Cloud Data Storage Cost Estimator
Compare Hot, Cold, and Archive storage costs across AWS S3, GCP, and Azure.
Data storage is a foundational cloud expense. Our calculator helps you estimate your monthly object storage bill by comparing the different tiers (Hot, Warm, Cold, Archive) from the major cloud providers. Make informed decisions to optimize your storage costs.
Data Storage Cost Estimator (Hot vs. Cold)
Estimate monthly object storage costs across different tiers for AWS, GCP, and Azure.
About This Tool
The Data Storage Cost Estimator is a fundamental tool for any organization operating in the cloud. As data volumes grow exponentially, storage has become a significant portion of the monthly cloud bill. Cloud providers offer a spectrum of object storage tiers, each with a different price point and performance profile, designed for different access patterns. 'Hot' storage is for frequently accessed data and has the highest cost but lowest access fees. 'Cold' or 'Archive' storage is for long-term retention of data that is rarely accessed, offering incredibly low storage prices but higher fees for retrieval. This calculator demystifies the options by allowing you to input your total storage volume and instantly see the monthly cost across all these tiers for AWS, GCP, and Azure. This side-by-side comparison empowers businesses to choose the right storage class for their data, implement effective data lifecycle policies, and dramatically reduce their cloud spend.
How to Use This Tool
- Use the slider to input the total amount of data you need to store, in Terabytes (TB).
- Click the "Estimate Storage Costs" button.
- The tool will display three tables, one for each major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure).
- Each table shows a breakdown of the estimated monthly cost for different storage tiers, from Hot to Archive.
- Compare the costs to determine the most effective provider and tier for your data lifecycle needs.
In-Depth Guide
Understanding Storage "Temperature"
Cloud storage is often categorized by 'temperature.' 'Hot' storage (like AWS S3 Standard) is for data that is frequently accessed and needs to be available instantly. 'Warm' storage (like S3 Standard-IA or GCP Nearline) is for less frequently accessed data, offering a lower storage price in exchange for a small retrieval fee. 'Cold' storage (like GCP Coldline or Azure Cold) is for data accessed maybe once a quarter. 'Archive' storage (like S3 Glacier Deep Archive) is for long-term data retention (e.g., for compliance) that is rarely, if ever, accessed and can tolerate retrieval times of several hours.
The Hidden Costs: Operations and Egress
This calculator focuses on the 'storage-at-rest' cost, which is the price you pay per GB per month just to store the data. However, a complete cost analysis must also include two other factors. First, 'operations' costs, which are small fees for actions like PUT (uploading), GET (downloading), and LIST (listing files). These are negligible for hot tiers but can be significant for cold tiers. Second, 'egress' fees, which are the costs to transfer data out of the cloud provider's network. Egress is a major cloud cost and should be estimated with a dedicated bandwidth calculator.
What is a Data Lifecycle Policy?
A lifecycle policy is an automated rule you set on your storage bucket. A common policy is to 'transition' objects to a colder storage tier after a certain number of days and then 'expire' (delete) them after they are no longer needed. For example, you could store logs in S3 Standard for 30 days, move them to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval for a year, and then delete them. This is the key to enterprise storage cost management.
Choosing the Right Provider
While prices look similar on the surface, providers have key differences. AWS has the most extensive set of storage tiers, including its powerful Intelligent-Tiering option. GCP offers simplified tiers and is known for its performance. Azure is a strong choice for enterprises already heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. The best choice depends not just on the price per GB, but on how it integrates with the other services you use.