Summary

  • An EBS snapshot becomes a full copy when archived. Blocks still referenced by other snapshots stay in Standard, so a new Archive charge can arrive without removing the old expense.
  • AWS’s own 200 GB example prices a 30-day Archive month at US$2.50. A 15-day temporary restore adds US$6 for retrieval and US$5 for Standard storage, while the Archive copy keeps billing.

A discount with a larger multiplier

US$2.50 a month is an attractive number to take into a cost-cutting meeting. In AWS’s pricing example, it buys a month of Archive storage for a 200 GB EBS snapshot. Then someone asks to use the copy. A temporary restore for 15 days adds US$11. Keep the Archive copy for the full 30-day month and those three snapshot charges total US$13.50.

The person approving the saving ought to meet the person promising the customer a working system. A hosting company often sells both retention and recovery. The cheap storage line buys one part of that service; bringing the copy back needs its own budget and time.

Before anyone retrieves anything, archiving changes the quantity being priced. Standard EBS snapshots are incremental: they store blocks changed since the previous snapshot. Archive converts a snapshot into a full copy of the blocks written to the volume at the time it was taken. A lower price per gigabyte can meet a much larger number of gigabytes.

Full size also differs from rented disk capacity. AWS’s example starts with a 1,000 GB volume containing 200 GB of written data. The archived snapshot is 200 GB. Empty capacity is not filled in for billing merely because it was provisioned. The useful comparison is between the complete copy and the Standard storage that the move actually removes.

The old rent moves next door

Snapshots in the same lineage can reference common data. Archive one of them and blocks needed by the others remain in Standard. AWS assigns their data and storage costs to the next snapshot in the lineage.

Its guide supplies a blunt example. Archive the snapshot labelled Snap B and 4 GiB are attributed to Snap C. Standard storage costs stay unchanged. A full B copy starts costing money in Archive. The moving job is finished; the old premises remain occupied.

AWS advertises up to 75% lower snapshot storage costs for suitable copies kept at least 90 days and rarely accessed. Its documentation also warns that archiving daily incremental snapshots can increase costs. Dividing the previous bill by four silently removes both the qualification and the change in billable representation.

There is a sensible destination for the discount. The only snapshot of a volume has an equivalent full size before and after archiving. A final project copy kept for a long time and seldom retrieved can benefit from the lower rate. Its role in the storage set matters more than an old date in the inventory.

The return has its own meter

The official 200 GB example uses a Region charging US$0.0125 per GB-month for Archive, US$0.03 per GB retrieved and US$0.05 per GB-month for Standard. That produces the US$2.50 Archive charge for a 30-day month.

Temporarily restoring that copy for 15 days incurs US$6 retrieval and US$5 Standard storage. The Archive copy remains and keeps charging. With the full month of Archive residence, those three snapshot items add up to US$13.50. A subsequently created EBS volume has its own charge; the actual Region, contract and taxes set the customer’s bill.

When a temporary Standard copy expires, its storage charge ends and the Archive copy stays. A permanent restore removes the Archive copy and retains the Standard one. Do that before the 90-day minimum and the remaining minimum Archive period is also billed proportionately. Early deletion has the same remaining-period consequence. A temporary restore alone does not incur that early-exit charge.

Money is only half of the return. AWS says restoring from Archive to Standard can take up to 72 hours, depending on size. Creating a volume and recovering the application come afterwards. That is a storage-stage interval, not a promise that the customer’s business will be working at its end.

Access changes too. An archived snapshot cannot directly create a volume, be shared or be copied. Accounts that previously received a shared snapshot lose access when it is archived. Restore it to Standard first. The administrator moving the copy controls an operational promise as well as a tariff.

A particular customer’s saving needs current full size, unreferenced Standard blocks, a retention and restore plan, and actual regional rates. Put those inputs together before selling the reduction. AWS prices a stay in storage. The hosting business has sold a return to use. Its margin has to survive both transactions.

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