Azure Blob Storage Tier Calculator
Compare Azure Hot, Cool, Cold and Archive storage on your access pattern, with retrieval and early-delete fees counted.
Each one fills in the fields below for a typical workload of that kind. You can change any of them.
- Cheapest tier: Cold
- $361.00/mo
- Saving if you move
- $693.00/mo
- One-time cost to move
- $115.20
All tiers, fully costed
| Tier | Monthly | Saves vs Hot | Storage | Operations | Retrieval | Early delete |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | $1,054.00 | n/a | $1,040.00 | $14.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Cool30-day minimum · move: $64.00 once | $805.00 | $249.00 | $760.00 | $30.00 | $15.00 | $0.00 |
| Cold90-day minimum · move: $115.20 once | $361.00 | $693.00 | $180.00 | $136.00 | $45.00 | $0.00 |
| Archive180-day minimum · move: $64.00 once · ruled out: offline, read too often | $5,099.50 | $4,045.50 more | $49.50 | $5,020.00 | $30.00 | $0.00 |
What this model assumes
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- Retrieval and operations are charged, not just storage. Cool, Cold and Archive all charge per GB read on top of a lower storage rate, and their operation rates are higher. A “cold” container that is read weekly is not cold.
- Early-delete fees are modeled, pro-rated and recurring. Data that leaves a tier before its minimum duration, 30 days for Cool, 90 for Cold, 180 for Archive, pays the remaining days at the tier’s storage rate (read from the price list). The model assumes the data turns over at your retention, so the fee recurs every month and is part of each tier’s effective cost.
- Moving existing data costs a write per blob. The one-time figure assumes the data sits in Hot today and moves with Set Blob Tier or a lifecycle rule, which Azure bills as one write operation per blob at the destination tier. Copying instead pays for both copies until the old one is deleted.
- Archive is not readable. Rehydration takes hours and costs extra. If anything expects a synchronous read, Archive is not a candidate at any price, and that is a constraint rather than a cost. So it is recommended only when at most 1% of the data is read in a month; above that it is still priced in the table, and ruled out.
- LRS redundancy, East US. Hot is priced through its volume tiers (cheaper above 50 TB and again above 500 TB). Not included: high-priority rehydration, index or metadata operations, blob inventory, or ZRS and GRS, which cost more.
Generated from the Azure Retail Prices API by script on 29 Oct 2026, for 13 regions and LRS redundancy. ZRS and GRS cost more.
Prices verified 29 Oct 2026. Public list prices in USD for 13 Azure regions, before any discount you have negotiated.
Paying Hot rates for data nobody reads?
Cloud Cost Audit: We review your storage accounts and find the containers that belong in a cooler tier, and the ones that do not. From $1,500, fixed. Nothing paid upfront.
Questions
When is Azure Cool storage actually cheaper than Hot?
When the data is genuinely rarely read and kept at least 30 days. Cool has a lower storage rate but charges per GB retrieved and has higher operation rates, so a container read even weekly can cost more on Cool than on Hot. This calculator charges all three so the comparison is real.
What is the Azure early deletion fee?
A charge for data that leaves a tier before its minimum duration, 30 days for Cool, 90 for Cold, 180 for Archive. Like S3, Azure pro-rates it: data moved or deleted after 45 days in Cold pays the other 45 days at the Cold storage rate. On data that keeps turning over faster than the minimum it is charged every month, effectively billing storage for the full minimum, and it can consume the entire saving that motivated the tiering. This calculator includes it in each tier's monthly cost.
What is the difference between Cool and Cold on Azure?
Cold is a newer tier sitting between Cool and Archive: cheaper storage than Cool, higher retrieval and operation rates, and a 90-day minimum instead of 30. It suits data you are fairly sure you will not read but need available immediately.
Can I read data in the Archive tier directly?
No. Archive is offline; an object must be rehydrated first, which takes hours and costs extra. If anything in your system expects a synchronous read, Archive is not a candidate at any price, and that is a constraint rather than a cost.
How much does Azure blob storage cost?
In East US on LRS, Hot is $0.0208 per GB a month for the first 50 TB, Cool $0.0152, Cold $0.0036 and Archive $0.00099, before read, write and retrieval charges, which decide the cheapest tier more often than storage does. Rates vary by region: Hot is $0.0184 in East US 2. This calculator reads them from the Azure Retail Prices API for 13 regions; ZRS and GRS cost more.
How much does it cost to change a blob's access tier?
Moving a blob to a cooler tier is billed as one write operation at the destination tier: $0.18 per 10,000 blobs into Cold in East US, $0.10 into Cool or Archive. The blob count matters, not the size: 50,000 GiB in 8 MiB blobs costs about $115 to move to Cold, the same data in 64 KiB blobs about $14,700. Moving to a warmer tier is billed as a read plus retrieval, and may add an early-delete fee.
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OpenMore tools for: Storage and lifecycle
The hard part is knowing what is in the container.
Finitizer reads real access patterns per container and prefix, so the tiering recommendation fits each one rather than applying a single lifecycle rule to everything, and it does the same for S3 and Cloud Storage.
See how Finitizer works