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What's the Difference Between Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive and Amazon S3 Glacier?

Compare Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive and Amazon S3 Glacier side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

Compare side-by-side

Comparisons
Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive
Amazon S3 Glacier
Category

Storage, Archive

Storage, Archive
Description

Low-cost, long-term storage tier for rarely-accessed EBS snapshots.

Low-cost cloud storage for data archiving and long-term backup with retrieval options from minutes to hours.
Best for
  • Snapshot archival
  • Compliance retention
  • Cost optimization
  • Long-term backup
  • Data archiving
  • Compliance archives
  • Media asset preservation
  • Long-term backup
Key features
  • 75% cost reduction
  • Full snapshot restore
  • 24-72 hour retrieval
  • Lifecycle rules
  • Cross-region copy
  • Glacier Instant Retrieval
  • Glacier Flexible Retrieval
  • Glacier Deep Archive
  • Vault Lock
  • S3 Lifecycle integration
Pricing model

Up to 75% lower cost than standard snapshots

From $0.0036/GB/month
Free tier

No

No
Expert take

“Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive stores rarely accessed snapshots at 75% lower cost. Archive snapshots you must retain for compliance but do not need to restore frequently.”
— Giovanni Lauria, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]

“Glacier is for data you need to keep but rarely access. Deep Archive at $0.00099/GB/month is the lowest storage cost in the cloud. Pair it with S3 Lifecycle rules to automatically transition objects from Standard to Glacier after a set period.”
— Gary McLean, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page

Learn more about Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive »

Learn more about Amazon S3 Glacier »

When to use Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive or Amazon S3 Glacier

Use Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive when:

  • Snapshot archival
  • Compliance retention
  • Cost optimization
  • Long-term backup

Learn more about Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive »

Use Amazon S3 Glacier when:

  • Data archiving
  • Compliance archives
  • Media asset preservation
  • Long-term backup

Learn more about Amazon S3 Glacier »

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