# Unarchived long-term EBS snapshots | Cloud Efficiency Hub Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/unarchived-long-term-ebs-snapshots EBS Snapshot Archive is a lower-cost storage tier for rarely accessed snapshots retained for compliance, regulatory, or long-term backup purposes. By: Kyler Rupe Updated: 2026-09-28 [Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) # Unarchived Long-Term EBS Snapshots The short version EBS Snapshot Archive is a lower-cost storage tier for rarely accessed snapshots retained for compliance, regulatory, or long-term backup purposes. [Kyler Rupe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyler-rupe-8b802a190/) Cloud FinOps Engineer @ Koch AWS service [AWS EBS](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-ebs) Category [Storage](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/storage) Reference CER-0044 Type Suboptimal Tier or SKU ## Explanation Why the waste happens and who it affects. Archiving snapshots that do not require frequent or fast retrieval can reduce snapshot storage costs by up to 75%. Despite this, many organizations retain large volumes of snapshots in the standard tier long after their operational value has expired. ## Billing model The pricing dimensions that drive this cost. Charged per GB-month of snapshot data stored, with pricing dependent on whether the snapshot is in the standard tier or the lower-cost archive tier. Archived snapshots are stored as full (not incremental) snapshots and billed at $0.0125 per GB-month, compared with $0.05 per GB-month in the standard tier (rates shown in the AWS documentation; they vary by Region). The archive tier has a 90-day minimum archive period (deleting or permanently restoring earlier is billed pro rata for the remaining days) and a restore fee of $0.03 per GB. Archiving an incremental snapshot whose data is still referenced by later snapshots can therefore increase total cost; the best candidates are the only snapshot of a volume or standalone full snapshots kept for compliance. ## How to detect 4 checks to find it in your estate. - Identify EBS snapshots that are more than 90 days old and have not been accessed or restored - Review backup policies or compliance requirements that justify long-term retention - Evaluate whether snapshots are one-time or periodic backups that are unlikely to be used operationally (e.g., end-of-project, monthly compliance snapshots) - Check for large volumes of retained snapshots from now-defunct workloads or projects ## How to fix 4 ways to remove the waste. - Archive eligible snapshots using the \`ModifySnapshotTier\` API, AWS CLI, or console - Confirm organizational retention policies before archiving - Ensure teams understand how to restore archived snapshots and the longer retrieval times involved - Educate teams on snapshot lifecycle and the impact of incremental chaining for efficient archive selection ## Documentation Vendor references for pricing and configuration. - [Archive Amazon EBS snapshots docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/snapshot-archive.html) - [Pricing and billing for archiving Amazon EBS snapshots docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/snapshot-archive-pricing.html) - [Guidelines and best practices for archiving Amazon EBS snapshots docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/archiving-guidelines.html) - [How Amazon EBS snapshots work docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/how_snapshots_work.html) - [EBS Pricing aws.amazon.com](https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/) ## Related inefficiencies [Browse the library](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) - AWS EBS CER-0154 ### [Delete-on-Termination Disabled for EBS Volume](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/delete-on-termination-disabled-for-ebs-volume) When EC2 instances are provisioned, each attached EBS volume has a \`DeleteOnTermination\` flag that determines whether it will be deleted when the instance is terminated. If this flag is set to \`false\` - often unintentionally in custom... Storage - AWS EBS CER-0162 ### [Outdated Provisioned IOPS Volume Type for High-I/O Workloads](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/outdated-provisioned-iops-volume-type-for-high-i-o-workloads) Many environments continue using io1 volumes for high-performance workloads due to legacy provisioning or lack of awareness of io2 benefits. io2 volumes provide equivalent or better performance and durability with reduced cost at scale.... Storage - AWS EBS CER-0178 ### [Overprovisioned EBS Volume](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/overprovisioned-ebs-volume) EBS volumes often remain significantly overprovisioned compared to the actual data stored on them. Because billing is based on the total provisioned capacity - not actual usage - this creates ongoing waste when large volumes are only... Storage --- Source: the public page above. Product screenshots and illustrative interfaces are examples, not live customer data.