Azure Archive Storage
Archive storage solutions
Storage management software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if Azure Archive Storage and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Pay-as-you-go
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
Small
Medium
Large
- Manufacturing
- Education and training
- Accommodation and food services
What is Azure Archive Storage
Azure Archive Storage is a cloud object storage tier within Azure Blob Storage designed for long-term data retention with infrequent access. It targets IT, data platform, and compliance teams that need to retain backups, logs, media, or regulatory records at lower storage cost in exchange for higher access latency. Data is stored as blobs and can be rehydrated to online tiers when needed, with retrieval and early-deletion charges that depend on configuration and access patterns.
Deep Azure Blob integration
Archive is implemented as an access tier of Azure Blob Storage, so it uses the same storage account model, APIs/SDKs, and identity controls as other blob tiers. This simplifies tiering policies and application compatibility compared with separate archival systems. It also supports common Azure governance features such as role-based access control and policy-based management.
Lifecycle tiering automation
Azure Storage lifecycle management can automatically move blobs between hot, cool, and archive tiers based on age or other rules. This helps reduce manual administration for long-retention datasets and supports predictable retention workflows. Policies can be applied at scale across containers and prefixes, which is useful for large data estates.
Multiple redundancy options
Archive storage can be paired with Azure redundancy choices (for example, locally redundant or geo-redundant configurations) depending on region and account settings. This allows organizations to align durability and disaster recovery requirements with cost. It also enables consistent redundancy strategy across online and archival blob tiers within the same platform.
High latency for retrieval
Archived blobs are not intended for interactive access and typically require rehydration before they can be read. Retrieval can take hours depending on the rehydration option and object size, which can be unsuitable for time-sensitive restores. This trade-off is fundamental to the archive tier’s cost model.
Complex and variable costs
Total cost depends on storage, operations, data retrieval, and potential early-deletion charges for data moved to archive before minimum retention periods elapse. Rehydration and egress can materially change the economics for workloads with unpredictable access. Organizations often need monitoring and chargeback controls to avoid surprises.
Object storage constraints
Azure Archive Storage is object-based, so it does not provide file system semantics or block storage behavior without additional services. Some legacy applications may require refactoring or a gateway approach to use archived blobs effectively. Features like in-place modification are limited compared with systems designed for file or block workloads.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go (Archive access tier in Azure Blob Storage) Free tier/trial: General Azure free account (trial credits) available to try Azure services; no product-level permanent free tier for Archive. See notes below. Example costs (sample prices from Microsoft Learn):
- Data storage (pay-as-you-go, first 50 TB): $0.002 per GB / month (Archive).
- Data retrieval (standard priority): $0.022 per GB (Archive).
- Read operations (Archive): $5.50 per 10,000 operations (i.e. $0.00055 per read op).
- Write operations (Archive): $0.11 per 10,000 operations (i.e. $0.000011 per write op).
- High-priority retrieval (Archive): $0.13 per GB; high-priority read ops: $65.00 per 10,000.
- Reserved capacity examples (sample): 100 TB 1-year reserved capacity (Archive): $183 (sample); 3-year reserved capacity: $168 (sample). Other notes (from official docs):
- Archive tier has an early deletion minimum of 180 days; early-deletion charges are prorated based on the storage price for the tier.
- Archive blobs must be rehydrated to an online tier (Hot/Cool/Cold) before they can be read; SetBlobTier (rehydration) and retrieval operations incur additional costs and can take hours to complete. Discount options: Reserved capacity (1-year or 3-year) for capacity commitments; pricing varies by redundancy/region. See Azure Reserved Capacity for details.
(These numbers are the illustrative/sample prices published in Microsoft documentation; the official region-and-redundancy-specific prices are provided on the Azure Blob Storage pricing page and can vary by region and redundancy setting.)
Seller details
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington, United States
1975
Public
https://www.microsoft.com/
https://x.com/Microsoft
https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/
