tiers is charged the same rate as and S3 Standard Infrequent Access and S3 Standard storage respectively.

Additional Costs Associated With S3 Storage

S3 cloud storage pricing goes beyond just storing data. Depending on how you access, manage, and replicate your data, you may face additional charges. Here’s a closer look at the key cost components to factor into your S3 usage in 2025:

Amazon S3 Requests and Data Retrieval Costs

Every interaction with an S3 object—uploading, downloading, listing, copying, or deleting—incurs a request fee. Costs vary by request type:

  • PUT, COPY, POST, and LIST requests typically cost around $0.005 per 1,000 requests.
  • GET and all other retrievals cost around $0.0004 per 1,000 requests.
    For archive storage classes like Glacier and Deep Archive, retrieval costs depend on the retrieval speed:
  • Expedited retrievals (under 1–5 minutes) cost more than
  • Standard (3–5 hours) or
  • Bulk (up to 12 hours).

These costs are particularly relevant in data lakes, analytics pipelines, or backup environments where request volume can be high.

AWS S3 Data Transfer Costs

While intra-region data transfer (e.g., from S3 to EC2 in the same region) is typically free, outbound transfer costs apply for:

  • Data transferred to the internet: Around $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB/month, with volume discounts after that.
  • Cross-region replication or transfers: Charged per GB based on region pairs.
  • S3 Transfer Acceleration (using CloudFront edge locations): Additional charges, but faster uploads/downloads globally.
    Even small egress volumes can add up—especially in hybrid architectures or multi-account setups with shared storage buckets.

AWS S3 Management and Analytics Costs

Advanced monitoring and analysis tools in S3 help optimize storage—but they’re not free:

  • S3 Inventory: Charged based on the number of listed objects and frequency of reporting (daily vs weekly).
  • S3 Storage Lens: Basic metrics are free; advanced metrics and recommendations are charged based on the number of objects and buckets.
  • Object-level logging (CloudTrail data events): Can generate large volumes of logs, especially in high-throughput environments.
    These costs are worth watching in environments where compliance, auditability, or cost optimization requires detailed usage data.

AWS S3 Replication Costs

Replication isn’t just about copying data—it’s a second copy billed like the original.

Cross-Region Replication (CRR) incurs:

  • Storage cost in the destination region
  • Data transfer fees between regions
  • Replication PUT request costs
    Same-Region Replication (SRR):
  • Avoids data transfer fees
  • Still doubles storage and request costs

With versioning enabled, every object version is retained and replicated—potentially doubling costs again if not managed properly.

AWS S3 Object Lambda Costs

S3 Object Lambda allows you to modify data as it’s retrieved using a Lambda function—ideal for filtering rows, redacting PII, or transforming formats on the fly. But it introduces extra costs:

  • Lambda charges for each invocation and duration
  • Standard S3 GET request charges still apply
  • Latency impact may increase compute time for downstream services

Use Object Lambda when dynamic transformations save storage duplication, but monitor it closely if invoked at scale.

Understand and optimize your S3 costs with nOps

Whether you’re looking to optimize just your S3 costs or your entire cloud bill, nOps can help. It gives you complete cost visibility and intelligence across your entire AWS infrastructure. Analyze S3 costs by product, feature, team, deployment, environment, or any other dimension.

If your AWS bill is a big mystery, you’re not alone. nOps makes it easy to understand and allocate 100% of your AWS bill, even fixing mistagged and untagged resources for you.

9. A screenshot of Business Contexts section on nOps Dashboard

nOps also offers a suite of ML-powered cost optimization features that help cloud users reduce their costs by up to 50% on autopilot, including:

Compute Copilot: automatically selects the optimal compute resource at the most cost-effective price in real time for you — also makes it easy to save with Spot discounts

Commitment Management: automatic life-cycle management of your EC2/RDS/EKS commitments with risk-free guarantee

Essentials: set of easy-apply cloud optimization features including EC2 and ASG rightsizing, resource scheduling, idle instance removal, storage optimization, and gp2 to gp3 migration

nOps processes over 2 billion dollars in cloud spend and was recently named #1 in G2’s cloud cost management category.

You can book a demo to find out how nOps can help you start saving today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most cost effective S3 storage?

The most cost-effective S3 storage class is S3 Glacier Deep Archive, designed for long-term archival with infrequent access. It offers the lowest price per GB, but retrieval takes up to 12 hours. For slightly faster retrieval, S3 Glacier is also low-cost. If you need quicker access with some durability trade-offs, S3 Intelligent-Tiering Archive Access tiers offer automatic transitions and can optimize costs without manual intervention—ideal when access patterns are unpredictable but occasional access is still needed.

How much storage is free in AWS S3?

AWS S3 includes a free tier of 5 GB of Standard storage for the first 12 months after you create your AWS account. This also includes 20,000 GET and 2,000 PUT requests per month, and 15 GB of data transfer out. However, once the 12-month free tier expires or limits are exceeded, standard pricing applies. Note that the free tier only applies to the S3 Standard class, not to Glacier or Intelligent-Tiering storage options.

Is S3 cheaper than Azure?

S3 storage costs vary by usage, but generally, Amazon S3 is more cost-effective for frequent access and large-scale operations, especially with tiered storage like Intelligent-Tiering. Azure Blob Storage offers comparable performance and tiers, but its pricing can become higher due to more granular transaction fees and slightly less flexible cost optimization features. Both providers offer archival tiers, but AWS provides finer granularity with options like Glacier and Deep Archive. Always compare total cost based on storage, access, and API usage.

What are the best cost optimization practices for AWS S3?

To optimize S3 costs, use lifecycle policies to automatically transition data to cheaper storage tiers like Glacier or Intelligent-Tiering. Enable object versioning with caution to avoid accumulating unnecessary versions. Use S3 Storage Class Analysis to identify infrequently accessed data. Compress files before uploading and delete unused objects regularly. Consider multipart uploads for large files to improve efficiency. Also, review request patterns to reduce PUT/GET costs and monitor usage with AWS Cost Explorer or S3 Storage Lens.