AWS Storage Costs Explained: Tiers, Pricing, How to Cut Them

Last updated: October 2026

Businesses are increasingly relying on cloud computing platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store and manage their data. AWS provides numerous storage services, each with a distinct pricing structure and set of features, so estimating how much your AWS storage costs will be often proves to be challenging.

Your AWS storage bill depends on which service and tier your data sits in, and on how often you read it or move it out of AWS.

What Factors Determine Your AWS Bill?

Navigating AWS storage costs requires grasping several key components that influence storage pricing.

Charges Based on Storage Usage

AWS bills are based on the amount of data stored within the AWS infrastructure. The fundamental metric here is the gigabyte per month rate, representing the volume of data stored during a billing cycle.

For instance, S3 Standard costs $0.023 per GB-month in US East (Ohio), while EBS gp3 costs $0.08 per GB-month in the same region, billed on the size you provision.

Type of Storage

AWS offers different storage services with different features and prices. Amazon S3, for instance, is designed to store large amounts of unstructured data. Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is block storage built for storing data with high performance.

Amazon S3 offers different levels of storage, each with its own unique pricing and availability. For instance, with S3 Standard, you can frequently access data with instant availability. With the S3 Infrequent Access tier, you can store data at lower prices, but it will take longer to access.

EBS also provides various volume types, each having distinct price and efficiency features. Amazon EBS General Purpose SSD is designed for general-purpose workloads and offers a good balance of performance and cost. Amazon EBS Provisioned IOPS SSD is designed for workloads that require high IOPS and offers the highest performance, but it is also the most expensive volume type.

Access Rates

Different AWS storage tiers have different access patterns that affect their costs. For example, S3 Standard allows you to access data frequently with instant availability, while S3 Infrequent Access gives you less frequent access but offers lower prices.

If you have frequently accessed data, you will want to use a storage tier that offers instant availability. Instant availability will ensure that your data always remains accessible.

If you have data that you don’t need to access as frequently, you can use a storage tier that offers lower prices while compromising the speed at which you can access your data.

With N2W, we automate the process of data transfer to ensure that you are taking advantage of the most cost-efficient storage tier for your availability and latency needs. 

Data Egress

Data egress is the cost of transferring data to an external network from your AWS environment. For example, downloading data from an S3 bucket to your computer will incur a cost for data egress.

The rate for data egress varies depending on the region where your data is stored and where you are transferring the data to. The AWS Pricing Calculator is available to estimate your costs, although determining your data egress patterns with just this tool can be challenging. (TIP: to help you navigate the calculator, check out this blog post). 

Data Transfer

Data transfer is the cost of transmitting data among AWS services. This means that if you move data from, say, an EC2 instance to an S3 bucket, you will be charged for data transfer.

The data transfer rate varies based on the type of storage used and the location of the data. For example, the outbound data transfer rate for Amazon S3 to an internet location is $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB / month in US East (Ohio).

Replication

Replication is the process of copying data to multiple locations for redundancy and disaster recovery. Replication can add to your storage costs. The replication price depends on the kind of storage used and the data storage location.

The cost of replicating object data to another region in AWS is typically the same as the cost of storing the data in the first place. Here we have a cross-region example with an S3 source bucket in us-east-2. 

When setting your target replication bucket, you can see the need to enable versioning. This will also incur additional costs that need to be accounted for. 

Understanding the configuration options that determine your AWS charges is crucial. Monitoring and managing these charges regularly should be included in operational practices and aligned with your business policies. Just S3 alone will have many configuration options. What about the rest of the storage options in AWS?

Overview of AWS Storage Services

AWS offers a wide variety of storage tiers to meet the diverse needs of its customers. Here is a brief overview of some of the most popular storage tiers:

Elastic Block Store (EBS)

EBS provides storage at the block level for EC2 instances. Each volume type has its own cost and performance characteristics.

