Storage classes
Where each Google Cloud Storage class stops paying off
Prices checked · Vendor details further down checked
For 10 TB with 1 TB downloaded a month, Coldline costs least for a normal month, at $185.04; the month you restore it all, Standard costs least, at $1,407.27.
| Class | Ready to download | 10 TB normal month | 10 TB restore month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldline United States (South Carolina) | At once | $185.04 | $1,498.89 |
| Coldline Belgium | At once | $197.64 | $1,511.44 |
| Nearline United States (South Carolina) | At once | $209.10 | $1,420.82 |
| Nearline Belgium | At once | $221.20 | $1,432.88 |
| Archive United States (South Carolina) | At once | $279.75 | $1,913.00 |
| Standard United States (South Carolina) | At once | $289.28 | $1,407.27 |
| Archive Belgium | At once | $294.50 | $1,927.70 |
| Standard Belgium | At once | $301.32 | $1,419.26 |
| Rapid United States (South Carolina zonal bucket) | At once | $1,137.74 | $2,261.07 |
Every class on 10 TB kept, 1 TB downloaded in a normal month, all 10 TB in the month you restore, cheapest normal month first, with the time a restore takes to become ready.
Cheaper to keep, dearer to read back
Keeping 10 TB for a monthReading all 10 TB back
- StandardAt once
- NearlineAt once
- ColdlineAt once
- ArchiveAt once
Put your own numbers through the calculator to see what this charge does to a normal month and to the month you restore.
The crossover is monthly storage saved divided by retrieval per GiB
Let f be the fraction of stored GiB read in an average month. In us-east1, lower-class monthly byte cost is storage rate + f x retrieval rate. Standard monthly byte cost is $0.02 per GiB because retrieval is not charged. Solving the equality gives the read frequency where the lower class stops saving money on byte meters. [1]
The calculation requires retention through the class minimum and leaves request operations and egress as separate lines. Delete, overwrite, or move before the minimum can add the remaining-duration charge. Reading data without deleting or overwriting the source does not create that early-deletion event. [1]
Show the tableas checked 25 July 2026
| Input | Price or rule | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Standard baseline | $0.02/GiB-month and retrieval not charged in us-east1 [1] | Region and unit stay fixed |
| Data read back | f x stored GiB x class retrieval rate [1] | A 37.6% value for f means 0.376 of the stored bytes are read in the month |
| Minimum duration | Nearline 30 days, Coldline 90 days, Archive 365 days [1] | The byte breakpoint applies only after the minimum storage period is met |
| Class A and B requests | Excluded from byte math, then added from the class schedule after the published free allowances [1] | Many small-object reads move the real breakpoint |
| Egress | A common destination-aware network path cancels out of the relative class comparison [1] | It still belongs on the restore bill |
Archive stops winning at 37.6% of stored bytes read per month
Nearline, Coldline, and Archive each trade a lower storage meter for retrieval and a longer minimum duration. Rapid moves the other way: its storage price is higher than Standard and reading it adds $0.0006/GiB of read transfer, so no storage-savings breakpoint exists. [1]
Google's storage-class documentation says no class has a minimum object size, and every class gives low-latency access with no offline retrieval step: even Archive data is available within milliseconds, not hours or days. That describes how quickly a read starts, not how long a whole backup takes to download, which still depends on its size and your connection. [2]
Show the tableas checked 25 July to 11 October 2026
| Class | Storage and retrieval prices | Minimum duration | Break-even versus Standard | Wrong access pattern | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $0.02/GiB-month; retrieval not charged | does not apply | does not apply; this is the baseline | Long-lived data read below one full copy per month when Nearline request costs and its 30-day minimum do not erase the storage saving | [1] |
| Nearline | $0.01/GiB-month + $0.01/GiB retrieval | 30 days | ($0.02 - $0.01) / $0.01 = 1.00, so 100% per month; one full read during the 30-day minimum | More than one full read per month, deletion or overwrite before day 30, or many small reads that exceed the operation allowances | [1] |
