S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
- What it is
- The middle Amazon S3 Glacier class: very cheap archival storage where you choose how fast — and how expensive — each retrieval is.
- Retrieval options
- Expedited — 1–5 minutes, priciest.
- Standard — 3–5 hours.
- Bulk — 5–12 hours, free.
- Numbers
- 11 nines durability, multi-AZ. Minimum billable storage duration 90 days.
- When to use it
- Backups and archives accessed once or twice a year, where a few hours of wait is acceptable.
- Not to be confused with
- S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval — same idea with millisecond access and a higher storage price.
- S3 Glacier Deep Archive — cheaper still, 12–48 hours, 180-day minimum.
- Exam signal
- “Archive, retrieval in minutes to hours is fine” → Flexible Retrieval. (Formerly just “S3 Glacier”.)