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Backup Storage Prices
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Azure Blob Storage pricing: what backups and restores cost

Based in the United States · Prices checked

Azure Blob Storage Hot LRS costs $0.0208 per GB a month (Archive LRS: $1.01 per TiB), with the first 100 GB of downloads free each month. 10 TB of backups: from $170.83 a month, $1,347.23 the month you restore it all.

10 TB, normal month
$170.83Cold LRS, East US
10 TB, month you restore it all
$1,347.23Cold LRS, East US

10 TB kept, 1 TB downloaded in a normal month, all 10 TB downloaded in the month you restore; the other calculator defaults apply.

On a 10 TB backup Azure Blob Storage is the 15th cheapest of the 18 vendors with both bills for a normal month and the second most expensive for the month you restore everything, so a restore barely changes its place.

What adds to an Azure Blob Storage bill besides storage

From Azure Blob Storage's published rules, per class and region. "Not published" means Azure Blob Storage's pricing pages do not state it.

Class and regionMinimum storage periodSmallest billed objectMinimum monthly billReading data
Hot LRS, East US None Not published None Free
Cool LRS, East US 30 days Not published None $0.01 per GB
Cold LRS, East US 90 days Not published None $0.03 per GB
Archive LRS, East US 180 days Not published None $0.02 per GB
Hot LRS, West Europe None Not published None Free
Cool LRS, West Europe 30 days Not published None $0.01 per GB
Cold LRS, West Europe 90 days Not published None $0.03 per GB
Archive LRS, West Europe 180 days Not published None $0.024 per GB

Reading data is the charge for reading what is stored, billed on top of any download charge. Downloads: the first 100 GB of downloads free each month. Deleting an object before its minimum storage period ends still bills the remaining time.

How the storage classes compare

Same offer, two bills. Vertical positions show cost rank within these 6 offers.

Lowest normal bill$170.83Cold LRS · East US

Lowest restore bill$1,131.23Hot LRS · West Europe

Normal monthRestore month
Cold LRS · East US$170.83
Cold LRS · West Europe$179.21
Cool LRS · West Europe$188.43
Cool LRS · East US$236.86
Hot LRS · West Europe$264.40
Hot LRS · East US$275.32
Hot LRS · West Europe$1,131.23
Hot LRS · East US$1,142.12
Cool LRS · West Europe$1,155.83
Cool LRS · East US$1,204.26
Cold LRS · East US$1,347.23
Cold LRS · West Europe$1,355.61
Every bill in the chart
OfferNormal monthRestore month
Cold LRS · East US$170.83$1,347.23
Cold LRS · West Europe$179.21$1,355.61
Cool LRS · West Europe$188.43$1,155.83
Cool LRS · East US$236.86$1,204.26
Hot LRS · West Europe$264.40$1,131.23
Hot LRS · East US$275.32$1,142.12
Thicker blue lines cross another offer. Thin lines keep their order. The heaviest line marks the lowest normal-month bill. Unpublished totals are not drawn.

Price Azure Blob Storage on your numbers

Every Azure Blob Storage class priced on your numbers, for a normal month and for the month you restore. A charge Azure Blob Storage does not publish stays named on the bill, never counted as zero. The Azure Blob Storage pricing calculator adds common backups to start from and the vendors nearest to Azure Blob Storage on the same numbers.

Which bill are you looking at?
Cheapest for a normal month

Azure Blob Storage · Cold LRS East US

$170.83 a normal month

$1,347.23on the month you restore

Cheapest month you restore: Azure Blob Storage Hot LRS $1,131.23

Calculated from the provider's listed rates, not a quote. Checked 6 November 2026

Archive storage is left out: backup tools such as restic, Kopia and Veeam read their repository directly, and archive storage makes them restore each file first.