| Coldline | $0.004/GiB-month + $0.02/GiB retrieval | 90 days | ($0.02 - $0.004) / $0.02 = 0.80, so 80% per month; 2.40 full reads during the 90-day minimum | More than 80% read per month, deletion or overwrite before day 90, or request-heavy access where the higher Class B price matters | [1] |
| Archive | $0.0012/GiB-month + $0.05/GiB retrieval | 365 days | ($0.02 - $0.0012) / $0.05 = 0.376, so 37.60% per month; 0.376 x 365 / 30 = 4.5747 full reads during an illustrative 365-day minimum window | More than 37.60% read per month, delete or overwrite before day 365, or many-small-object reads where Class B requests become material | [1] |
| Rapid | $0.11/GiB-month + $0.0006/GiB read transfer | does not apply | not comparable for storage savings; $0.11 - $0.02 = $0.09 more per GiB-month, and $0.0006 more per GiB read, at every read frequency in the published byte prices | Ordinary backup retention and restore access where a Rapid-specific requirement has not been established | [1] |
Archive's read-request price is 125 times Standard's
Google Cloud's schedule includes 50,000 free Class B operations per month for Standard, Nearline, Coldline, and Archive. The next 950,000 reads in a one-million-read month cost $0.38 in Standard, $0.95 in Nearline, $9.50 in Coldline, or $47.50 in Archive. [1]
Rapid's Class B rate is $0.0002 per 1,000 with no free monthly allowance, producing $0.20 for one million operations. Request pricing therefore changes independently from both storage and retrieval. [1]
Show the tableas checked 25 July 2026
| Class | Class B rate | One-million-read arithmetic | Charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $0.0004 per 1,000 after 50,000 free | (1,000,000 - 50,000) / 1,000 x $0.0004 | $0.38 [1] |
| Nearline | $0.001 per 1,000 after 50,000 free | (1,000,000 - 50,000) / 1,000 x $0.001 | $0.95 [1] |
| Coldline | $0.01 per 1,000 after 50,000 free | (1,000,000 - 50,000) / 1,000 x $0.01 | $9.50 [1] |
| Archive | $0.05 per 1,000 after 50,000 free | (1,000,000 - 50,000) / 1,000 x $0.05 | $47.50 [1] |
| Rapid | $0.0002 per 1,000; free allowance 0 | 1,000,000 / 1,000 x $0.0002 | $0.20 [1] |
Retrieval and egress stay separate on a read-only restore
Read-only restoration leaves the source object in its class, so the early-deletion meter does not apply. Retrieval applies to Nearline, Coldline, and Archive bytes and Rapid charges its own read transfer, Class B applies to the read operations, and destination-aware network transfer applies, Rapid included, when bytes leave the covered provider path. [1]
There is no restore step to wait for or pay for. Every Google class is read directly, with low latency and no offline retrieval, so no temporary rehydrated copy is made; the retrieval price above is what reading colder data costs. A copy you choose to keep elsewhere would have its own storage charge. [2] [1]
Show the tableas checked 25 July to 11 October 2026
| Restore line | How it is charged | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Retrieval bytes | Nearline $0.01/GiB, Coldline $0.02/GiB, Archive $0.05/GiB; Rapid's read transfer $0.0006/GiB | $0.01, $0.02, $0.05, or $0.0006 per GiB [1] |
| Read requests | Class B rate after the applicable allowance | conditional [1] |
| Temporary rehydrated copy | None: objects are read in place, with no offline retrieval step | No charge, because no copy is made [2] |
| Wait before data can be read | Low latency in every class, with no offline retrieval; Archive data is available within milliseconds | Not a separate charge [2] |
| Internet egress | Destination-aware network schedule | conditional [1] |
| Early deletion | No delete, overwrite, move, or transition in the read-only scenario | does not apply [1] |
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these pages, on the date shown. Each numbered reference in the text links to its entry here. Vendors change prices; if a date looks old, check the source. Three vendors publish a downloadable price feed and the rest are re-checked by hand, which is why the dates are not uniform.
Source pages checked 2 sources
- 1 Google Cloud Storage pricing cloud.google.com · checked 25 July 2026
- 2 Google Cloud Storage docs: Storage classes docs.cloud.google.com · checked 11 October 2026