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How long you keep paying for an object after you delete it

Prices checked · Vendor details further down checked

Deleting a 10 TB backup from Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive a week after upload still bills the other 173 days: $53.17. 22 classes at 10 vendors set a minimum, from 30 days to 365 days at Google Cloud Storage Archive. Even a class that is free to read can have one: Wasabi bills 90 days and Storj bills 30 days.

Class MinimumDeleted after 7 daysDeleted after 30 days
Google Cloud Storage Archive United States (South Carolina) 365 days $133.37 $124.80
OVHcloud Object Storage Cold Archive France (Paris) 4,380 hours $105.91 $92.03
Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS United States (East US) 180 days $53.17 $46.10
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive United States (Northern Virginia) 180 days $53.17 $46.10
OVHcloud Object Storage Active Archive France (Paris) 2,190 hours $137.28 $99.80
Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage United States (US East 1) 90 days $201.05 $145.34
Tigris Archive Automatic location 90 days $103.07 $74.51
Tigris Archive Instant Retrieval Automatic location 90 days $103.07 $74.51
Google Cloud Storage Coldline United States (South Carolina) 90 days $103.07 $74.51
Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval United States (Northern Virginia) 90 days $103.07 $74.51
Azure Blob Storage Cold LRS United States (East US) 90 days $92.76 $67.06
Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval United States (Northern Virginia) 90 days $92.76 $67.06
Oracle OCI Object Storage Archive United States (Ashburn) 90 days $66.99 $48.43
Oracle OCI Object Storage Infrequent Access United States (Ashburn) 31 days $74.51 $3.10
Azure Blob Storage Cool LRS United States (East US) 30 days $108.53 None
Amazon S3 Standard-IA United States (Northern Virginia) 30 days $89.25 None
Cloudflare R2 Infrequent Access Automatic location 30 days $76.67 None
Tigris Infrequent Access Automatic location 30 days $71.40 None
Google Cloud Storage Nearline United States (South Carolina) 30 days $71.40 None
Amazon S3 One Zone-IA United States (Northern Virginia) 30 days $71.40 None
Storj Standard Distributed worldwide 30 days $53.67 None
DigitalOcean Spaces Cold Storage United States (New York 3) 30 days $48.64 None

10 TB uploaded and deleted before the minimum, in the vendor's first listed region: the charge is the storage for the time left, using each vendor’s published daily or hourly basis. Classes with no minimum are not listed.

Deleted after 30 days, billed to the end of the minimum

Days the backup was keptTime still billed after the delete

  1. Google Cloud Storage Archive365 days minimum335 more days: $124.80
  2. OVHcloud Object Storage Cold Archive4,380 hours minimum3,660 more hours: $92.03
  3. Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive180 days minimum150 more days: $46.10
  4. Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS180 days minimum150 more days: $46.10
  5. Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage90 days minimum60 more days: $145.34
  6. Oracle OCI Object Storage Archive90 days minimum60 more days: $48.43
  7. Tigris Archive90 days minimum60 more days: $74.51
  8. Cloudflare R2 Infrequent Access30 days minimumNothing more
  9. DigitalOcean Spaces Cold Storage30 days minimumNothing more
  10. Storj Standard30 days minimumNothing more
Each vendor's class with the longest minimum stay, in its first listed region: 10 TB uploaded, deleted 30 days later, and the storage for the time left billed on each vendor’s published daily or hourly basis.

Put your own numbers through the calculator to see what this charge does to a normal month and to the month you restore.

Minimum duration is charged when an object leaves early

Minimum storage duration is not a restore fee. It is a time commitment attached to an object in a storage class. Providers commonly collect the unused remainder when the object is deleted, overwritten, moved, or transitioned to another class before the minimum expires. [1] [3] [5] [6]

Reading an object does not end its storage period. A restore that creates a temporary readable copy while leaving the archived source in place can add retrieval, request, temporary-copy storage, and egress charges. Early deletion is the one charge that does not apply, because the source object is never removed. [2] [4]

