Expiration
- What it is
- The lifecycle policy action that permanently deletes objects once they reach a given age. The cheapest storage is storage you no longer keep.
- What it can expire
- Current object versions after N days.
- Noncurrent versions in a versioned bucket — often the bigger win, since old versions accumulate silently.
- Expired object delete markers, and incomplete multipart uploads (partial uploads bill as storage forever otherwise).
- Why it matters
- Retention rules become automatic instead of a script someone has to remember to run.
- It is destructive and irreversible — pair it with versioning, MFA delete, or Object Lock where the data matters.
- Related but different
- Transition — moves the object to a cheaper class rather than deleting it.