S3 Standard-IA
Lower per-GB storage cost than Standard for data accessed less often but needing millisecond access when it is. Carries a per-GB retrieval fee.
What to know about S3 Standard-IA
S3 storage for data you read rarely but need back in milliseconds, with a per-GB retrieval fee.
Standard-IA trades a lower storage price for fees when you touch the data. In us-east-1 it costs $0.0125 per GB-month to store and $0.01 per GB to retrieve. Reads cost $1 per million requests and writes $10 per million.
It fits data that is cold but not archived: you want millisecond access and multi-AZ durability, but expect few reads. A monthly backup you rarely restore is a classic case.
The fees catch people out. Objects deleted before 30 days are billed for the full period, and objects smaller than 128 KB are billed as 128 KB, so a bucket of tiny files can cost more here than in Standard. Retrieval charges add up fast on data that turns out to be warm.
If you can accept a single zone, One Zone-IA drops storage to $0.01 per GB-month. If you read even less often, Glacier Instant Retrieval stores at $0.004 per GB-month but charges $0.03 per GB to retrieve. When access patterns are unpredictable, Intelligent-Tiering moves objects for you.
Good for
- Backups and disaster-recovery copies
- Older logs or media read a few times a year
- Data that must stay multi-AZ and instantly available
Watch for
- Retrieval costs $0.01 per GB, and requests cost more than Standard
- 30-day minimum storage and a 128 KB minimum billable object size
- One Zone-IA is 20% cheaper per GB but keeps data in a single AZ
Regional Pricing
On-demand storage, request, and retrieval rates across AWS regions| Region | Total Monthly Cost | Storage (per GB/mo, first tier) | PUT/COPY/POST/LIST (per 1k) | GET/SELECT (per 1k) | Retrieval (per GB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| af-south-1 Africa (Cape Town) | — | $0.0149 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-east-1 Asia Pacific (Hong Kong) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-east-2 Asia Pacific (Taipei) | — | $0.0124 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-northeast-1 Asia Pacific (Tokyo) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-northeast-2 Asia Pacific (Seoul) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-northeast-3 Asia Pacific (Osaka) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-south-1 Asia Pacific (Mumbai) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-south-2 Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-southeast-1 Asia Pacific (Singapore) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-southeast-2 Asia Pacific (Sydney) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-southeast-3 Asia Pacific (Jakarta) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-southeast-4 Asia Pacific (Melbourne) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-southeast-5 Asia Pacific (Malaysia) | — | $0.0124 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-southeast-6 Asia Pacific (New Zealand) | — | $0.0145 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ap-southeast-7 Asia Pacific (Thailand) | — | $0.0124 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ca-central-1 Canada (Central) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| ca-west-1 Canada West (Calgary) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-central-1 EU (Frankfurt) | — | $0.0135 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-central-2 Europe (Zurich) | — | $0.0149 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-north-1 EU (Stockholm) | — | $0.0125 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-south-1 EU (Milan) | — | $0.0131 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-south-2 Europe (Spain) | — | $0.0125 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-west-1 EU (Ireland) | — | $0.0125 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-west-2 EU (London) | — | $0.0131 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| eu-west-3 EU (Paris) | — | $0.0131 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| il-central-1 Israel (Tel Aviv) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| me-central-1 Middle East (UAE) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| me-south-1 Middle East (Bahrain) | — | $0.0138 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| mx-central-1 Mexico (Central) | — | $0.0131 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| sa-east-1 South America (Sao Paulo) | — | $0.0221 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| us-east-1 US East (N. Virginia) | — | $0.0125 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| us-east-2 US East (Ohio) | — | $0.0125 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| us-gov-east-1 AWS GovCloud (US-East) | — | $0.0200 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| us-gov-west-1 AWS GovCloud (US-West) | — | $0.0200 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| us-west-1 US West (N. California) | — | $0.0144 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
| us-west-2 US West (Oregon) | — | $0.0125 | $0.0100 | $0.00100 | $0.0100 |
Alternatives to S3 Standard-IA
| Option | Price vs S3 Standard-IA | Why look at it |
|---|---|---|
| S3 StandardCompare → | +84%+$0.0105/GB-mo Storage per GB-month, us-east-1 | Default class for frequently read data |
| S3 One Zone-IACompare → | -20%-$0.0025/GB-mo Storage per GB-month, us-east-1 | Same access pattern, stored in a single zone |
| S3 Glacier Instant RetrievalCompare → | -68%-$0.0085/GB-mo Storage per GB-month, us-east-1 | Archive storage with millisecond retrieval |
| S3 Intelligent-TieringCompare → | +84%+$0.0105/GB-mo Storage per GB-month, us-east-1 (Intelligent-Tiering at its frequent-access rate) | Moves objects between tiers automatically |