Now that you know S3 basics, let's explore how to save money. S3 offers different storage classes, each designed for different use cases and access patterns. Choosing the right one can dramatically lower your storage costs.

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When might you want cheaper, slower storage versus more expensive, faster storage?

S3 Standard is the default storage class. It's designed for frequently accessed data that needs millisecond access time, like images for a popular website or data for active applications. It offers high performance but is the most expensive class.

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What kind of files do you access almost every day?

S3 Intelligent-Tiering is a smart, automated option. It monitors your access patterns and automatically moves objects to the most cost-effective storage tier without any performance impact or operational overhead from you.

This is perfect for data with unknown or changing access patterns.

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With me so far?

For data you access less frequently, you can use S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA). It offers a lower storage price but charges a small fee when you retrieve the data. This is great for long-term storage, backups, and disaster recovery files.

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What kind of business files might you only need to access once a quarter?

For long-term archival, S3 Glacier storage classes offer the lowest-cost storage in the cloud. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is great for archives you might need to retrieve in minutes or hours.

S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the cheapest of all, designed for data you might need once or twice a year, as retrieval can take up to 12 hours.

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