How am I billed for my Amazon EBS snapshots?

4 minute read

I want to understand how I'm billed for Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) snapshots.

Short description

Amazon EBS calculates snapshot charges by the gigabyte-month (GB-month). You incur charges based on the amount of data stored and the duration you keep the snapshot. Pricing depends on the storage tier: Standard or Archive.

Resolution

Understand Standard tier billing

In the Standard tier, you pay only for changed blocks that are stored. For the first snapshot of a volume, Amazon EBS saves a full copy of all written data blocks. For each subsequent snapshot, Amazon EBS stores only the blocks that changed after the previous snapshot.

For example, if you have a 100 GB volume with 100 GB of written data, then the first snapshot (snapshot A) stores 100 GB. If you then write 5 GB of new data (snapshot B), then you pay only for the additional 5 GB of changed blocks.

Note: Amazon EBS snapshots capture only blocks that contain data, not empty blocks. For a 200 GB volume with 100 GB of written data, the first snapshot is based on 100 GB, not the full 200 GB volume size.

Understand Archive tier billing

When you archive a snapshot, the incremental snapshot converts to a full snapshot and moves to the Archive tier. You pay for all snapshot blocks stored at the Archive tier rate. The Archive tier offers up to 75% lower storage costs for snapshots stored for 90 days or longer.

For example, if you archive snapshot B with 105 GB of total data, then you pay for the full 105 GB at the Archive tier rate. You also pay a retrieval fee when you restore a snapshot from the Archive tier.

Important: If you delete or permanently restore an archived snapshot before the minimum 90-day archive period, then you incur a pro-rated early deletion charge.

Understand snapshot lineage billing

When you archive a snapshot that shares data blocks with other Standard tier snapshots, the shared blocks remain in the Standard tier. Only blocks unique to the archived snapshot move to the Archive tier.

For example, if snapshot A and snapshot B share blocks and you archive snapshot A, then the following occurs:

Blocks unique to snapshot A move to the Archive tier at a lower cost.
Blocks that other Standard tier snapshots reference remain in the Standard tier.
You pay for some data in both tiers if there's overlap.

Determine when to use the Archive tier

It's a best practice to use the Archive tier for the following use cases:

End-of-project snapshots, such as single, standalone snapshots
Monthly or yearly snapshots with no daily or weekly snapshots in between
Compliance snapshots that require long-term retention of 90 days or more
Snapshots that you rarely access

Important: To avoid increased costs, don't archive snapshots that are part of an active incremental chain where other snapshots reference the same blocks.

View snapshot charges

To view the charges for your Amazon EBS snapshots, complete the following steps:

Open the AWS Billing and Cost Management console.
In the navigation pane, choose Bills.
In the Charges by service section, expand Elastic Compute Cloud.

You can also use cost allocation tags to track and manage your snapshot costs.

Note: You don't incur charges for snapshots that another AWS account owns and shares with your account. You incur charges only when you copy the shared snapshot to your account. You also incur charges for Amazon EBS volumes that you create from the shared snapshot.