Massively scalable and secure object storage
Block blob storage is used for streaming and storing documents, videos, pictures, backups, and other unstructured text or binary data.
Total cost of block blob storage depends on:
- Volume of data stored per month.
- Quantity and types of operations performed, along with any data transfer costs.
- Data redundancy option selected.
Explore pricing options
Apply filters to customize pricing options to your needs.
Prices are estimates only and are not intended as actual price quotes. Actual pricing may vary depending on the type of agreement entered with Microsoft, date of purchase, and the currency exchange rate. Prices are calculated based on US dollars and converted using London closing spot rates that are captured in the two business days prior to the last business day of the previous month end. If the two business days prior to the end of the month fall on a bank holiday in major markets, the rate setting day is generally the day immediately preceding the two business days. This rate applies to all transactions during the upcoming month. Sign in to the Azure pricing calculator to see pricing based on your current program/offer with Microsoft. Contact an Azure sales specialist for more information on pricing or to request a price quote. See frequently asked questions about Azure pricing.
US government entities are eligible to purchase Azure Government services from a licensing solution provider with no upfront financial commitment, or directly through a pay-as-you-go online subscription.
Important—The price in R$ is merely a reference; this is an international transaction and the final price is subject to exchange rates and the inclusion of IOF taxes. An eNF will not be issued.
US government entities are eligible to purchase Azure Government services from a licensing solution provider with no upfront financial commitment, or directly through a pay-as-you-go online subscription.
Important—The price in R$ is merely a reference; this is an international transaction and the final price is subject to exchange rates and the inclusion of IOF taxes. An eNF will not be issued.
Azure Blob Storage usage is calculated in binary Gigabytes (GB), where 1 GB = 230 bytes. This unit of measurement is also known as Gibibyte (GiB), defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Similarly, 1 TB is 240 bytes, i.e. 1,024 GBs.
Storage Tiers | Description |
---|---|
Standard (GPv2) storage | Our recommended pricing offers for block blobs and append blobs provide access to the latest Azure Storage features. The Hot tier is applicable for most workloads. The Cool and Archive tiers are for cool or cold data with pricing optimized for lowest GB storage prices. |
Premium storage | Premium blob storage provides access to block blobs and append blobs with low and consistent latency, with pricing optimized for high transaction rates. |
Data storage prices pay-as-you-go
All prices are per GB per month.
Data storage prices pay-as-you-go | Premium | Hot | Cool | Cold | Archive |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
First 50 terabyte (TB)/month | $0.15 per GB | $0.018 per GB | $0.01 per GB | $0.0036 per GB | $0.002 per GB |
Next 450 TB/month | $0.15 per GB | $0.0173 per GB | $0.01 per GB | $0.0036 per GB | $0.002 per GB |
Over 500 TB/month | $0.15 per GB | $0.0166 per GB | $0.01 per GB | $0.0036 per GB | $0.002 per GB |
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity helps you lower your data storage cost by committing to one-year or three-years of Azure Storage. Reserved capacity can be purchased in increments of 100 TB and 1 PB sizes for 1-year and 3-year commitment duration. All prices are per month. For more information, please see documentation.
1-year reserved | 3-year reserved | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity | Hot | Cool | Archive | Hot | Cool | Archive |
100 TB/month | $1,545 | $840 | $183 | $1,244 | $676 | $168 |
1 PB/month | $15,050 | $8,179 | $1,783 | $11,963 | $6,502 | $1,636 |
Early deletion penalty
Blobs are subject to an early deletion penalty if they are deleted, overwritten or moved to a different tier before the minimum number of days required by the tier have transpired. Any blob that is moved to the Archive tier is subject to an Archive early deletion period of 180 days. Any blob that is moved to the Cold tier is subject to a Cold tier early deletion period of 90 days. Any blob that is moved to the Cool tier is subject to a Cool tier early deletion period of 30 days. This charge is prorated based on the data storage price of the corresponding tier, i.e. deleting an archived blob after 120 days will lead to this object being charged for 180 days. Please refer to the documentation page for the full details.
