Prices, bill drivers and 2026 rules
Cloud storage, backups and snapshots: what they cost and how they grow
Block, object and archive storage tiers, snapshot and backup pricing, retention arithmetic and retrieval fees for Australian small businesses, with worked examples.
Storage is charged per GB per month for what you provision or keep, and the rate depends on the tier. A server's disk (block storage) is billed for its full size even if it is half empty. Object storage is billed for what you actually store, plus requests, and archive tiers are cheap to keep but charge to retrieve and may have minimum storage periods. Backups and snapshots are storage too: they grow every time retention lengthens or a new copy is kept, which is why they are one of the most common quiet increases on a cloud bill. In the illustrative example below, keeping 30 daily and 12 monthly snapshots of 300 GB of data costs about 1.7 times as much per month as the disks it protects.
This guide belongs to the pricing overview. For data leaving storage see egress, IP and load balancer charges; for the bill-shock pattern see why cloud bills blow out. Figures are illustrative, ex GST.
The storage tiers
| Tier | What it is | Billed on | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block storage, standard SSD | The server's disk | Provisioned GB a month, sometimes plus IOPS or throughput | You pay for the full size, used or not |
| Block storage, high performance | Faster disk for databases | Provisioned GB plus provisioned IOPS | IOPS charges can exceed the GB charge |
| Object storage, standard | Files, images, backups accessed often | GB stored, requests, data out | Request charges on many small files |
| Object storage, infrequent access | Data read rarely | Lower GB rate, retrieval fee per GB | Minimum storage duration, retrieval cost |
| Archive | Long-term retention | Very low GB rate | Retrieval can take hours and cost per GB; early-deletion fees |
| Shared hosting disk quota | Disk inside a plan | Included up to a limit | Backups may count towards the quota |
Prices differ by region. Data stored in a Sydney or Melbourne region is usually charged at that region's rate, which may differ from the provider's overseas rates.
Snapshots and backups: how retention multiplies
A snapshot is a point-in-time copy of a disk. Most cloud snapshots are incremental: the first one is roughly the size of the used data, and later ones store only changed blocks. A backup service may do the same, or keep full copies. Either way, what you keep is what you pay for.
Illustrative example: 300 GB of used data across three servers, 2% of data changing each day, snapshot storage at $0.06 per GB a month.
| Policy | Approximate stored | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 7 daily snapshots | 300 + 6 × (300 × 2%) = 336 GB | 336 × $0.06 = $20.16 |
| 30 daily snapshots | 300 + 29 × 6 = 474 GB | 474 × $0.06 = $28.44 |
| 30 daily + 12 monthly | 474 + 12 × (300 × 15%) = 1,014 GB | 1,014 × $0.06 = $60.84 |
Compare that with the disks: three 100 GB standard disks at an illustrative $0.12 per GB a month cost $36. The longest policy costs almost 1.7 times the disks themselves. That may be the right choice for a business with record-keeping needs, but it should be a decision, not an accident.
How to set a retention policy that fits
- Start from what you must keep. Tax and business records generally have retention periods (commonly five years for tax records); customer contracts or industry rules may require longer. Not all of that needs to be in server snapshots: exported records in archive storage can be cheaper.
- Separate operational recovery from long-term retention. Short-term daily snapshots let you roll back a bad update. Long-term copies belong in cheaper object or archive storage.
- Keep at least one copy outside the account or provider. A backup in the same account as the server can be deleted by the same compromised password. The ASD's Essential Eight treats regular, tested backups as a core mitigation.
- Test a restore. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup. Note how long the restore took; that is your real recovery time.
- Set lifecycle rules. Most object storage can move data automatically to cheaper tiers after a set number of days and delete it at the end of retention.
Disk size and performance: right-sizing storage
- Do not over-provision disks "for later". Many cloud disks can be enlarged without downtime; shrinking is harder. Provision for the next six to twelve months.
- Pay for IOPS only where needed. A database may need fast disks; a web server's disk rarely does.
- Delete orphaned disks. When a server is deleted, its disk may be kept by default and keep charging. Check after every clean-up.
- Watch shared hosting quotas. On a shared plan, backups, email and logs can fill the quota and push you to a higher plan.
Frequently asked questions
Is object storage cheaper than a bigger disk?
For files that do not need to be on the server's disk, usually yes per GB, but add request and data-out charges. It suits images, documents and backups.
What is an early-deletion fee?
Some infrequent-access and archive tiers charge as if data was stored for a minimum period (for example 30, 90 or 180 days, depending on the tier and provider) even if you delete it sooner.
Does my host's backup count as my backup?
Only if you know how often it runs, how long it is kept, where it is stored and how to restore it, and you have tested that. Many shared hosting backups are best-effort. Keep your own copy as well.
Do backups stored overseas raise privacy issues?
They can. If backups containing personal information are stored or accessed overseas, see Australian data residency and APP 8.
Sources
- Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD) — Essential Eight guidance on regular backups
- Australian Taxation Office — record-keeping requirements for businesses
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — APP 11 security and destruction of personal information
- business.gov.au — backing up business data