Workload behind this answer10 TB backed up · 1 TB downloaded a month · 10 TB in a restore · 1,000 Mbps · readable at once · any listed region

10 TB backed up; 1 TB downloaded in a normal month; 10 TB downloaded in a restore; 1,000 Mbps download speed; data readable at once, with no restore step; no deadline for everything to be back; any listed region.

Other defaults: 1,000,000 objects; 0 TB upload; 500,000 Class A / 2,000,000 Class B operations; each vendor's standard restore speed; the public internet destination; restored copy for 24 h; 365-day object age; no free tier; object lock not required; S3-compatible API not required.

Lowest normal-month totals

  1. 1Azure Blob Storage
    Normal
    $170.83
    Restore
    $1,347.23

    Ready at once · all back in 22 h at the soonest · meets your limits

    What decides it: Downloads (egress) ($78.30).

Worked example for a 10 TB backup. Change a field and the answer follows.

Files, requests, download speed and restore deadline 9 settings

Other settings stay at the calculator's labelled defaults. Use the full comparison calculator when a region, Object Lock or S3 compatibility decides the choice.

A restore can change the winner

Same offer, two bills. Vertical positions show cost rank within these 6 offers.

Lowest normal bill$170.83Cold LRS · East US

Lowest restore bill$1,131.23Hot LRS · West Europe

Normal monthRestore month
Cold LRS · East US$170.83
Cold LRS · West Europe$179.21
Cool LRS · West Europe$188.43
Cool LRS · East US$236.86
Hot LRS · West Europe$264.40
Hot LRS · East US$275.32
Hot LRS · West Europe$1,131.23
Hot LRS · East US$1,142.12
Cool LRS · West Europe$1,155.83
Cool LRS · East US$1,204.26
Cold LRS · East US$1,347.23
Cold LRS · West Europe$1,355.61
Every bill in the chart
OfferNormal monthRestore month
Cold LRS · East US$170.83$1,347.23
Cold LRS · West Europe$179.21$1,355.61
Cool LRS · West Europe$188.43$1,155.83
Cool LRS · East US$236.86$1,204.26
Hot LRS · West Europe$264.40$1,131.23
Hot LRS · East US$275.32$1,142.12
Thicker blue lines cross another offer. Thin lines keep their order. The heaviest line marks the lowest normal-month bill. Unpublished totals are not drawn.

How much more the restore month costs

Normal month to restore month
normal $170.83restore month $1,347.23

The month you restore: 7.9 times this vendor's quiet month.

Back online: 22 h at the soonestData ready: Ready at once

Recovery time, price date, and sourceshow details

Restoring everything costs 7.9 times a quiet month with this vendor. That multiple, not the storage rate, is what a backup decision turns on.

Back online
22 h at the soonest
Data ready
Ready at once
Prices checked
6 November 2026

This vendor publishes a downloadable price feed, so its prices can be checked more often.

Every Azure Blob Storage class and region

Azure Blob Storage's cheapest class and region for your workload, with every other one listed under it. 6 of 8 have every price the bill needs and meet your limits; the other 2 show what is known and name the missing price or the limit they miss.

  • 1Azure Blob StorageCold LRS, East US, +7 more offersFirst 100 GB downloaded free each monthImmutable storageChecked 6 November 2026Normal$170.83Restore$1,347.23Ready at once All of it back in 22 h at the soonest.
    $0$170.83
Every offer, each storage class and region ranked8 offers

Ranked offers come first. Offers we cannot rank stay in the list, with the missing price or the requirement they miss.

  • 1Azure Blob Storage Cold LRSeastus$170.83
  • 2Azure Blob Storage Cold LRSwesteurope$179.21
  • 3Azure Blob Storage Cool LRSwesteurope$188.43
  • 4Azure Blob Storage Cool LRSeastus$236.86
  • 5Azure Blob Storage Hot LRSwesteurope$264.40
  • 6Azure Blob Storage Hot LRSeastus$275.32
  • ·Azure Blob Storage Archive LRSeastusNormalPrice not publishedat least $1,163.67RestorePrice not publishedat least $3,241.52Misses your limitsEach file has to be restored before it can be read, which takes up to 15 hours, and you asked for storage you can read at once.
  • ·Azure Blob Storage Archive LRSwesteuropeNormalPrice not publishedat least $1,386.21RestorePrice not publishedat least $3,704.10Misses your limitsEach file has to be restored before it can be read, which takes up to 15 hours, and you asked for storage you can read at once.

