AWSAmazon S3 GlacierStorage

aws_glacier_vault cost estimation

A vault for long-term archival storage, billed per GB-month at the deep-archive rate. 1 TB is ~$3.60/month — cheap to store, but retrieval costs time and money.

An aws_glacier_vault is a container for archival data in Amazon S3 Glacier. Storage is extremely cheap — ~$0.0036/GB-month for the standard Glacier tier — so 1 TB is about $3.60/month. The trade is retrieval: getting data back costs a per-GB retrieval fee and takes minutes to hours depending on the retrieval tier (Expedited, Standard, Bulk).

Glacier is for genuinely cold data: compliance archives, long-term backups, and records you must keep for years but rarely read. The storage rate is a rounding error; the cost mistakes are on the retrieval side — frequently restoring data that should have lived in a warmer tier, or using Expedited retrieval when Bulk would do.

Note that the modern approach is often S3 with Glacier storage classes (Glacier Instant Retrieval, Flexible Retrieval, Deep Archive) managed by lifecycle rules, rather than the standalone Glacier vault API. Either way the economics are the same: near-free storage, paid and slow retrieval.

c3x prices the vault from monthly_storage_gb at the Glacier storage rate; retrieval is usage-driven and modelled separately.

Terraform example

A minimal but realistic configuration that C3X can estimate.

resource "aws_glacier_vault" "archive" {
  name = "compliance-archive"

  tags = {
    Retention = "7-years"
  }
}

Pricing dimensions

What you actually pay for when you provision aws_glacier_vault.

DimensionUnitWhat's being charged
Archive storageper GB-monthDeep-archive storage rate — extremely cheap. The cost trade is on retrieval, not storage.
$0.0036/GB-month → 1 TB ≈ $3.60/month
Retrievalper GB + per requestGetting data back costs a per-GB fee that varies by tier (Expedited > Standard > Bulk) plus request charges, and takes minutes to hours. Usage-based.

Sample C3X output

1 TB of archive storage:

aws_glacier_vault.archive
└─ Archive storage   1000 GB-month   $3.60
                     Monthly         $3.60

Optimization tips

Common ways to reduce aws_glacier_vault cost without changing the workload.

Only archive genuinely cold data

Avoids retrieval-fee surprises

Glacier's cheap storage assumes you rarely read the data. If you retrieve often, the per-GB retrieval fees and the multi-hour wait outweigh the storage savings — that data belongs in a warmer S3 class.

Use Bulk retrieval when you can wait

Large vs Expedited on big restores

Bulk retrieval is the cheapest tier (hours-long). Reserve Expedited (minutes, premium price) for genuine emergencies; for routine restores, Standard or Bulk costs far less per GB.

Prefer S3 Glacier storage classes with lifecycle rules

Operational; right-tier automatically

Managing archival via S3 lifecycle rules to Glacier Instant/Flexible/Deep Archive is more flexible than the standalone vault and integrates with the rest of your S3 tiering — see the S3 storage class comparison.

Match the Glacier tier to restore expectations

Tier-dependent

Deep Archive is cheapest to store but slowest/most expensive to restore; Instant Retrieval costs more to store but reads immediately. Pick the tier by how you expect to access the data.

FAQ

How cheap is S3 Glacier storage?

Very — ~$0.0036/GB-month for the standard Glacier tier, so 1 TB is ~$3.60/month. The cost is on retrieval: a per-GB fee that varies by tier plus a wait of minutes to hours. Storage is near-free; getting data back is what costs.

Why did my Glacier bill spike?

Almost always retrieval. Restoring large volumes — especially with Expedited retrieval — incurs per-GB fees that dwarf the storage cost. Glacier assumes infrequent access; frequent restores mean the data should be in a warmer tier.

Should I use a Glacier vault or S3 Glacier storage classes?

For most new work, S3 with Glacier storage classes (Instant/Flexible/Deep Archive) managed by lifecycle rules is more flexible than the standalone vault API. The storage economics are the same; the S3 approach integrates with your broader tiering.

How does c3x estimate the cost?

From monthly_storage_gb at the Glacier storage rate. Retrieval is usage-driven (it depends on how much you restore and which tier), so it's modelled separately.

Related resources

AWS
aws_s3_bucket

S3 Glacier storage classes via lifecycle rules — the modern approach

Estimate this resource in your own Terraform

Free, open source, no API key. C3X parses your Terraform and shows line-item cost for every resource, including aws_glacier_vault.

Get StartedStar on GitHub
← Browse all AWS resources