Are Retrieval Charges Incurred During S3 Lifecycle Transitions?

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Hello,

I’m planning to use S3 Lifecycle Policies to transition objects from S3 Standard-IA to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. I understand that there are lifecycle transition request costs (e.g., $0.02 per 1,000 requests), but I’m unsure if additional charges like data retrieval charges ($0.01 per GB for Standard-IA) or PUT request costs ($0.005 per 1,000 requests) also apply during this operation.

For example: • If I have 167,100,000 objects in Standard-IA totaling 501 TB of data and I use a lifecycle policy to transition them to Glacier Instant Retrieval: • Will I incur retrieval charges of $5,010 for retrieving 501 TB of data (at $0.01 per GB)? • Will I incur PUT request costs of $835.50 for 167,100,000 objects (at $0.005 per 1,000 PUT requests)? • Or are these costs bypassed during lifecycle transitions, leaving only the lifecycle transition cost of $3,342 (at $0.02 per 1,000 requests)?

I want to confirm if lifecycle transitions are managed entirely internally by AWS (bypassing retrieval and PUT charges), or if these additional costs need to be factored into my calculations.

Thank you for your clarification!

1 Answer
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When using S3 Lifecycle policies to transition objects from S3 Standard-IA to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, you will not incur additional retrieval charges or PUT request costs. The only cost associated with this transition is the lifecycle transition request cost.

In your specific example with 167,100,000 objects totaling 501 TB of data:

  1. You will not incur the $5,010 retrieval charge for the 501 TB of data.
  2. You will not incur the $835.50 in PUT request costs for the 167,100,000 objects.
  3. You will only incur the lifecycle transition cost of $3,342 (at $0.02 per 1,000 requests for 167,100,000 objects).

S3 Lifecycle transitions are managed internally by AWS, and the process bypasses the normal retrieval and PUT charges that would be associated with manually moving data between storage classes. This internal management is designed to make the transition process more cost-effective and efficient for users.

It's important to note that while you won't incur these additional charges during the transition, there are other factors to consider when using S3 Lifecycle policies:

  1. Minimum storage duration: S3 Standard-IA has a minimum storage duration of 30 days. If you transition objects before this period, you'll be charged for the unused days.

  2. Object size considerations: Amazon S3 has recently implemented a default minimum object size of 128 KB for S3 Lifecycle transition rules. This is to help optimize transition costs for datasets with many small objects. You can override this default if needed.

  3. Transition timing: S3 Lifecycle actions are asynchronous, so there might be a slight delay between when an object becomes eligible for transition and when the actual transition occurs.

By using S3 Lifecycle policies, you're able to automate the process of moving data to more cost-effective storage tiers without incurring additional retrieval or PUT charges, making it an efficient way to manage your storage costs over time.
Sources
Troubleshooting Amazon S3 Lifecycle issues - Amazon Simple Storage Service
Amazon S3 FAQs - Cloud Object Storage - AWS
Amazon S3 to apply a default minimum object size for S3 Lifecycle transition rules - AWS

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