Azure Storage Tier Cost Simulator

Namespace

Analysis Mode

Workload Characteristics

Initial Data Volume (TB)

0 1,000

Write / Month

0 100

Avg File Size

0 1024

Read / Month (TB)

0 10,000

Upload Block Size

0.1100

X-Axis Controls

Max Time (Months)

Mths

1 120

Cost Breakdown

Simulations Assumptions & Exclusions (Source of Truth)

Archive Tier Disclaimer Archive Tier is strictly for cold, offline data. It is physically impossible to read data interactively from Archive. Any read requires a rehydration process that takes up to 15 hours. The costs shown for Archive reads represent the theoretical "Data Retrieval" and "Read Operation" rates assuming a single standard-priority rehydration. High-priority rehydration ($0.10/GB + $65/10k reads) is explicitly excluded. Do NOT use Archive for interactive workloads.

Per-Blob Tiering (Mixed Tiers) This tool helps you evaluate the cost-effectiveness of each tier for a given access profile. Keep in mind that Azure allows tiering at the individual blob level—meaning you can combine multiple tiers within a single storage account to achieve the optimal balance of capacity savings and retrieval costs.

1. Account & Architecture Assumptions

Account Type: Assumes Standard General Purpose v2 (GPv2) storage accounts using Block Blobs. Excludes Premium Block Blobs, Page Blobs, and Append Blobs.
Namespace: Assumes Flat Namespace (Blob API). Excludes Hierarchical Namespace / ADLS Gen2 capacity premiums and its requirement to chunk read/write transactions into 4 MB billable units.
Namespace: Assumes Hierarchical Namespace (ADLS Gen2). Excludes Flat Namespace (Blob API) calculation logic.
Pricing Tiers: Assumes Pay-As-You-Go pricing. Excludes 1-year and 3-year Reserved Capacity discounts.
Volume Scaling: Assumes a flat per-GB rate based on the "First 50 TB" pricing tier unconditionally. Excludes volume step-down discounts applied to capacities over 50 TB and 500 TB.

2. Capacity & File Size Assumptions

Base Math: 1 TB is strictly calculated as 1024 GB.
Minimum Billable Size: Assumes the 128 KiB minimum billable size floor applies to all files residing in the Cool, Cold, and Archive tiers.
Uniform File Sizes: Assumes every single file in the storage account is exactly the specified 'Average File Size'. Excludes mixed-size workloads, meaning it does not calculate the artificial inflation penalty for individual files within the workload that fall below 128 KiB.
Archive Metadata: Excludes storage capacity costs for Archive blob metadata, which Azure keeps online and bills at the higher Cool tier rate.

3. Transactions & Operations Assumptions

Write Operations: Assumes a Write is calculated exactly as `1 Put Block List + Math.ceil(File Size / Block Size) Put Blocks` per file.
Write Operations: Assumes a Write is chunked into 4 MB billable units (`Math.ceil(File Size / 4 MB)`).
Read Operations: Assumes a Read is calculated exactly as `1 Get Blob` per file. Excludes `Range GET` requests which divide files into multiple read operations.
Read Operations: Assumes a Read is chunked into 4 MB billable units (`Math.ceil(File Size / 4 MB)`).
Net-New Writes: Assumes all "Write / Month" volume represents net-new data creation. Excludes overwriting existing data, which triggers early deletion penalties in cooler tiers.
Archive Rehydration Priorities: Assumes standard-priority rehydration for Archive data ($0.02/GB and $5.00/10k reads). Excludes high-priority rehydration ($0.10/GB and $65.00/10k reads).
Archive Rehydration Writes: Excludes the additional Write operation charge (e.g., `Copy Blob`) applied to the destination tier when rehydrating data out of the Archive tier.
Excluded Operations: Excludes `LIST` operations, `Create Container` operations, Tier Transitions, and Iterative metadata operations.

4. Redundancy & Network Transfer Assumptions

Redundancy: Assumes strictly LRS (Locally Redundant Storage). Excludes ZRS, GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, and RA-GZRS capacity multipliers.
Geo-Replication: Excludes the $0.02 per GB network transfer fee charged for replicating data to a secondary region when using GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS.
Data Egress: Assumes all data is accessed from computing resources within the exact same Azure region. Excludes all Outbound Data Transfer (Egress) bandwidth costs.

5. Lifecycle, Deletion & Retention Assumptions

No Data Deletions: Assumes 100% data retention. Data is never deleted, modified, or overwritten. The total accumulated volume grows unconditionally every month based on the 'Write' inputs.
Static Lifecycle: Assumes data remains in its initial tier forever. Excludes Lifecycle Management tier transition operation costs.
Excluded Deletion Mechanics: Excludes all standard delete operations, prorated Early Deletion penalties (30 days for Cool, 90 for Cold, 180 for Archive), and Soft-Delete storage capacity overhead during retention windows.

6. Excluded Advanced & Security Features

Customer Managed Keys (CMK): Excludes custom encryption scopes, which cost $1.00 per month for the Hot and Cool tiers.
SFTP Endpoints: Excludes SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) access, which costs a flat $0.30 per hour.
Blob Indexing: Excludes Blob Index tags, which cost $0.03 per 10,000 tags.
Blob Inventory: Excludes Blob Inventory Reports, which cost $0.004 per million objects.
Change Feed: Excludes Change Feed tracking, which costs $0.01 per 10,000 changes.
Point-in-Time Restore: Excludes data processing charges for Point-in-Time restores, which cost $0.02 to $0.04 per MB.
Smart Tier Monitoring: Excludes Autonomous Smart Tier monitoring fees, which cost $0.04 per 10,000 objects (larger than 128 KiB) per month.
Data Management & Security: Excludes Blob Versioning capacity, Blob Snapshots, Object Replication, Private Endpoint / VNet Data Processing charges, and Microsoft Defender for Storage transaction fees.

Cost Over Time

Cost by Read Volume