Service comparison / storage pricing
Cloud Storage Pricing 2026: S3 vs Azure Blob vs Google Cloud Storage
Storage pricing is deceptively complex. Retrieval fees, early deletion penalties, minimum durations, and request charges all vary by tier and provider. This is the full picture: object, block, file, lifecycle policies, and worked total-cost examples.
Object storage by tier
| Tier | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot / Standard ($/GB/mo) | $0.0230 S3 Standard | $0.0180 Hot LRS | $0.0200 Standard |
| Warm / Cool ($/GB/mo) | $0.0125 S3 Standard-IA | $0.0100 Cool LRS | $0.0100 Nearline |
| Cold ($/GB/mo) | $0.0040 S3 Glacier Instant | $0.0036 Cold LRS | $0.0040 Coldline |
| Archive ($/GB/mo) | $0.00099 Glacier Deep Archive | $0.00099 Archive LRS | $0.0012 Archive |
Requests, retrieval, and minimums
| Operation | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| PUT / write per 10k requests | $0.05 | $0.0650 | $0.05 |
| GET / read per 10k requests | $0.004 | $0.0050 | $0.004 |
| Hot retrieval $/GB | free for Standard, $0.01 for IA | free for Hot, $0.01 for Cool | free for Standard, $0.01 for Nearline |
| Archive retrieval $/GB | $0.02 standard, $0.03 expedited | $0.02 standard, $0.10 priority | $0.05 |
| Minimum storage duration | 30d Standard-IA, 90d Glacier Instant, 180d Deep Archive | 30d Cool, 90d Cold, 180d Archive | 30d Nearline, 90d Coldline, 365d Archive |
Block storage
| Kind | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| General SSD ($/GB/mo) | $0.080 EBS gp3 | $0.075 Premium SSD v2 base | $0.170 PD SSD |
| Provisioned IOPS price | $0.005/IOPS over 3,000 baseline | $0.005/IOPS over baseline (v2) | Hyperdisk: $0.0025/IOPS |
| Throughput-optimised HDD | $0.045 EBS st1 | $0.040 Standard HDD | $0.040 PD Standard |
| Snapshot $/GB/mo | $0.05 incremental | $0.05 incremental | $0.026 standard, $0.050 regional |
GCP Persistent Disk SSD is roughly 2x AWS gp3 on $/GB. Hyperdisk Balanced (provisioned IOPS pricing) closes the gap for IO-bound workloads. Hyperdisk Extreme matches AWS io2 Block Express performance at higher cost.
File storage
| Kind | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance tier ($/GB/mo) | $0.30 EFS Standard | $0.30 Files Premium | $0.30 Filestore Basic SSD |
| Standard tier ($/GB/mo) | $0.16 EFS One Zone | $0.16 Files Hot LRS | $0.20 Filestore Basic HDD |
| Archive / IA ($/GB/mo) | $0.025 EFS IA | $0.022 Files Cold LRS | n/a, use Cloud Storage |
Lifecycle and tiering policies
Automatic tiering
AWS S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Automatic, no retrieval fees for frequent access
$0.0025/1k objects monitoring fee. Adds Archive Access and Deep Archive Access tiers above 90 and 180 days idle.
Azure Blob lifecycle management
Policy-based rules per access tier
Free to enable. Rules evaluated daily. Includes per-blob last-access tracking when enabled.
GCP Autoclass
Automatic, retrieval fee waived
Bucket-level setting. Tiers down through Nearline, Coldline, Archive based on object access. No early-deletion penalty within 30 days.
Total cost worked examples / not just $/GB
The cheapest $/GB tier is not always cheapest in total
| Scenario | AWS | Azure | GCP | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 TB hot tier, 100k GETs/day | $235.40/mo | $184.45/mo | $204.80/mo | Azure Hot LRS |
| 100 TB warm tier, 1k GETs/day, 10% retrieved monthly | $1,378.00/mo | $1,128.00/mo | $1,123.00/mo | GCP Nearline (tied) |
| 100 TB cold archive, retrieved annually | $104.00/mo + $2,048 retrieval/yr | $104.00/mo + $2,048 retrieval/yr | $126.00/mo + $5,120 retrieval/yr | AWS / Azure (tied) |
| 1 PB long-term archive, retrieved every 5 years | $1,040/mo Deep Archive | $1,040/mo Archive | $1,260/mo Archive | AWS / Azure (tied) |
Worked examples assume LRS / single-region pricing, no egress, and standard request volumes. Adjust for your actual access patterns.
Storage cost calculator
Estimate monthly storage cost
Single-region (LRS) storage with monthly retrieval. Excludes request charges, egress, and minimum-storage-duration penalties. Use it for directional comparison.
Retrieved volume: 2.5 TB
AWS
$1,177.6
per month
Azure
$921.6
per month
cheapestGCP
$1,024
per month
Common questions
FAQ
How much does cloud storage cost per TB?+
Hot tier object storage runs $18-23 per TB per month across providers. Azure Blob Hot is the cheapest list rate at $18/TB. AWS S3 Standard lists at $23/TB. GCP Standard sits between at $20/TB. For 10 TB, the difference is $50-100 per month at list, often eclipsed by request and retrieval charges.
What is the cheapest archive storage?+
AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive and Azure Archive Blob both list at $0.99 per TB per month. GCP Archive lists at $1.20 per TB. The cheapest tier is rarely cheapest in total: Azure Archive charges $0.10 per GB priority retrieval and 180-day minimum retention. Calculate full lifecycle cost including egress.
Is GCP block storage really more expensive?+
Persistent Disk SSD lists at $0.170 per GB per month versus $0.080 for AWS EBS gp3 and $0.075 for Azure Premium SSD v2. That is roughly double on the surface. Hyperdisk Balanced (introduced 2023) closes the gap with provisioned-IOPS pricing for IO-bound workloads. For SSD-heavy workloads, model storage cost on each provider before committing to GCP.
How do retrieval fees change the math?+
AWS S3 Standard-IA charges $0.01 per GB retrieval. Azure Cool charges $0.01. GCP Nearline charges $0.01. For data accessed quarterly or more often, retrieval fees can exceed storage savings versus the hot tier. Run the breakeven analysis: if you retrieve more than once per month, hot tier is usually cheaper.
Which provider has the best automatic tiering?+
AWS S3 Intelligent-Tiering and GCP Autoclass both move objects automatically without retrieval fees on frequent access. Intelligent-Tiering charges a $0.0025/1k objects monitoring fee, Autoclass does not. Azure lifecycle management is policy-based rather than automatic but does support last-access-time triggers.
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