How does OCI Object Storage pricing compare to AWS S3?

OCI Object Storage is generally less expensive than AWS S3, particularly for data egress. OCI provides 10 TB of free outbound data transfer per month and does not charge for intra-region transfers, while AWS charges for almost all data transfer out of S3. Storage costs per GB are also typically lower on OCI across all tiers. However, AWS offers more storage classes (six versus three) and more granular lifecycle transitions.

What are the retrieval costs for Archive storage?

Archive storage in OCI has a minimum retention period of 90 days, and restoring archived objects takes about one hour. Retrieval is charged per GB retrieved plus a per-request fee. Early deletion (before 90 days) incurs prorated storage charges for the remaining days. For data accessed less than once or twice per year, Archive tier is significantly cheaper than Standard or Infrequent Access despite the retrieval costs.

Does OCI charge for Object Storage API requests?

Yes, OCI charges for PUT, COPY, POST, and LIST requests on all tiers, and GET requests on Infrequent Access and Archive tiers. Standard tier GET requests are free. The per-request costs are small but can add up for workloads making millions of requests. The cost estimator accounts for your expected request volumes across each tier to give an accurate total cost projection.

OCI Object Storage Cost Estimator

StorageOCI

Estimate OCI Object Storage costs across Standard, Infrequent Access, and Archive tiers.

Last verified: May 2026

Object Storage Configuration

Storage (GB)

Storage Tier

Requests per Month (PUT + GET)

Split 50/50 between PUT and GET for pricing.

Data Egress (GB)

First 10 TB (10,240 GB) of egress is free.

Raw Output

Output will appear here...

About This Tool

OCI Object Storage offers multiple storage tiers — Standard, Infrequent Access, and Archive — each with different pricing for storage capacity, API requests, and data retrieval. Unlike AWS S3, OCI does not charge for outbound data transfer within the same region and offers 10 TB of free outbound data transfer per month to the internet. This cost estimator helps you project monthly expenses based on stored data volume, access patterns, API request counts, and inter-region replication needs. It compares costs across storage tiers to help you choose the most economical option for your access frequency.

Real-World Scenario

Your team is comparing OCI Object Storage vs AWS S3 for a 100 TB media archive accessed by users worldwide (~5 TB/month egress). AWS: storage $2,300 + egress $450 = $2,750/month. OCI: storage $2,000 + egress free (under 10 TB) = $2,000/month. OCI saves $750/month, $9K/year — and the egress headroom means traffic spikes don't suddenly cost more.

When to Use This Tool

•Estimating monthly costs for a data lake with 50 TB of Standard storage and 500 TB of Archive storage with occasional retrievals
•Comparing the cost of storing log archives in Infrequent Access versus Archive tier based on expected retrieval frequency
•Calculating the cost savings of implementing lifecycle policies that auto-tier objects from Standard to Infrequent Access after 30 days
•Projecting costs for cross-region replication of critical data buckets for disaster recovery

Pro Tips

TIP

OCI's 10 TB/month free internet egress is the most generous of any major cloud — AWS gives you 100 GB. For data-heavy workloads (video distribution, software downloads, public APIs), this single fact can save thousands per month vs equivalent AWS S3 architecture.

TIP

Auto-tiering policies on OCI Object Storage move objects from Standard to Infrequent Access automatically based on access frequency. Unlike AWS S3 Intelligent-Tiering's monthly monitoring fee, OCI's auto-tiering is free. Always enable it for buckets where access patterns are unpredictable.

TIP

Archive tier's 1-hour retrieval delay is dramatically faster than AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive's 12-hour standard retrieval. For compliance archives that need occasional access, OCI Archive provides better restore SLAs at lower cost.

How It Works Under the Hood

The estimator computes monthly OCI Object Storage cost across components: storage (per-tier per-GB rate × volume), API requests (PUT/COPY/POST/LIST always charged, GET only on IA/Archive), Archive retrieval (per-GB + per-request), and outbound data transfer (free under 10 TB/month, then tiered rates). It compares against equivalent AWS S3 pricing side-by-side to show the OCI savings.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does OCI Object Storage pricing compare to AWS S3?: OCI Object Storage is generally less expensive than AWS S3, particularly for data egress. OCI provides 10 TB of free outbound data transfer per month and does not charge for intra-region transfers, while AWS charges for almost all data transfer out of S3. Storage costs per GB are also typically lower on OCI across all tiers. However, AWS offers more storage classes (six versus three) and more granular lifecycle transitions.
What are the retrieval costs for Archive storage?: Archive storage in OCI has a minimum retention period of 90 days, and restoring archived objects takes about one hour. Retrieval is charged per GB retrieved plus a per-request fee. Early deletion (before 90 days) incurs prorated storage charges for the remaining days. For data accessed less than once or twice per year, Archive tier is significantly cheaper than Standard or Infrequent Access despite the retrieval costs.
Does OCI charge for Object Storage API requests?: Yes, OCI charges for PUT, COPY, POST, and LIST requests on all tiers, and GET requests on Infrequent Access and Archive tiers. Standard tier GET requests are free. The per-request costs are small but can add up for workloads making millions of requests. The cost estimator accounts for your expected request volumes across each tier to give an accurate total cost projection.

Related Learning Guides

OCI Object Storage & Tiers16 min read
OCI Cost Optimization Strategies18 min read

Was this tool helpful?

Disclaimer: This tool runs entirely in your browser. No data is sent to our servers. Always verify outputs before using them in production. AWS, Azure, and GCP are trademarks of their respective owners.