Cloud Object Storage Rate Card
AWS S3 Pricing Sheet & Storage Egress Calculator 2026
AWS S3 operates on a complex multi-variable billing model comprising Storage Capacity ($/GB-month), Data Transfer Out (Egress to Internet), API Request Charges (PUT/COPY/POST vs GET/SELECT), and Lifecycle Transition fees.
S3 Storage Classes Capacity Pricing (us-east-1 / us-west-2)
| Storage Tier | First 50 TB/mo | Next 450 TB/mo | Over 500 TB/mo | Min Duration | Retrieval Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard (Hot Active) | $0.023 / GB | $0.022 / GB | $0.021 / GB | None | $0.00 / GB |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering (Frequent) | $0.023 / GB | $0.022 / GB | $0.021 / GB | None | $0.00 / GB |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering (Archive) | $0.0036 / GB | $0.0036 / GB | $0.0036 / GB | 90 Days | $0.00 / GB |
| S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (IA) | $0.0125 / GB | $0.0125 / GB | $0.0125 / GB | 30 Days | $0.01 / GB |
| S3 One Zone-IA | $0.0100 / GB | $0.0100 / GB | $0.0100 / GB | 30 Days | $0.01 / GB |
| S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval | $0.0040 / GB | $0.0040 / GB | $0.0040 / GB | 90 Days | $0.03 / GB |
| S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval | $0.0036 / GB | $0.0036 / GB | $0.0036 / GB | 90 Days | $0.01 / GB |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | $0.00099 / GB | $0.00099 / GB | $0.00099 / GB | 180 Days | $0.005 / GB |
S3 Data Transfer (Egress) & API Request Charges
| Operation / Destination | Rate / Price | Notes & Arbitrage Advice |
|---|---|---|
| Data Transfer IN (Upload to S3) | $0.00 / GB (Free) | AWS does not charge for ingress traffic |
| Data Transfer OUT to Internet (First 100 GB/mo) | $0.00 / GB (Free Tier) | Monthly recurring free allowance |
| Data Transfer OUT to Internet (Next 9.9 TB) | $0.09 / GB ($90 per TB) | Main bandwidth cost driver; switch to Cloudflare R2 to eliminate |
| Data Transfer OUT to Internet (Next 40 TB) | $0.085 / GB ($85 per TB) | Tiered volume discount |
| Data Transfer OUT to CloudFront | $0.00 / GB (Free) | Egress to CloudFront CDN is free; CDN egress charges apply |
| PUT, COPY, POST, LIST Requests | $0.005 per 1,000 requests | Class A request operations |
| GET, SELECT, and Other Requests | $0.0004 per 1,000 requests | Class B request operations ($0.40 per 1M GETs) |
Official Developer SDK / API Integration Example
Python SDK
# AWS S3 Official Python Boto3 Client Setup
import boto3
s3 = boto3.client(
's3',
region_name='us-east-1',
aws_access_key_id='YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY',
aws_secret_access_key='YOUR_AWS_SECRET_KEY'
)
# Standard S3 PUT Request ($0.005 / 1K requests)
s3.put_object(
Bucket='production-assets',
Key='data.json',
Body=b'{"status": "ok"}',
StorageClass='STANDARD' # Or 'GLACIER_IR', 'INTELLIGENT_TIERING'
)Frequently Asked Billing & Pricing Questions
Why is AWS S3 egress charged at $0.09 per GB?
AWS uses data transfer fees to monetize outbound traffic and discourage multi-cloud architectures. While storing data on S3 is relatively cheap ($0.023/GB), streaming or downloading that data to users incurs high network bandwidth charges.
What is the early deletion fee on S3 Glacier?
If you delete or overwrite an object before its required minimum retention period (90 days for Glacier, 180 days for Deep Archive), AWS bills you for the remaining days as if the object was still stored.
How do I eliminate S3 egress fees completely?
You can replicate or migrate public media assets to Cloudflare R2, which uses standard S3 API calls but charges $0.00 for data egress worldwide.