MundoKit

Object storage cost & lifecycle break-even calculator

Enter object counts and sizes, a transition age and a deletion age. Compare keeping the cohort in Standard with moving eligible objects to Standard-IA, using editable US East example rates.

Inputs
One bucket per line. Use representative sizes, e.g. 1000000, 64. No header or thousands separators. Maximum 1,000 lines / 100 KB.
Days; one cohort of objects, deleted at this age.
Days after upload. Zero is allowed under the July 2026 update.
Models an explicit lifecycle size-filter override. Otherwise these objects stay in Standard.
Planning assumption; edit for your billing period. Costs are prorated by this divisor.
US East example: first storage tier. Edit for aggregate volume or region.
One-time total over the cohort lifetime, not per month. Only IA retrieval processing is included.

Results

Lifecycle cohort cost
$61.09
Keep everything in Standard
$71.59
Lifecycle savings (negative = costs more)
$10.51
Break-even total object age
59.66 days
Lifetime costs for this cohort — USD
ComponentCost / quantity
Standard storage$26.67
IA storage during retention$24.41
Early-deletion remainder$0.00
Lifecycle transition requests$10.00
IA retrieval processing$0.00
Actual data1,037.597656 GB
IA billable data (minimum sizes)976.5625 GB
Objects transitioned1,000,000
  • US East (N. Virginia) example prices, as of 2026-11-14; all rates are editable. This is a cohort estimate, not a recurring monthly bill.
  • Break-even holds your entered total retrieval volume fixed as retention changes. Excludes GET/PUT requests, internet egress, taxes, credits, versions and replication. Shared Standard storage volume may qualify for lower tiers; edit its rate.
  • A transition at the deletion age is skipped. Small objects stay in Standard unless you enable the explicit override. Lifecycle execution timing is approximated by the entered day.

Results update as you type. The share link stores your inputs after the # in the address, which is not sent to our server, but anyone you send it to can read them.

Prices change often. We list the date we last checked each price; confirm on the provider’s official pricing page before you budget.

How it works

This compares one upload cohort over its lifetime. Each bucket represents objects of the entered size; use several buckets rather than one average when sizes cross the minimum. Zero-byte objects are valid and still incur minimum storage and per-object transition charges when moved. AWS bills Standard-IA for at least 128 KiB per object and 30 days in that class. Objects below 128 KiB stay in Standard by default; the override models a deliberately configured lifecycle size filter.

Actual GB = Σ(count × KiB) / 1,048,576 IA billable GB = Σ(eligible count × max(KiB, 128)) / 1,048,576 IA days = deletion age − transition age IA storage = billable GB × IA rate × max(IA days, 30) / month days Lifecycle total = remaining Standard storage + IA storage + transition requests + retrieval

Storage GB means 2³⁰ bytes on the S3 bill. The billing-month divisor defaults to a planning assumption of 30 days and is editable; actual calendar-period billing may differ. Early-deletion remainder is shown separately from storage during retention. Storage rates are flat inputs: the Standard example is its first US East tier, not a blended rate for a large account.

Break-even solves the two linear portions before and after the IA minimum duration, including transition fees and the fixed total retrieval charge you entered. It reports total age since upload. If no objects transition, break-even is not applicable. If both alternatives cost the same throughout all retention durations, the result says equal costs throughout. A result beyond your deletion age means the scenario has not yet broken even. If IA's billable size makes its daily cost too high, there may be no finite break-even.

AWS removed the minimum age before transition on July 16, 2026; day-zero transitions are permitted. This does not remove the 30-day minimum charge inside Standard-IA. Prices are editable examples checked against the linked official rate tables; refresh them for your region and account. No intermediate values are rounded; displayed costs round to cents and ages to two decimals.

Worked examples

One GiB spread across 1,024 objects

Enter 1024, 1024, retain 90 days and transition at day 30. With a 30-day month, Standard at $0.023, IA at $0.0125 and transitions at $0.01 per 1,000: Standard costs $0.069. Lifecycle costs $0.023 + $0.025 + $0.01024 = $0.05824, saving $0.01076 before display rounding. Break-even age is 59.66 days, assuming no retrievals.

A million tiny objects can cost more to move

Enter 1048576, 1, retain 30 days and transition at day zero. Enable the small-object override. Actual data is 1 GB, but IA bills 128 GB. IA storage is $1.60 and transition requests are $10.48576, totaling $12.08576, versus $0.023 in Standard. With the override off, all objects stay in Standard and cost $0.023.

Frequently asked questions

Why are small objects expensive in Standard-IA?
An object of 1 KiB is billed as 128 KiB in Standard-IA. You also pay a transition request for each moved object. Object count can outweigh storage savings.
What happens if I delete ten days after transition?
You pay for those ten days plus the remaining twenty days of the 30-day minimum. The calculator lists the latter as an early-deletion remainder.
Can I transition before day 30?
Yes. AWS announced day-zero transitions to Standard-IA and One Zone-IA on July 16, 2026. The minimum billable duration in IA remains 30 days.
Does this include all read and transfer costs?
No. The retrieval input covers total IA retrieval processing only. Add GET requests, internet egress, replication and other account charges separately. Retrieved data may exceed stored data when objects are read repeatedly.
Is this a monthly bill estimate?
It is a lifetime comparison for one cohort. Recurring uploads, noncurrent versions and overwritten objects require separate cohorts. Changing prices, tier aggregation and calendar-month lengths may change the bill.

Sources

Last reviewed 2026-11-14; next review due by 2026-12-14. The method is written out above so you can check our math.