Cloud Storage Cost Estimator

Cloud storage costs have three components: storage cost (per GB per month for data at rest), data transfer cost (per GB egress when downloading data out of the cloud), and request cost (per 1,000 API calls for PUT, GET, DELETE operations). Storage cost is usually the smallest component for frequently accessed data; egress can dominate for data-intensive applications.

Standard storage is for frequently accessed data with millisecond retrieval. Infrequent Access (IA) storage costs 40-50% less per GB but charges per-retrieval fees. Archive/Glacier storage costs 80-90% less per GB but has retrieval times of minutes to hours and high per-retrieval fees. Choose the tier based on how often you access the data, not just how much you store.

Egress is data transferred out of a cloud provider's network to the internet or another cloud provider. Cloud providers typically charge $0.07-0.09 per GB for egress, while ingress (uploading) is usually free. Egress fees can far exceed storage fees for data-intensive applications. This is sometimes called 'data gravity' and is why migrating away from a cloud provider is costly.

Use lifecycle policies to automatically move data to cheaper tiers after a set time (e.g., move to IA after 30 days, archive after 90 days). Enable storage compression and deduplication where available. Audit for and delete orphaned snapshots, old log files, and unused data. Consider a CDN to reduce egress costs for public-facing content.

This calculator uses typical representative pricing. Actual prices vary by provider, region, storage class, and committed-use discounts. As a user-editable input tool, you can enter your actual negotiated rates. Always verify against the provider's current published pricing and your enterprise agreement for accurate budgeting.