• General Purpose SSD: General Purpose SSD is designed for general-purpose workloads and offers a good balance of performance and cost. It is a viable choice for apps, such as web servers and databases, that require consistent performance.
• Provisioned IOPS SSD: Provisioned IOPS SSD is designed for workloads that require high IOPS, such as high-performance databases and real-time analytics. It offers the highest performance of all EBS volume types, but is also the most expensive.
• Cold HDD: Cold HDD is designed for low-cost workloads that can tolerate longer access latency. It is a great option for storing infrequently accessed data, such as backups and archives.

Simple Storage Service (S3)

Amazon S3 is a highly elastic object storage solution that has the ability to store massive amounts of data. S3 itself offers a variety of storage classes, each with its own price and access pattern.

• S3 Standard: S3 Standard is intended for frequently used data and provides instant access. It is an excellent choice for services that require high availability, such as web applications and streaming media.
• S3 Infrequent Access: The S3 Infrequent Access tier is intended for data used occasionally and thus offers more affordable pricing. However, it can take longer to access data from this storage class, so it is a good option for storing data such as backups, archives, and object uploads.
• S3 Intelligent-Tiering: moves data between S3 access tiers automatically based on how often it’s read, for a monitoring fee of $0.0025 per 1,000 objects. There are no retrieval charges, so it suits data with unpredictable access.
• S3 Glacier: S3 Glacier is an inexpensive archiving and disaster recovery storage service. It offers various retrieval options that balance cost and retrieval speed. Glacier Deep Archive is the least expensive storage class in S3 Glacier, but its retrieval speeds are the slowest. It is suitable for storing rarely accessed data, such as cold backups and historical data.

💡N2W makes it simple to manage your data lifecycling from one S3 or Glacier tier to another to help you save money and meet any retention requirements with ease.

Amazon FSx

Amazon FSx is a managed file storage service that offers a variety of file systems, including Windows File Server, NFS, and Lustre. It is suitable for applications requiring shared file storage across various instances.

• FSx for Windows File Server: A fully managed file server that provides a Windows file system-like experience. It is an appropriate choice for programs that require Windows client compatibility.
• FSx for Lustre: FSx for Lustre is a powerful file system intended for programs with parallel processing. It is an excellent choice for scientific computing and video editing applications.
• FSx for NetApp ONTAP: FSx for NetApp ONTAP is a file system compatible with the iSCSI, SMB, and NFS protocols. It is an effective choice for programs that need Windows, Linux, and macOS client compatibility.

💡N2W supports all versions of Amazon FSx.

Elastic File System (EFS)

Amazon EFS enables multiple EC2 instances to access scalable file storage concurrently. It is ideal for scenarios where multiple instances need access to shared data, such as web servers in a load-balanced environment.

Storage tier comparison table

Here is the pricing of AWS storage tiers to give you some idea of the different tiers and their cost differences. These are point-in-time pricing and may change, of course.

Tier	What it suits	Storage per GB-month	Retrieval charge	Minimum storage duration	Minimum billable object size
S3 Standard	Frequently accessed data	$0.023 (first 50 TB), $0.022 (next 450 TB), $0.021 (over 500 TB)	None	None	None
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	Data with unknown or changing access patterns	$0.023 frequent, $0.0125 infrequent, $0.004 archive instant; optional $0.0036 archive and $0.00099 deep archive. Plus $0.0025 per 1,000 objects monitored	None for the automatic tiers	None	None, but objects under 128 KB aren’t monitored and always bill at the frequent rate
S3 Standard-IA	Long-lived data accessed rarely but needed in milliseconds	$0.0125	Per GB retrieved	30 days	128 KB
S3 One Zone-IA	Re-creatable data accessed rarely, stored in one Availability Zone	$0.01	Per GB retrieved	30 days	128 KB
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval	Archives accessed about once a quarter, retrieved in milliseconds	$0.004	Per GB retrieved	90 days	128 KB
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval	Backups and archives, restored in 1 minute to 12 hours	$0.0036	Charged per restore request	90 days	None, but each object adds 40 KB of billed metadata
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	Data accessed once or twice a year, restored within 12 hours	$0.00099	Charged per restore request	180 days	None, but each object adds 40 KB of billed metadata
EBS gp3	General-purpose block storage for most EC2 workloads	$0.08, billed on provisioned size. Includes 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s; above that, $0.005 per IOPS-month and $0.040 per MB/s-month	None	None	Not applicable
EBS io2	Databases that need high, consistent IOPS	$0.125, billed on provisioned size, plus $0.065 per provisioned IOPS-month up to 32,000 (less above that)	None	None	Not applicable
EBS snapshots, Standard tier	Routine backups and short-term restore points	$0.05, incremental: you pay only for changed blocks	None	None	Not applicable
EBS snapshots, Archive tier	Snapshots kept for compliance or long retention	$0.0125, stored as a full copy rather than incrementally	$0.03 per GB	90 days	Not applicable
EFS Standard	Shared file storage for frequently accessed data	$0.30	$0.03 per GB read and $0.06 per GB written (all EFS classes)	None	None
EFS Infrequent Access	Files accessed a few times a quarter	$0.016	Reads add $0.01 per GB; moving data in or out of IA costs $0.01 per GB	None	128 KiB
EFS Archive	Long-lived files accessed a few times a year or less	$0.008	Reads add $0.03 per GB; moving data in or out of Archive costs $0.03 per GB	90 days	128 KiB