Show the tableas checked 25 to 26 July 2026
Action before the minimumEarly-deletion chargeWhySource
Delete the object depends on use The unused duration is charged when the class publishes an early-deletion rule [1] [5] [1] [5]
Overwrite the object depends on use Overwriting removes or rewrites the old object; AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and R2 explicitly include this behavior [1] [3] [5] [6] [1] [3] [5] [6]
Move or rename through copy plus delete depends on use The source object's removal can activate the remaining-duration charge [5] [6] [5] [6]
Transition to another storage class depends on use The old class's minimum can apply, although provider-managed lifecycle and auto-tiering exceptions exist [1] [5] [1] [5]
Read or restore while keeping the source does not apply No delete, overwrite, move, or source-tier transition occurs [2] [4] [2] [4]

Each object and class starts its own clock

Duration follows the object in the billed class, not the age of the backup job as a whole. A newly written object starts a new clock, and a class transition can end one class's clock while beginning another. Versioning can change the deletion moment because some providers charge when the retained version is actually removed. [5] [7]

Provider exceptions matter. Google Cloud exempts certain Object Lifecycle Management transitions and Autoclass movements, Oracle does not penalize deletes or overwrites that merely create a retained previous version, and Azure can avoid changing the archive source by copying it to a new online blob. [5] [7] [4]

Show the tableas checked 25 to 26 July 2026
ScenarioHow it is billedSource
Overwrite removes the old object The old object's unused minimum is conditional; the new object begins a new storage clock [5] [7] [5] [7]
Versioning retains the prior version Provider-specific: Oracle says no penalty until data removal; Google Cloud charges when the noncurrent version is deleted, with soft-delete details affecting timing [7] [5] [7] [5]
Copy an Azure archive blob to a new online blob The archive source remains unmodified, which avoids the early-deletion fee on that source; the new copy has its own storage charges [4] [4]
Restore an S3 archived object temporarily The archive remains and the readable copy is billed separately for the selected duration; early deletion does not apply [2] [2]
Lifecycle or automatic tiering conditional because vendor-managed exceptions differ; do not assume every transition creates the charge [5] [7] [5] [7]

Deleting after 30 days still buys 180 days

A 1,000 GB S3 Glacier Deep Archive object in US East has a 180-day minimum and a storage rate of $0.00099 per GB-month. If it is deleted after 30 days, AWS charges the remaining 150 days on a prorated basis. [1] [8]

The first 30 days cost $0.99 and the early-deletion remainder costs $4.95, producing the same $5.94 storage total as six illustrative 30-day months. A read-only restore at day 30 would not create the $4.95 line because it would not remove or transition the archived source. [1] [2]

Show the tableas checked 25 to 26 July 2026
LineArithmeticChargeSource
Storage for the first 30 days 1,000 GB x $0.00099 per GB-month x 1 month $0.99 [8]
Unused minimum 180 days - 30 days = 150 days = 5 illustrative 30-day months 150 days [1]
Early-deletion remainder 1,000 GB x $0.00099 per GB-month x 5 months $4.95 [1] [8]
Total minimum-duration storage $0.99 + $4.95 $5.94 [1] [8]
Read-only restore alternative No source deletion, overwrite, move, or transition Early deletion: $0.00 [2]

Minimums range from none to a full year

The vendor table lists every published duration across all 18 providers and shows where a vendor publishes none. not published means the official page we checked did not state the rule; it does not mean zero. [1] [5]

Class-level differences are kept in the same row so a provider is not mislabeled with one universal minimum. Where a duration is published but the early-deletion method is not, we show both facts and do not assume a prorated remainder. [12] [15]