Azure Blob Storage Cold LRS line by line

Every charge, how it is worked out, and the restore time$170.83 in 6 lines
Normal-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cold LRS East US, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $33.53Requests $29.00Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $30.00Fixed fees $0.00
Normal month total$170.83

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Vendor wait and download

22.2 hEverything back, at the soonest

Vendor gets data readyReady at once

Download at your speedat least 22.2 h

Data in this class can be read at once, with no restore step, so the soonest it can all be back is the download at your full 1000 Mbps. The vendor does not publish how fast it serves a whole restore, so a real restore can take longer.

Restore time in detail
Shortest wait0 h
Longest wait0 h
Download time (at least)22.2 h
Everything back, at the soonest22.2 h
With the longest wait, at the soonest22.2 h
Blue shows the vendor's published wait, hatched where it can run longer; orange shows the download at your speed. Dashed parts are not published. A real restore can take longer.
Time to recovery

At least 22 h before the last file arrives, at the vendor's standard restore speed

022 h
Vendor gets data ready
Ready at once
Download at your speed
22 h

Data in this class can be read at once, with no restore step, so the soonest it can all be back is the download at your full 1000 Mbps. The vendor does not publish how fast it serves a whole restore, so a real restore can take longer.

When Azure Blob Storage does not save you money

Azure Blob Storage costs more than most vendors in a normal month for a 10 TB backup repository and 1 TB of app files with public downloads, and in the month you restore for every backup below. The widest gap is a 100 TB compliance archive, the month you restore 10 TB of it: $1,510.38 at Azure Blob Storage against $250.10 at Oracle OCI Object Storage (Archive).

Backup Azure Blob Storage, normal month Cheapest normal month Azure Blob Storage, month you restore Cheapest month you restore
NAS offsite, 2 TB2 TB, 50 GB downloaded a month, 200,000 files $14.018th of 18 $8.32OVHcloud Object Storage · Infrequent Access $206.9617th of 18 $11.12Telnyx Cloud Storage · Regular Storage
Backup repository, 10 TB10 TB, 1 TB downloaded a month, 1 million objects, readable at once $170.8315th of 18 $44.65OVHcloud Object Storage · Infrequent Access $1,131.2317th of 18 $55.83Telnyx Cloud Storage · Regular Storage
Photo archive, 5 TB5 TB, little downloaded, 250,000 files $19.623rd of 18 $6.92Amazon S3 · S3 Glacier Deep Archive $522.1817th of 18 $27.88Telnyx Cloud Storage · Regular Storage
App files with public downloads, 1 TB1 TB stored, 5 TB downloaded a month, 50 million reads $475.6716th of 17 $7.65Telnyx Cloud Storage · Regular Storage $563.0716th of 17 $7.69Telnyx Cloud Storage · Regular Storage
Compliance archive, 100 TB100 TB kept for years, 10 TB restored at a time $339.086th of 18 $99.34Amazon S3 · S3 Glacier Deep Archive $1,510.3816th of 18 $250.10Oracle OCI Object Storage · Archive

Each backup is a preset of the home calculator, priced with its other defaults on prices checked 17 October to 6 November 2026. A place counts each vendor's cheapest class that meets the backup's limit on how long data may take to be ready, among the vendors with a full bill for that month. Price your own backup above.

Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive: each file must be restored before you can download it, which takes up to 12 hours, and Amazon S3 bills each file for at least 180 days.