Prices are for US East (Ohio), checked October 6, 2026. EBS bills on the size you provision, not the data you write. Deleting, overwriting or transitioning an object before its minimum duration adds a pro-rated charge for the remaining days. Restoring from Glacier Flexible Retrieval or Deep Archive also bills the temporary restored copy at S3 Standard rates for as long as you keep it.

AWS Storage Gateway cost

What does AWS Storage Gateway cost?

Three of the four gateway types carry no gateway fee. You pay for the data the gateway writes into AWS, for the storage it lands in, and for any data sent back out to an on-premises appliance. Amazon FSx File Gateway is the exception: it adds an hourly charge.

Prices are for US East (Ohio), checked October 6, 2026. Other regions differ.

Gateway type	Gateway fee	Storage	Data written to AWS
S3 File Gateway	None	Billed as S3 storage and S3 requests	$0.01 per GB
FSx File Gateway	$0.69 per hour	Billed as FSx for Windows File Server capacity	None listed
Volume Gateway	None	$0.023 per GB-month, with snapshots billed as EBS snapshots	$0.01 per GB
Tape Gateway	None	$0.023 per GB-month; $0.0036 archived in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval; $0.00099 in S3 Glacier Deep Archive	$0.01 per GB

The write charge is capped at $125 per gateway per month, and the first 100 GB written per account is free. So a gateway writing more than about 12.5 TB a month pays the cap.

A worked example: a Volume Gateway holding 5 TB and writing 2 TB of changes a month costs about $115 for storage (5,000 GB x $0.023) plus $19 in write charges (1,900 GB x $0.01), so roughly $134 a month before snapshots and data transfer.

Four charges are easy to miss:

• Data sent back to an on-premises gateway costs $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB a month, stepping down to $0.05 per GB above 150 TB. A large restore to an on-prem appliance pays this. Data coming into AWS is free, and so is transfer to a gateway running on EC2 in the same region.
• A gateway hosted on EC2 pays normal EC2 rates for the instance.
• Tape retrieval costs $0.01 per GB from Glacier Flexible Retrieval and $0.02 per GB from Deep Archive. Deleting a tape within 90 days of archiving it to Flexible Retrieval, or within 180 days for Deep Archive, adds a pro-rated early-deletion charge.
• CloudWatch logs, events and metrics bill at standard rates if you turn them on for gateway health or audit logging.

Choosing a Storage Tier

The optimal storage tier depends on your specific needs. Consider the following factors when choosing a storage tier:

• The type of data you are storing: Some storage tiers are better suited for certain data types than others. S3 Standard is a good choice for frequently accessed data, while S3 Glacier is a good choice for rarely accessed data.
• The requirements for your applications’ performance: Some storage tiers provide superior performance. For example, Provisioned IOPS SSD is a good choice for applications that require high IOPS.
• The cost of the storage tier: The cost of different storage tiers varies, so you should choose a storage tier that fits within your budget (more on this below).

