Storage classes
Where each Google Cloud Storage class stops paying off
A us-east1 class comparison of Standard, Nearline, Coldline, Archive, and Rapid with visible GiB arithmetic, request-cost consequences, honest latency states, and a named wrong-choice access pattern for each class.
Put your own numbers through the calculator to see what this meter does to a normal month and to the day 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 mutating the source does not create that early-deletion event. [1]
| Input | Treatment | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Standard baseline | $0.02/GiB-month and retrieval not charged in us-east1 [1] | Region and unit stay fixed |
| Retrieved data | 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 retention gate 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 | Common destination-aware network path cancels only from the relative class comparison [1] | It remains on the restore receipt |
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 meter is higher than Standard and its captured retrieval meter is also not charged, so no storage-savings breakpoint exists. [1]
The captured provider record does not publish a minimum billable object size or a class-specific retrieval latency for these classes. Those fields remain not published rather than becoming zero or an invented instant-access claim. [1]
| Class | Storage and retrieval meters | Minimum duration | Break-even versus Standard | Wrong access pattern | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 retrieved | 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 retrieved | 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 retrieved | 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; retrieval not charged | does not apply | not comparable for storage savings; $0.11 - $0.02 = $0.09 more per GiB-month at every read frequency in the captured byte meters | 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 captured 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 captured Class B rate is $0.0002 per 1,000 with no free monthly allowance in the record, producing $0.20 for one million operations. Request pricing therefore changes independently from both storage and retrieval. [1]
| Class | Class B meter | 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; captured 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, Class B applies to the read operations, and destination-aware network transfer applies when bytes leave the covered provider path. [1]
No temporary rehydrated-copy meter or class-specific latency was published in the captured provider record. The comparison therefore leaves those cells not published instead of manufacturing a zero or a time estimate. A separately created copy would have its own storage meter. [1]
| Restore line | Meter treatment | State |
|---|---|---|
| Retrieval bytes | Nearline $0.01/GiB, Coldline $0.02/GiB, Archive $0.05/GiB | $0.01, $0.02, or $0.05 per GiB [1] |
| Read requests | Class B rate after the applicable allowance | conditional [1] |
| Temporary rehydrated copy | No separate meter in the captured class records | not published [1] |
| Class-specific retrieval latency | No latency value in the captured class records | not published [1] |
| 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 machine-readable feed and the rest are re-checked by hand, which is why the dates are not uniform.
The source ledger1 sources
- 1Google Cloud: Storage pricingcloud.google.com ยท checked 2026-07-25 15:34:44+00:00