Oracle OCI Object Storage Archive: each file must be restored before you can download it (Oracle says the first byte comes back within an hour, but not when the whole file is ready), and Oracle bills each file for at least 90 days.

Alternatives to Azure Blob Storage: every other vendor ranked against it, with what moving 10 TB costs and when the saving pays it back.

Head to head: Azure Blob Storage against Amazon S3 and Akamai Cloud Object Storage, both bills on the same backups.

Worked bills

These are separate workloads. Compare their bills; do not add them together. Free allowances (such as AWS's first 100 GB of transfer) are assumed unused by anything else in your account.

Hot LRS: storage, transactions and internet transfer $275.32

10,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 GB downloaded, 500,000 uploads and listings and 2,000,000 read requests. Nothing is deleted early, so no early-deletion charge applies.

Worked bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Hot LRS eastus, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $193.72Requests $3.30Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Fixed fees $0.00
Worked total$275.32

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Cool LRS deleted after ten days $23.59

1,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 delete requests. 1,000 GB is deleted 10 days after upload, so the days left of the minimum stay are billed with the month's storage.

Worked bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cool LRS eastus, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $14.16Requests $0.00Downloads (egress) $0.00Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Early deletion $9.44Fixed fees $0.00
Worked total$23.59

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Cold LRS deleted after thirty days $10.06

1,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 delete requests. 1,000 GB is deleted 30 days after upload, so the days left of the minimum stay are billed with the month's storage.

Worked bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cold LRS eastus, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $3.35Requests $0.00Downloads (egress) $0.00Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Early deletion $6.71Fixed fees $0.00
Worked total$10.06

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Archive LRS deleted after thirty days price not published

1,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 delete requests. 1,000 GB is deleted 30 days after upload, so the days left of the minimum stay are billed with the month's storage.

Worked bill, line by line (some charges not published)Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS eastus, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $0.92 or moreRequests $0.00Downloads (egress) $0.00Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Early deletion $4.61Fixed fees $0.00

A dashed segment is a charge the vendor does not publish; it is not drawn to scale.

At least$5.53

No full total: one charge above is not published, so this offer is not ranked, and the amount shown is only part of the bill.

Why this offer is not ranked
Archive Standard rehydration to a seven-day Hot copy price not published

1,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 GB downloaded, 1,000 GB read back from the class and 1,000 restore requests, with Standard retrieval, restored into Hot LRS and the restored copy kept 7 days. Nothing is deleted early, so no early-deletion charge applies.

Worked bill, line by line (some charges not published)Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS eastus, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $0.92 or moreRequests $0.51Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $24.52Fixed fees $0.00

A dashed segment is a charge the vendor does not publish; it is not drawn to scale.

At least$104.25

No full total: one charge above is not published, so this offer is not ranked, and the amount shown is only part of the bill.

Why this offer is not ranked
Archive High-priority rehydration to a seven-day Hot copy price not published

1,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 GB downloaded, 1,000 GB read back from the class and 1,000 restore requests, with high-priority retrieval, restored into Hot LRS and the restored copy kept 7 days. Nothing is deleted early, so no early-deletion charge applies.

Worked bill, line by line (some charges not published)Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS eastus, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $0.92 or moreRequests $5.01Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $104.52Fixed fees $0.00

A dashed segment is a charge the vendor does not publish; it is not drawn to scale.

At least$188.75

No full total: one charge above is not published, so this offer is not ranked, and the amount shown is only part of the bill.

Why this offer is not ranked
Hot LRS in West Europe: a read-only restore $97.41

1,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 GB downloaded, 1,000 GB read back from the class and 2,000,000 read requests. Nothing is deleted early, so no early-deletion charge applies.

Worked bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Hot LRS westeurope, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $18.25Requests $0.86Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Fixed fees $0.00
Worked total$97.41

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Cool LRS in West Europe: a read-only restore $99.61

1,000 GB kept for the month in 1,000 files; 1,000 GB downloaded, 1,000 GB read back from the class and 2,000,000 read requests. Nothing is deleted early, so no early-deletion charge applies.