Show the table (18 vendors)as checked 25 July to 22 October 2026
ProviderMinimum-duration and early-deletion ruleSource
Amazon S3 Standard and Express One Zone: does not apply. Standard-IA and One Zone-IA: 30 days. Glacier Instant and Flexible: 90 days. Deep Archive: 180 days. Early delete, overwrite, or transition is charged for the prorated remainder [1] [1]
Azure Blob Storage Hot: does not apply. Cool: 30 days. Cold: 90 days. Archive: 180 days. Delete, overwrite, or move to another tier early is charged for the prorated remainder [3] [3]
Google Cloud Storage Standard and Rapid: does not apply. Nearline: 30 days. Coldline: 90 days. Archive: 365 days. Delete, overwrite, or move early is charged to the minimum, with published lifecycle, Autoclass, versioning, and soft-delete exceptions [5] [5]
Cloudflare R2 Standard: does not apply. Infrequent Access: 30 days; deleting, moving, or replacing early is billed to 30 days [6] [6]
Backblaze B2 does not apply; no minimum storage duration in the offer we checked [9] [9]
Wasabi 90 days for Pay as You Go; deleted storage is billed for the remaining days as Timed Deleted Storage [10] [10]
IDrive e2 does not apply; IDrive states no minimum duration and no deletion charge [11] [11]
DigitalOcean Spaces Standard: not published. Cold Storage: 30 days with a prorated remaining-duration charge after the first 250 GiB of monthly early deletions or updates [12] [13] [12] [13]
Scaleway Object Storage Standard Multi-AZ, Standard One Zone, and Glacier: not published [14] [14]
OVHcloud Object Storage Standard and High Performance: does not apply. Infrequent Access: 730 hours with prorated remainder. Active Archive: 2,190 hours with prorated remainder. Cold Archive: 4,380 hours with prorated remainder [15] [16] [15] [15] [16] [15]
Hetzner Object Storage not published [17] [17]
Akamai Cloud Object Storage not published [18] [18]
Vultr Object Storage Standard, Premium, Performance, Accelerated, and Archive: not published [19] [20] [19] [20]
Storj 30 days; deleting on day N bills the remaining days through day 30. Object Mount has a published exclusion with policy conditions [21] [21]
Oracle OCI Object Storage Standard: does not apply. Infrequent Access: 31 days. Archive: 90 days. Delete or overwrite that removes data early is charged for the prorated remainder; retained versions and Auto-Tiering have published exceptions [7] [7]
Tigris Standard: does not apply. Infrequent Access: 30 days. Archive and Archive Instant Retrieval: 90 days. Delete, update, or transition early is billed to the minimum [22] [22]
Filebase does not apply; no minimum object duration [23] [23]
Telnyx Cloud Storage not published [24] [24]

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 24 sources
  1. 1 AWS: Amazon S3 pricing aws.amazon.com · checked 26 July 2026
  2. 2 Amazon S3 docs: Restoring an archived object docs.aws.amazon.com · checked 26 July 2026
  3. 3 Azure: Blob Storage pricing azure.microsoft.com · checked 26 July 2026
  4. 4 Azure docs: Blob rehydration from the archive tier learn.microsoft.com · checked 26 July 2026
  5. 5 Google Cloud Storage pricing cloud.google.com · checked 26 July 2026
  6. 6 Cloudflare R2 docs: Pricing developers.cloudflare.com · checked 26 July 2026
  7. 7 Oracle docs: Object Storage storage tiers docs.oracle.com · checked 26 July 2026
  8. 8 AWS price list, US East (S3, version of 20 July 2026) pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com · checked 25 July 2026
  9. 9 Backblaze: B2 Cloud Storage pricing www.backblaze.com · checked 25 July 2026
  10. 10 Wasabi: Pay as you go pricing FAQs wasabi.com · checked 26 July 2026
  11. 11 IDrive e2: Plans and pricing www.idrive.com · checked 26 July 2026
  12. 12 DigitalOcean: Spaces Object Storage pricing www.digitalocean.com · checked 26 July 2026
  13. 13 DigitalOcean docs: Spaces pricing docs.digitalocean.com · checked 25 July 2026
  14. 14 Scaleway docs: Object Storage FAQ www.scaleway.com · checked 25 July 2026
  15. 15 OVHcloud: Public Cloud prices www.ovhcloud.com · checked 22 October 2026
  16. 16 OVHcloud docs: Choosing the right Object Storage class docs.ovhcloud.com · checked 25 July 2026
  17. 17 Hetzner Object Storage docs: Overview docs.hetzner.com · checked 26 July 2026
  18. 18 Akamai Object Storage docs: Pricing techdocs.akamai.com · checked 26 July 2026
  19. 19 Vultr docs: How is Object Storage billed? docs.vultr.com · checked 26 July 2026
  20. 20 Vultr docs: Object Storage subscription limits docs.vultr.com · checked 25 July 2026
  21. 21 Storj pricing www.storj.io · checked 26 July 2026
  22. 22 Tigris pricing www.tigrisdata.com · checked 26 July 2026
  23. 23 Filebase docs: Pricing filebase.com · checked 26 July 2026
  24. 24 Telnyx Cloud Storage docs: Billing developers.telnyx.com · checked 26 July 2026