Which S3 class is cheapest for storage?

Glacier Deep Archive has the lowest per-GB storage price, designed for data accessed once or twice a year with retrieval times of up to 12 hours (standard) or 48 hours (bulk). It carries a 180-day minimum storage duration, so early deletes are still billed for the full period.

What is the difference between Standard-IA and One Zone-IA?

Both are for infrequently accessed data with a retrieval fee, but Standard-IA stores data across three or more Availability Zones while One Zone-IA keeps a single copy in one zone. One Zone-IA is about 20% cheaper but loses data if that zone is destroyed, so use it only for re-creatable data.

When should I use Intelligent-Tiering?

Use Intelligent-Tiering when access patterns are unknown or changing. It automatically moves objects between frequent, infrequent and optional archive tiers based on usage, with no retrieval fees and a small per-object monitoring charge. It avoids retrieval penalties from guessing the wrong class.

What does minimum storage duration mean?

IA and archive classes bill for a minimum number of days even if you delete the object sooner: 30 days for Standard-IA and One Zone-IA, 90 days for Glacier Flexible Retrieval and Glacier Instant Retrieval, and 180 days for Glacier Deep Archive. Frequent churn in these classes can cost more than Standard.

Which class gives millisecond retrieval for archives?

Glacier Instant Retrieval offers archive-level storage pricing with millisecond access, suited to long-lived data accessed once a quarter (such as medical images or media archives). The cheaper Glacier Flexible Retrieval and Deep Archive trade that for minutes-to-hours retrieval times.

AWS S3 Storage Classes Reference

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Amazon S3 storage classes

S3 storage classes let you trade retrieval speed for storage price. Picking the right one cuts the bill dramatically for cold data — but each colder class adds retrieval fees and minimum-duration charges. This reference covers every general storage class with its durability, availability-zone footprint, retrieval latency, minimum duration and relative cost tier.

How it works

All S3 classes share the same eleven-nines (99.999999999%) durability for multi-AZ classes; they differ on availability, retrieval and price. The cost model has three levers:

total cost = storage $/GB-month + request/retrieval fees + min-duration charge

Hot (Standard, Express One Zone): no retrieval fee, highest storage price, used for active data.
Infrequent (Standard-IA, One Zone-IA): lower storage price + a per-GB retrieval fee + 30-day minimum.
Archive (Glacier Instant, Glacier Flexible, Deep Archive): lowest storage price, retrieval from milliseconds to 48 hours, 90–180-day minimum.
Auto (Intelligent-Tiering): moves objects between tiers automatically, no retrieval fees, small monitoring charge per object.

Tips and notes

Lifecycle rules transition objects between classes by age — never move tiny or short-lived objects to IA/archive; the minimum-duration charge eats the saving.
One Zone classes are not zone-redundant: use only for data you can regenerate.
Glacier Flexible Retrieval offers Expedited (1–5 min), Standard (3–5 h) and Bulk (5–12 h) retrieval options at different prices.
Deep Archive is the floor on storage price but the slowest to read — plan for up to 48-hour bulk retrieval.