Pricing of AWS Storage Tiers

The pricing of AWS storage tiers can often be difficult to gauge; nonetheless, there are some fundamental concepts that can help you better comprehend storage pricing.

S3 Pricing Model

The pricing of S3 is more complex than the pricing of EBS, as it depends on several factors, such as the storage class, the region, the amount of data stored, and the frequency of access.

AWS Storage Costs

The storage costs for S3 Standard costs $0.023 per GB-month in US East (Ohio), so storing 100 GB costs $2.30 a month.

Retrieval Fees

These fees apply when you read data from S3 classes that charge for retrieval. S3 Standard-IA, S3 One Zone-IA and S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval charge per GB read, and S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and Deep Archive charge as part of each restore request. S3 Standard and S3 Intelligent-Tiering have no retrieval charge.

Data Transfer Costs

Data transfer costs are incurred when you move data to or from an S3 bucket. The cost of transferring data depends on the amount of data and the ultimate destination of the data. For example, the data transfer cost for transmitting 100 GB of data from your S3 bucket in US East (Ohio) to your computer is $0.09 per GB.

You can see nominal pricing differences that line up with associated features and value. Pricing is also adjusted for some regions, in turn affecting cross-region storage. As you scale your storage and overall AWS usage, there may be additional costs associated with transfer, logging, auditing, and other AWS service costs. 

Understanding the storage pricing of AWS storage tiers is critical in helping you optimize your storage costs and ultimately save money on your AWS bill. 

How to Reduce AWS Storage Costs

Optimizing AWS storage costs involves proactive management and strategic decision-making. You can employ these strategies to achieve cost efficiency:

Keep EC2 Instances and S3 Buckets in the Same Region

By keeping your EC2 instances and S3 buckets in the same region, you reduce data transfer costs and enhance performance. This is particularly useful when applications require frequent data exchange between instances and storage.

S3 Replication to Other Regions

While replicating data to other regions is vital for disaster recovery, it comes with egress and storage costs. Consider the trade-off between redundancy and cost when determining your replication strategy. N2W’ single user dashboard centralizes and simplifies the process of replicating S3 buckets in order to maximize data protection.

Continuously Monitor Which Resources Are Actually Used

AWS offers several tools to help you monitor your AWS resources, such as Amazon CloudWatch and AWS Cost Explorer. By monitoring your resources, you can identify unused resources that you can terminate to save money.

Set up Frequent Alerts and Notifications 

You can set up alerts and notifications to be notified when your resources are approaching their limits or when they are not being used. This will prevent wasteful spending on resources that are not used. Note that third party tools like N2W allow you to generate alerts and reports to monitor your resource usage and ensure that you are correctly provisioning your resources.

Delete Irrelevant Files

Regularly review your stored data and delete unnecessary files. This not only frees up storage space, but also reduces related expenses.

Utilize AWS Cost Explorer

AWS Cost Explorer is an effective tool that can assist you in visualizing your AWS costs and identifying cost-saving opportunities.

Delete Dormant EBS Volumes/S3 Buckets

Amazon EBS volumes and S3 buckets that are not in use can continue to incur charges, so you should delete dormant volumes and S3 buckets to save money. This ought to be included in your data protection and recovery plan so that you are storing dormant volumes and snapshots in an optimized way.

Optimizing data protection storage also contributes to your general AWS storage costs. This is where a tool like N2W is critical because you can determine how many disaster recovery copies you want to store (which can be different from the number of backup snapshots) meaning you don’t have to pay 2x the storage cost to have disaster recovery enabled.

Create Automated EBS Deletion Policies

When an EC2 instance is stopped, the EBS volume attached to the instance is also stopped. You can still incur charges for the Amazon EBS volume even if the instance is stopped. EBS does not charge for detached volumes, but storage costs are still incurred. 

💡N2W allows you to automatically delete EBS snapshots when archiving to S3/Glacier with our ZeroEBS feature.

Keep Default EBS Deletion Policies

Make sure that you do not modify the termination behavior of your AWS EBS and EC2. Using the default policy to delete persistent EBS volumes along with the termination of the EC2 instance helps reduce orphaned volumes. Again, this is something that needs to be accounted for in your data retention policies for snapshots and the overall data protection process.