Worked bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cool LRS westeurope, priced per GB, worked example
Storage $9.31Requests $2.00Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $10.00Fixed fees $0.00
Worked total$99.61

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Prices checked .

Bills for the 10 TB workload

The normal and restore month for each class8 classes and regions

Hot LRS, East US

Normal month $275.32
Normal-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Hot LRS East US, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $193.72Requests $3.30Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Fixed fees $0.00
Normal month total$275.32

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Month you restore $1,142.12
Restore-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Hot LRS East US, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $193.72Requests $3.70Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Fixed fees $0.00
Month you restore total$1,142.12

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Cool LRS, East US

Normal month $236.86
Normal-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cool LRS East US, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $141.56Requests $7.00Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $10.00Fixed fees $0.00
Normal month total$236.86

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Month you restore $1,204.26
Restore-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cool LRS East US, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $141.56Requests $8.00Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $110.00Fixed fees $0.00
Month you restore total$1,204.26

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Cold LRS, East US

Normal month $170.83
Normal-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cold LRS East US, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $33.53Requests $29.00Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $30.00Fixed fees $0.00
Normal month total$170.83

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Month you restore $1,347.23
Restore-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cold LRS East US, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $33.53Requests $39.00Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $330.00Fixed fees $0.00
Month you restore total$1,347.23

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Archive LRS, East US

Normal month at least $1,163.67
Normal-month bill, line by line (some charges not published)Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS East US, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $9.22 or moreRequests $1,055.50Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $20.65Fixed fees $0.00

A dashed segment is a charge the vendor does not publish; it is not drawn to scale.

At least$1,163.67

No full total: one charge above is not published, so this offer is not ranked, and the amount shown is only part of the bill.

Why this offer is not ranked
A requirement is not met
  • Each file has to be restored before it can be read, which takes up to 15 hours, and you asked for storage you can read at once.
Month you restore at least $3,241.52
Restore-month bill, line by line (some charges not published)Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS East US, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $9.22 or moreRequests $2,060.50Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $227.10Fixed fees $0.00

A dashed segment is a charge the vendor does not publish; it is not drawn to scale.

At least$3,241.52

No full total: one charge above is not published, so this offer is not ranked, and the amount shown is only part of the bill.

Why this offer is not ranked
A requirement is not met
  • Each file has to be restored before it can be read, which takes up to 15 hours, and you asked for storage you can read at once.

Hot LRS, West Europe

Normal month $264.40
Normal-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Hot LRS West Europe, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $182.54Requests $3.56Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Fixed fees $0.00
Normal month total$264.40

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Month you restore $1,131.23
Restore-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Hot LRS West Europe, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $182.54Requests $3.99Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $0.00Fixed fees $0.00
Month you restore total$1,131.23

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Cool LRS, West Europe

Normal month $188.43
Normal-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cool LRS West Europe, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $93.13Requests $7.00Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $10.00Fixed fees $0.00
Normal month total$188.43

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Month you restore $1,155.83
Restore-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cool LRS West Europe, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $93.13Requests $8.00Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $110.00Fixed fees $0.00
Month you restore total$1,155.83

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Cold LRS, West Europe

Normal month $179.21
Normal-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cold LRS West Europe, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $41.91Requests $29.00Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $30.00Fixed fees $0.00
Normal month total$179.21

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Month you restore $1,355.61
Restore-month bill, line by lineAzure Blob Storage Cold LRS West Europe, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $41.91Requests $39.00Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $330.00Fixed fees $0.00
Month you restore total$1,355.61

Calculated from the provider's listed rates.

Archive LRS, West Europe

Normal month at least $1,386.21
Normal-month bill, line by line (some charges not published)Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS West Europe, priced per GB, normal month
Storage $16.76 or moreRequests $1,266.54Downloads (egress) $78.30Retrieval and restored copy $24.61Fixed fees $0.00

A dashed segment is a charge the vendor does not publish; it is not drawn to scale.

