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Object storage (hyperscaler) · by Microsoft Azure

Azure Blob Storage

Microsoft's object storage with Hot, Cool, Cold and Archive tiers, a choice of redundancy levels and per-operation and egress billing.

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Azure Blob Storage homepage
§1

Overview

Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft Azure's object store. Data lives in storage accounts, and each blob sits in an access tier: Premium for low-latency, high-transaction workloads; Hot for frequently read data; Cool, Cold and Archive for progressively rarer access. On top of the tier you choose redundancy: locally redundant (LRS), zone-redundant (ZRS), geo-redundant (GRS) or variants, which roughly double the price for geo copies.

In the default region on Azure's pricing page, Hot LRS storage costs $0.0184 per GB-month for the first 50 TB, Cool $0.01, Cold $0.0036 and Archive $0.002. Colder tiers charge retrieval per GB and an early deletion penalty if blobs are removed or moved within 30 (Cool), 90 (Cold) or 180 (Archive) days. Write operations on Hot cost $0.05 per 10,000 and reads $0.004 per 10,000.

Data leaving Azure to the internet is free for the first 100 GB each month, then $0.087 per GB for the next 10 TB from North America or Europe. Data sent to Azure Front Door or Azure CDN from an Azure origin is free.

Blob Storage is not S3-compatible; it uses its own REST API and SDKs, with Data Lake Storage (hierarchical namespace), NFS and SFTP access as options. Reserved capacity of 100 TB or 1 PB for one or three years lowers the price for large, steady datasets.

§2

Pricing and plans

Plan Price What you get
Hot (LRS) $0.0184/GB-month First 50 TB; writes $0.05 and reads $0.004 per 10,000 operations
Cool (LRS) $0.01/GB-month 30-day early deletion period; $0.01/GB retrieval
Cold (LRS) $0.0036/GB-month 90-day early deletion period; $0.03/GB retrieval
Archive (LRS) $0.002/GB-month 180-day early deletion period; offline, rehydration needed
Premium $0.15/GB-month Low-latency block blobs, cheaper operations
Reserved capacity From $1,545/month for 100 TB Hot (1 year) Commitments in 100 TB and 1 PB units for 1 or 3 years

Prices are the default figures shown on Azure's blob pricing page for locally redundant storage (LRS); the page does not state which region its default table uses, and prices differ by region and redundancy (zone-redundant Hot is about $0.023/GB, geo-redundant Hot about $0.0368/GB). Azure bills in binary GB (GiB). Internet egress is from the bandwidth page: first 100 GB a month free, then $0.087/GB for the next 10 TB from North America or Europe over Microsoft's network, or $0.08/GB via the routing-preference ISP network. New Azure accounts get 12 months of free amounts of some services, including a small amount of blob storage; the exact blob allowance was not shown in the text we could read.

Source: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/storage/blobs/ · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Access tiers
Premium, Hot, Cool, Cold and Archive, switchable per blob, with lifecycle policies to move data automatically.
Redundancy options
LRS, ZRS, GRS and read-access geo-redundant storage trade cost against resilience.
Data Lake Storage
A hierarchical namespace turns a storage account into an analytics data lake with directory semantics.
Protocol support
REST and SDKs, plus optional NFS 3.0 and SFTP access to blobs.
Point-in-time restore
Restore block blobs to an earlier state, billed per MB processed.
Reserved capacity
One- or three-year commitments in 100 TB or 1 PB units for lower storage prices.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Hot LRS storage is slightly cheaper than S3 Standard list price
  • Five access tiers including a low-cost Archive tier
  • First 100 GB of internet egress free each month
  • Deep integration with Azure services and Microsoft identity

Limitations

  • Not S3-compatible, so S3 tools and SDKs need a gateway or rewrite
  • Internet egress beyond 100 GB costs $0.087/GB from North America and Europe
  • Early deletion penalties of 30, 90 and 180 days on Cool, Cold and Archive
  • Prices vary by region and redundancy, which makes comparisons hard
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Applications running on Azure
  • Microsoft-centric companies with enterprise agreements
  • Analytics data lakes on Azure
  • Long-term archives in the Archive tier

Look elsewhere if

  • Projects that rely on S3-compatible tooling
  • Public downloads with heavy egress
§6

Alternatives to Azure Blob Storage

Tool From Free option Stages
SeaweedFS Self-hosted distributed storage
— Open source
Supabase Managed Postgres backend platform
$25/mo Free tier
Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage Flat-rate object storage
$7.99/mo Paid
Google Cloud Storage Object storage (hyperscaler)
Usage-based Free tier
Amazon S3 Object storage (hyperscaler)
Usage-based Paid
Uploadcare File upload, processing and CDN
$66/mo Free tier

All file and object storage →

§7

Questions

How much does Azure Blob Storage cost per GB?

Hot tier with local redundancy starts at about $0.018 per GB-month for the first 50 TB in the pricing page's default region; Archive is $0.002.

Is Azure Blob Storage S3 compatible?

No. It has its own API and SDKs; S3 clients need a translation layer.

How much is Azure egress?

The first 100 GB a month is free; after that it is $0.087/GB for the next 10 TB from North America or Europe over Microsoft's network.

Does Azure Blob Storage have a minimum storage duration?

Hot has none. Cool has a 30-day, Cold a 90-day and Archive a 180-day early deletion period.

Sources read for this page