Archival From Amazon EBS to Cheaper/Colder Storage

If you have data that you do not need to access frequently, you can archive it to a cheaper/colder storage tier, such as S3 Infrequent Access or Glacier. This can help reduce your storage costs. Here’s an overview of the different S3 storage classes that AWS offers:

• S3 Standard: S3 Standard is the default Amazon S3 storage tier for frequently accessed data. It offers the lowest latency and highest availability.
• S3 Infrequent Access: The S3 Infrequent Access tier is intended for data that doesn’t need to be available immediately. It offers less expensive storage costs than S3 Standard.
• S3 Intelligent-Tiering: S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves data between different S3 storage tiers based on access patterns. This can reduce your storage costs without affecting performance.
• Glacier Instant Retrieval: Glacier Instant Retrieval is a tier of Glacier that offers faster retrieval times than the standard Glacier tier. This is a great option for data that needs to be quickly accessible but isn’t frequently used.
• Glacier Deep Archive: This is the storage tier within S3 Glacier that provides the lowest cost. It is the best option for data that seldom needs to be accessed.

💡With N2W you can automate data archival for smooth and continuous AWS cost optimization.

Conclusion

AWS storage costs can be complex, but by understanding the factors that influence storage pricing, the different storage tiers available, and the strategies for optimizing costs, you can make informed decisions about your storage needs.

Here are some key considerations to be mindful of when optimizing your AWS storage costs:

• The type of data you store: Taking advantage of multiple storage tiers is ideal for storing different types of data. For example, S3 Standard is a good choice for frequently accessed data, while S3 Glacier is a good choice for rarely accessed data.
• The performance requirements of your workload: Some storage tiers offer better performance than others. For instance, Provisioned IOPS SSD is a good choice for applications that require high IOPS.
• The cost of the storage tier: The cost of different storage tiers varies greatly, so it’s important that you choose a storage tier that fits within your budget.

Once you understand these factors, you can start to optimize your storage costs by choosing the storage class that is most appropriate for how you need to access your data. Keep in mind that AWS provides several cost management tools like AWS Cost Explorer and AWS Budgets that can be used to monitor and control your storage costs. But if reducing costs is really important for your team, then a tool like N2W is a great option for optimization.

By adopting the aforementioned tips, you can optimize your storage costs through methods such as deleting unused data, archiving data to cheaper storage tiers, and taking advantage of reserved instances. We hope you take advantage of all these strategies so that you can optimize your storage costs and ultimately cut down on your AWS bill!

Frequently asked questions

N2W takes the guesswork out of storage optimization and disaster recovery

Cutting storage costs without moving off AWS

Most storage savings come from two decisions: which tier the data sits in, and whether you are paying to keep two copies of the same thing. N2W automates both. It archives backups incrementally to a cheaper tier, including Azure Blob or Wasabi if you want the copy with a different provider, and it can delete the source EBS snapshot once the archive completes. Customers running this way report storage savings of up to 92%. The storage stays in your account and on your bill throughout, so the saving shows up directly in your AWS invoice rather than in a vendor’s.

• Automated Tiering & Archival: Move cold snapshots from EBS to cheaper S3 and Glacier tiers, or to Azure Blob or Wasabi, so you stop paying snapshot rates for idle data.
• ZeroEBS Snap Cleanup: Automatically delete obsolete EBS snapshots once they’re safely archived, eliminating orphaned volumes and phantom charges.
• Cross-Cloud Flexibility: Store backups across AWS, Azure, and Wasabi from a single pane of glass, so you can balance cost, compliance, and recovery speed without juggling multiple tools.
• Policy-Driven Lifecycle & Retention: Define RPOs/RTOs and let N2W enforce them, moving, locking, or deleting backups exactly when you need.
• Real-Time Visibility & Alerts: Get instant insights into your storage spend, backup success rates, and lifecycle events, so you catch misconfigurations or cost spikes before they bite.

With N2W, you get a fully automated, cloud-agnostic data-protection engine designed to optimize AWS storage costs, simplify operations, and keep your business resilient.

Try it out today.