At least$1,386.21

No full total: one charge above is not published, so this offer is not ranked, and the amount shown is only part of the bill.

Why this offer is not ranked
A requirement is not met
  • Each file has to be restored before it can be read, which takes up to 15 hours, and you asked for storage you can read at once.
Month you restore at least $3,704.10
Restore-month bill, line by line (some charges not published)Azure Blob Storage Archive LRS West Europe, priced per GB, month you restore
Storage $16.76 or moreRequests $2,471.94Downloads (egress) $944.70Retrieval and restored copy $270.69Fixed fees $0.00

A dashed segment is a charge the vendor does not publish; it is not drawn to scale.

At least$3,704.10

No full total: one charge above is not published, so this offer is not ranked, and the amount shown is only part of the bill.

Why this offer is not ranked
A requirement is not met
  • Each file has to be restored before it can be read, which takes up to 15 hours, and you asked for storage you can read at once.

Price your own workload against every vendor, including the month you restore and how long it takes to come back.

What the pricing page does not lead with

  • Cool and Cold minimum durations apply to General Purpose v2 accounts, but legacy Blob Storage accounts have no Cool or Cold minimum retention duration.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Removing, overwriting, or moving a blob out of Cool, Cold, or Archive before the minimum can create an early-deletion charge.

    The charge follows a destructive or tier-changing event, not a read-only copy that leaves the source blob in place.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Moving a blob to a cooler tier is billed as a destination-tier write; moving it to a warmer tier is billed as a source-tier read plus data retrieval.

    A tier change can add transactions and per-GB access charges even when the bytes never leave Azure.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026
The rest of this vendor's non-obvious rules 14 more

  • Changing the account default access tier can create tier-change charges for every blob that inherits the default.

    An account-level setting can move many implicit-tier blobs at once; it is not only a label change.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Archive blobs are offline and must be rehydrated before their payload can be read.

    Archive storage price alone does not describe recovery time or recovery cost.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Copy Blob to a new online blob leaves the Archive source unchanged and avoids early deletion on that source.

    The read-only path instead pays archive read and retrieval, destination write, and capacity for both the source and new online copy.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Set Blob Tier changes the source blob in place.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Standard rehydration may take up to 15 hours for objects under 10 GB; High priority may complete in less than one hour but costs more.

    The latency language is conditional, not a guarantee, and priority changes both the request and per-GB retrieval lines.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Priority rehydration is limited to 10 GiB per hour at the storage-account level.

    A 1,000 GB emergency restore does not finish in one hour merely because every individual blob is under 10 GB.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • If a High-priority request for an archived blob under 10 GB takes more than five hours, the High-priority rate is waived and Standard retrieval rates still apply.

    The final invoice can differ from the initial High-priority estimate when this vendor condition is met.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Snapshots and previous versions in Archive cannot be rehydrated in place.

    They must be copied to a new Hot or Cool blob, which changes the eligible restore path and adds destination capacity and write transactions.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Archive supports LRS, GRS, and RA-GRS, but not ZRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS.

    A redundancy requirement can make the Archive class ineligible before price is compared.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Archived blob metadata is billed at Cool-tier rates.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Soft-deleted blobs are treated as deleted for early-deletion purposes only after their retention period expires.

    Soft-delete retention changes when the early-deletion clock event occurs and can keep capacity billed longer.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • A rehydrating blob remains billed as Archive until rehydration completes and its tier changes.

    The online-tier capacity clock does not start when the request is submitted.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

  • Storage, request, and Archive retrieval rates differ between East US and West Europe.

    A provider-wide per-TB figure without Region is incomplete.

    Source, checked 25 July 2026

  • Azure Storage reserved capacity is sold in 100 TiB or 1 PiB monthly units for one-year or three-year terms and is scoped to a selected region, access tier, and redundancy.

