S3 Storage Classes Compared: Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Intelligent-Tiering and Glacier
What each S3 class charges to store, read and request
Price by class
On-demand rates in US East (N. Virginia). Retrieval is the standard speed, per GB. Request rates are per 1,000 requests. Lowest storage rate is highlighted.
| Storage class | Storage, per GB‑month | Retrieval, per GB | PUT/COPY/POST/LIST | GET | Minimum duration | Availability | First-byte access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | $0.023 | None | $0.005 | $0.0004 | None | 3+ zones | Milliseconds |
| Standard-IA | $0.0125 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.001 | 30 days | 3+ zones | Milliseconds |
| One Zone-IA | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.001 | 30 days | 1 zone | Milliseconds |
| Intelligent-TieringStorage shown for the Frequent Access tier | $0.023 | None in the main tiers | $0.005 | $0.0004 | None | 3+ zones | Milliseconds |
| Glacier Instant Retrieval | $0.004 | $0.03 | $0.02 | $0.01 | 90 days | 3+ zones | Milliseconds |
| Glacier Flexible Retrieval | $0.0036Lowest | $0.01 | $0.03 | $0.0004 | 90 days | 3+ zones | Minutes to hours |
Intelligent-Tiering storage is the Frequent Access tier; objects move to cheaper tiers on their own. Its monitoring fee is not in the dataset.
Example: 1,000 GB stored, 100 GB read back each month
Storage plus retrieval fees only. Requests, early-delete charges and minimum object sizes are excluded.
| Storage class | Per month | How it adds up |
|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | $23.00 | 1,000 GB at $0.023, no retrieval fee |
| Standard-IA | $13.50 | 1,000 GB at $0.0125 plus 100 GB read at $0.01 |
| One Zone-IA | $11.00 | 1,000 GB at $0.01 plus 100 GB read at $0.01 |
| Glacier Instant Retrieval | $7.00 | 1,000 GB at $0.004 plus 100 GB read at $0.03 |
| Glacier Flexible Retrieval | $4.60Lowest | 1,000 GB at $0.0036 plus 100 GB read at $0.01 |
Glacier Flexible Retrieval is cheapest here, but its reads take minutes to hours. The right comparison is against the access time your workload can tolerate.
Which one to pick
Each recommendation links to the page for that option.
What to watch for
Gaps and gotchas that the price table does not show.
Minimum storage durations bill early deletes
Standard-IA and One Zone-IA bill 30 days of storage even if you delete sooner, and the Glacier classes bill 90. Short-lived objects belong in S3 Standard.
Small objects round up
Standard-IA, One Zone-IA and Glacier Instant Retrieval bill at least 128 KB per object. Intelligent-Tiering does not auto-tier objects under 128 KB. Millions of tiny files can cost more in an infrequent class than in Standard.
Requests cost more in the colder classes
PUT, COPY, POST and LIST cost $0.01 per 1,000 in Standard-IA against $0.005 in Standard, and GET costs $0.001 against $0.0004. A workload with many small writes feels this more than the storage rate.
Glacier Deep Archive is not covered
The dataset has no line item for standalone Glacier Deep Archive storage, so it is left out of this comparison. Lifecycle rules can still move data there.