Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and Glacier Deep Archive Retrieval Rates

Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is a low-cost archive storage class that enables you to back up your data on a long-term basis at a price lower than Amazon S3. A typical use case for Amazon S3 Glacier usage is the storage of data that does not require immediate restoration. Such data can include critical documents, SQL transaction logs, old video footage, etc. While Amazon S3 provides immediately accessible storage at higher prices, Glacier Flexible Retrieval provides low-cost storage that can be accessed within hours.

When you select restoring data from Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, the following three data retrieval types are available:

• Expedited Retrieval
• Standard Retrieval
• Bulk Retrieval

Expedited Retrieval

This retrieval type allows you to access your data stored only in the Glacier storage class upon emergency requests for a subset of archives are required. For all but the largest archived objects (250 MB+), data accessed using the Expedited retrieval type is typically available within 1–5 minutes.

This type features the highest data retrieval speed at the highest price:

• the shortest possible data retrieval time (1 to 5 minutes);
• a cost of $0.03 per GB and $0.01 per request.

There are two types of Expedited retrievals:

• On-Demand On-Demand requests are similar to EC2 On-Demand instances and are available most of the time.

• Provisioned

Provisioned capacity guarantees that your retrieval capacity for Expedited retrievals is available even when demand for such retrievals is very high. Provisioned capacity units allow you to pay a fixed up-front fee to expedite retrievals from Amazon Glacier vaults for a given month.

When you select this option, all Expedited retrievals will automatically be served via your Provisioned capacity. Each unit of Provisioned capacity costs $100 per month and ensures that at least three expedited retrievals can be performed every five minutes with up to 150 MB/s of retrieval throughput. If you exceed that limit, expect errors on the part of Amazon.

Learn more about Provisioned Capacity.

Standard Retrieval

This retrieval type provides you with quick access to any of your archived objects within several hours. Standard retrieval is the default option for the Glacier and Deep Archive retrieval requests that do not specify the retrieval option. Typically, retrievals of this type are implemented within 3–5 hours for objects stored in the Glacier storage class and within 12 hours for objects stored in the Deep Archive storage class respectively.

The Standard option is selected by default. It enables you to retrieve your data on time and your budget:

• typical data retrieval time (3 to 5 hours);
• a cost of $0.01 per GB, along with an extra charge of $0.05 for every 1,000 requests.

Bulk Retrieval

This retrieval type is the lowest-cost option in Amazon S3 Glacier and enables you to affordably retrieve large data amounts (up to petabytes). Bulk retrievals are typically implemented within 5–12 hours for objects stored in the Glacier storage class and within 48 hours for objects stored in the Glacier Deep Archive storage class.

Bulk retrieval is the best option for scheduled or non-urgent data retrieval. It features the lowest data retrieval speed at the lowest cost:

• extended data retrieval time (5 to 12 hours);
• a cost of $0.0025 per GB (with every 1000 requests amounting to $0.025).