COS offers the following storage classes for objects: INTELLIGENT TIERING, STANDARD, STANDARD_IA, ARCHIVE, and DEEP ARCHIVE. They indicate how active objects are in COS, and vary from one another in terms of access frequency, durability, availability, latency, and more. You can choose which storage class to upload your data to based on your use case.
Note：
If the storage class is not set when an object is uploaded, it defaults to STANDARD.
COS STANDARD is a highly reliable, accessible, and powerful object storage service that is designed for hot data, featuring low access latency and high throughput.
Use cases
Use cases involving lots of hotspot files or frequent data access, such as hotspot videos, social images, mobile apps, game programs, and static websites.
STANDARD is a COS storage class that is designed for general-purpose storage and covers the majority of use cases.
COS STANDARD_IA is a highly reliable object storage service with low storage costs and low access latency. It allows you to access the first byte in milliseconds at a reduced price, allowing you can retrieve data quickly without waiting. Unlike STANDARD, STANDARD_IA involves data retrieval fees when you access data.
Use cases
Use cases with rather low access frequency (for example, 1 to 2 times per month), such as cloud disk data, big data analysis, government and enterprise data, low-frequency archives, and monitoring data.
STANDARD_IA has minimum storage requirements. If the storage duration is less than 30 days, the bill is calculated as 30 days. Likewise, if the size of a file is smaller than 64 KB, the bill is calculated as 64 KB (if the size of a file is greater than or equal to 64 KB, the bill is calculated based on the actual file size). For more information, please see COS Pricing.
COS INTELLIGENT TIERING automatically moves objects between the STANDARD and STANDARD_IA tiers according to their access frequency. Data retrieval fees are not involved, reducing storage costs. For more information, please see Overview - INTELLIGENT TIERING.
Use cases
Use cases with uncertain data access patterns. If your business has tight controls on costs and is less sensitive to file reading performance, you can use INTELLIGENT TIERING to reduce costs.
Note：
INTELLIGENT TIERING has minimum storage requirements. If the storage duration is less than 30 days, the bill is calculated as 30 days. Likewise, if the size of a file is smaller than 64 KB, the bill is calculated as 64 KB (if the size of a file is greater than or equal to 64 KB, the bill is calculated based on the actual file size). For more information, please see COS Pricing.
COS ARCHIVE is a highly reliable object storage service designed for cold data, and offers very low storage costs and long-term data retention. This storage class has a minimum storage duration of 90 days. To read data stored in ARCHIVE, you need to restore it to STANDARD first.
You can restore your objects in the following three modes:
Note：
For more information on restoring objects, please see Restoring Archived Objects.
Use cases
Use cases that require long-term data retention, such as archival data, medical images, scientific data and other compliance files, lifecycle files, logs, and remote disaster recovery.
Note：
ARCHIVE has minimum storage requirements. If the storage duration is less than 90 days, the bill is calculated as 90 days. Likewise, if the size of a file is smaller than 64 KB, the bill is calculated as 64 KB (if the size of a file is greater than or equal to 64 KB, the bill is calculated based on the actual file size). For more information, please see COS Pricing.
COS DEEP ARCHIVE is a highly reliable object storage service that offers the lowest storage costs and long-term data retention. This storage class has a minimum storage duration of 180 days. To read data stored in DEEP ARCHIVE, you need to restore it to STANDARD first. For more information, please see Overview - DEEP ARCHIVE.
You can restore your objects in either of the following modes:
Use cases
Use cases that require long-term data retention, such as medical images, security monitoring data, and logs.
Note：
DEEP ARCHIVE has minimum storage requirements. If the storage duration is less than 180 days, the bill is calculated as 180 days. Likewise, if the size of a file is smaller than 64 KB, the bill is calculated as 64 KB (if the size of a file is greater than or equal to 64 KB, the bill is calculated based on the actual file size). For more information, please see COS Pricing.
| Metric | INTELLIGENT TIERING |
STANDARD | STANDARD_IA | ARCHIVE | DEEP ARCHIVE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Durability | 99.9999999 99% |
99.9999999 99% |
99.9999999 99% |
99.9999999 99% |
99.9999999 99% |
| Availability | 99.99% | 99.95% | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| Response | Milliseconds | Milliseconds | Milliseconds | Requires restoration in advance using one of these three restoration modes: |
Requires restoration in advance using either of these restoration modes: |
| Minimum billable object size | 64 KB. Objects with sizes smaller than 64 KB are stored in the STANDARD tier | Calculated by the actual object size | 64 KB | 64 KB | 64 KB |
| Minimum storage duration | 30 days | No limit | 30 days | 90 days | 180 days |
| Supported regions | Only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chongqing | All regions | All regions | Only public cloud regions | Only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu |
| Storage fees | Consistent with the price of the storage class after the object movement | Standard | Low | Very Low | Ultra-low |
| Data retrieval fees | None | None | Rather low. Charged by the actual amount of data read | Rather high. Charged by the actual amount of data restored depending on the restoration mode | High. Charged by the actual amount of data restored depending on the restoration mode |
| Request fees | Rather high. You will also be charged the INTELLIGENT TIERING object monitoring fees | Standard | Rather high | Standard (the data needs to be restored to STANDARD first) | High (the data needs to be restored to STANDARD first). To retrieve DEEP ARCHIVED data, request fees for retrieving data will be incurred |
| Data processing | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported (available after data restoration) | Supported (available after data restoration) |
COS offers multiple storage classes that indicate how active objects are in COS. You can move objects between these storage classes as needed, for example, from a hot storage class (e.g., STANDARD) to a colder one (e.g., STANDARD_IA, ARCHIVE, and DEEP ARCHIVE). For more information, please see the following documentation:
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