    Source, checked 26 July 2026

Every class, and the rules that change its bill

What each class is for and the published rules that do not depend on its rate, each with the day it was checked. Current rates are in the bills above.

Hot LRS 1 rule

Frequently read or modified block blobs in an East US locally redundant General Purpose v2 account.

Rule Value Why it moves the bill
Retrieval and minimum duration Retrieval not charged; minimum duration does not apply. A read-only hot-tier restore has transaction and transfer lines, but no retrieval or early-deletion remainder. Vendor's page, checked 26 July 2026
Cool LRS 1 rule

Infrequently accessed East US block blobs that remain online and are expected to stay in the tier for at least 30 days.

Rule Value Why it moves the bill
Minimum duration 30 days for General Purpose v2; early deletion uses the prorated remainder. Removing, overwriting, or moving the blob to another tier before day 30 charges the unused Cool storage period. Vendor's page, checked 26 July 2026
Cold LRS 1 rule

Rarely accessed East US block blobs that must stay online and are expected to remain for at least 90 days.

Rule Value Why it moves the bill
Minimum duration 90 days for General Purpose v2; early deletion uses the prorated remainder. Removing, overwriting, or moving the blob to another tier before day 90 charges the unused Cold storage period. Vendor's page, checked 26 July 2026
Archive LRS 1 rule

Offline East US archive data that can wait for rehydration and is expected to stay archived for at least 180 days.

Rule Value Why it moves the bill
Minimum duration and eligibility 180 days; early deletion uses the prorated remainder. Archive supports LRS, GRS, and RA-GRS, but not ZRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS. An in-place tier change or delete before day 180 creates a remainder, and some redundancy choices cannot use Archive at all. Vendor's page, checked 26 July 2026

Questions buyers ask about Azure Blob Storage

Is there one Azure Blob Storage price for every backup?

No. Region, redundancy, access tier, account type, transaction group, retrieval priority, destination, and object age can change the bill. We price LRS General Purpose v2 block blobs in East US and West Europe, and even matching classes have different prices in each region.

What does it cost to restore an Azure Archive blob?

A complete receipt needs the chosen Standard or High-priority rehydration rate, rehydration read transactions, destination-tier write transactions, storage for the online copy, later read requests, and any egress. East US and West Europe publish different rehydration rates. Priority also changes expected recovery time and price.

Does an Azure Archive restore trigger early deletion?

A read-only Copy Blob path does not. It leaves the Archive source unchanged and instead adds archive read and retrieval, destination write, and capacity for the new online copy. Set Blob Tier changes the source in place, so an Archive blob younger than 180 days can incur the unused-duration remainder.

What happens if I delete, overwrite, or move an Azure blob early?

For the General Purpose v2 offers priced here, Cool has a 30-day minimum, Cold 90 days, and Archive 180 days. Removing, overwriting, or moving a blob out early can bill the prorated unused period. Legacy Blob Storage accounts do not use the same Cool and Cold minimum-retention rule, so account type is required.

Does Azure publish a minimum billable blob size for these tiers?

Not for the offers priced here. Azure does not publish a minimum billable object size, so we add no small-object charge and do not claim there is none.

Are Azure Blob requests included in the storage price?

No. Writes, reads, tier changes, and rehydration requests use class- and region-specific transaction rates. Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive do not share one operation schedule, and moving data between tiers can create source-tier reads, retrieval, and destination-tier writes.

Can I use Azure Blob Storage as an immutable backup target?

Yes, conditionally. Azure supports container-level and version-level WORM policies across Blob access tiers and redundancy configurations. Version-level WORM requires versioning; container-level WORM does not. Locked policies cannot be deleted or shortened, but tool-specific repository support still needs verification.

Does Azure reserved capacity make the whole backup bill cheaper?

No. Azure reserves matching storage capacity in 100 TiB or 1 PiB monthly units for one or three years. Operations, retrieval, early deletion, bandwidth and data transfer are still charged separately, so the reservation lowers only the storage part of a restore bill.