AWS Glacier Retrieval Time: Understanding Storage Options and Costs

AWS Glacier is a cost-effective storage option for archiving data that's not frequently accessed.

With a retrieval time of 3-5 hours for Expedited retrievals, AWS Glacier is suitable for applications that require quick access to data.

The average retrieval time for Standard retrievals is 5-12 hours, making it a good option for data that can wait a bit longer.

The cost of AWS Glacier storage is $0.004 per GB-month for the Standard storage class, making it an affordable option for long-term data storage.

This cost is significantly lower than the cost of storing data on local hard drives or other cloud storage services.

Curious to learn more? Check out: How to Access Aws Glacier Storage

AWS Glacier offers three retrieval options: Expedited, Standard, and Bulk retrievals, each with varying access times and costs.

The Expedited retrieval option allows you to access your data in as little as 1-5 minutes, but it's the most expensive option.

Standard retrievals take longer, typically between 5-12 hours, and are a good balance between cost and speed.

Bulk retrievals are the cheapest option, but they can take up to 12 hours to complete.

You can request up to 1,000 transactions per second for restore requests, which is useful for large-scale data retrieval.

Here are the three retrieval options compared:

Storage classes in AWS Glacier are designed to help you manage your data with varying levels of access and retrieval requirements. The two main storage classes mentioned in the article are Glacier and Deep Archive.

Glacier is the default storage class for retrieval requests that don't specify an option, with retrieval times of 3-5 hours for objects stored in the Glacier storage class. This makes it a great option for quick access to your data.

The cost for using the Standard retrieval option is $0.01 per GB, plus an extra charge of $0.05 for every 1,000 requests. This is a straightforward pricing model that helps you budget for your data retrieval needs.

Here's a breakdown of the costs for the Standard retrieval option:

For example, retrieving 500 archives that were 1 GB each would cost $5.025. This is a simple calculation that helps you estimate your costs upfront.

The S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class is designed for archiving data that rarely needs to be accessed, with a minimum storage duration period of 180 days. This makes it an ideal option for long-term data storage.

Retrieval costs can be reduced further using bulk retrieval, which returns data within 48 hours. This is a great option if you need to retrieve large amounts of data at once.

Data stored in the S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class has a default retrieval time of 12 hours, which is a bit longer than the Glacier storage class. However, this is still a relatively quick retrieval time considering the low costs associated with this storage class.

Discover more: Aws Data Lakehouse

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval can be 68% cheaper than S3 Standard-IA storage, making it a cost-effective option for archival purposes.

The cost savings come from lower storage costs, but retrieval costs can be a concern. Retrieving 1TB of data from Glacier Instant Retrieval is 54.7% more expensive than Standard-IA.

Recommended read: Aws Glacier Cost

Retrieval costs per GB are triple the price of Standard-IA, and GET requests are 10 times more expensive. However, even with these higher retrieval costs, Glacier Instant Retrieval is still 30% cheaper than Standard-IA for large file transfers.

For smaller numbers of large files, Glacier Instant Retrieval's retrieval costs scale better, resulting in a 20% difference compared to Standard-IA.

The Expedited Retrieval type offers the highest data retrieval speed, but at the highest price: $0.03 per GB and $0.01 per request.

Expedited retrieval is a game-changer for emergency data access. It allows you to quickly access your data stored in Glacier storage class upon urgent requests.

The Expedited retrieval type is not available for objects stored in the Glacier Deep Archive storage class. This means you can't use it for the most secure and long-term storage options.

Data accessed using Expedited retrieval is typically available within 1-5 minutes, making it a great option for urgent requests. For all but the largest archived objects (250 MB+), this speed is quite impressive.

Expand your knowledge: Aws S3 Storage Types

The cost of Expedited retrieval is $0.03 per GB and $0.01 per request. This can add up quickly, as seen in the example of retrieving 500 archives with a size of 1 GB each, which would cost $20.00.

To ensure consistent Expedited retrieval performance, you can opt for Provisioned capacity. This costs $100 per month and guarantees that at least three expedited retrievals can be performed every five minutes with up to 150 MB/s of retrieval throughput.

Here are the key benefits of Expedited retrieval:

Storage costs for S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval are 68% lower than S3 Standard-IA.

You can save a significant amount of money with S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, especially when compared to S3 Standard.

However, retrieval costs for Glacier Instant Retrieval are substantially more expensive than Standard-IA, with retrieval costs per GB being triple the price.

But even with these higher retrieval costs, Glacier Instant Retrieval is still 30% cheaper than Standard-IA when downloading large amounts of data.

Additional reading: When Is the Best Time to Do Instacart?

The type of files you're retrieving also matters, with Glacier Instant Retrieval scaling better with smaller numbers of large files.

For example, when retrieving 5 files per day of 1GB in size, Glacier Instant's retrieval costs are nearly 20% lower than Standard-IA.

This means that S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is an attractive option for archiving files that shouldn't be accessed regularly, but need to be rapidly available if needed.

In this case, the cost savings are astounding, especially when compared to S3 Glacier Deep Archive, which is still the cheapest option, but comes with a delay in retrievals.

Understanding your business needs is key to choosing the right AWS Glacier retrieval time.

If you need immediate access to your data, S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is the way to go.

If a few minutes of wait time is acceptable, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval can still save you heaps.

For even more cost savings, consider using S3 Glacier Deep Archive if hours or days of wait time are an option.

Sometimes, business needs are unclear, and that's where S3 Intelligent-Tiering comes in.