Operations and data transfer
Operations and data transfer | Premium | Hot | Cool | Cold | Archive |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Write operations (per 10,000)1 | $0.0228 | $0.065 | $0.13 | $0.234 | $0.13 |
|
$0.0019 | $0.005 | $0.013 | $0.13 |
|
Iterative Read Operations (per 10,000)1 | $0.0228 | $0.0052 | $0.0052 | $0.0052 | $0.0052 |
Iterative Write Operations (100’s)1 | Free N/A | $0.065 | $0.065 | $0.065 | $0.065 |
|
Free | Free N/A | $0.01 | $0.03 |
|
Data Write (per GB) | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
Index (GB/month) | N/A | Free N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
All other Operations (per 10,000), except Delete, which is free | $0.0019 | $0.005 | $0.005 | $0.005 | $0.005 |
1Information on mapping API calls to transactions can be found here.
Additional cross-region data transfer network changes may apply based on source/destination of each storage access. Learn more at the Bandwidth pricing page.
When using ADLS Gen2 API for transactions, read and write transactions occur for every 4 MB of data.
For blobs in Archive, the only valid operations are GetBlobProperties, GetBlobMetadata, ListBlobs, SetBlobTier, SetBlobTags, GetBlobTags, FindBlobsByTags, DeleteBlob, and CopyBlob. Setting the tier from Archive to Hot or Cool typically takes up to 15 hours to complete. Learn more.
Additional Blob Features
Additional features and protocols can be used on Blob Storage accounts and Data Lake Storage accounts. Not all features are available for every protocol or feature combination. Details can be found here.
SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
Azure Blob Storage now supports the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). This support provides the ability to securely connect to Blob Storage accounts via an SFTP endpoint, allowing you to leverage SFTP for file access, file transfer, as well as file management. Learn more about the feature here.
SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) | SFTP enabled for storage account (per hour) |
---|---|
SFTP charges in increments of | $0.30 |
Blob Index
Blob Index is an intelligent data sub-resource for blob; consisting of user-defined key/value tag attributes that are automatically indexed for querying. This provides a managed multi-dimensional classification for your blob objects, allowing for quick, simple, and cost-effective data discovery capabilities beyond listing by prefix filters on blob name. Learn more about the feature at blob documentation.
Blob Index | Price |
---|---|
Blob Index (per 10K tags) | $0.03 |
Data transfer prices for block blobs
When you write data to a GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS account, the data is replicated to another Azure region. The geo-replication data transfer charge is for bandwidth used to replicate data to the second Azure region. This charge also applies when you change the storage account's replication setting from LRS to GRS or RA-GRS or from ZRS to GZRS or RA-GZRS.
GZRS, or RA-GZRS are not currently available for Premium Block Blobs.
Data transfer prices for block blobs | GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS |
---|---|
Data transfer per GB | $0.02 |
Blob inventory
Blob inventory provides a list of the containers, blobs, blob versions, and snapshots in your storage account, along with their associated properties. It generates an output report in either CSV or Apache Parquet format on a daily or weekly basis. You can use the report to audit retention, legal hold or encryption status, or you can use it as a scheduled alternative to the List Blobs API for your workflows. Learn more about Blob inventory.
Feature | Price* |
---|---|
Blob inventory (per million objects, per report generated) | $0.004 |
*The price remains same across all access tiers.
Please refer to the documentation to learn how the price is calculated.
Other features
Change feed provides you a log of changes in the Blob data in an ordered manner. The feature is by default disabled, and can be enabled on the Storage account. Once enabled, change feed will track each blob change and store the change event in the change feed. Learn more about the feature.
Blob Changes | Price |
---|---|
Blob Changes (per 10K changes) | $0.01 |
Encryption scopes enable you to optionally manage encryption at the level of the container or an individual blob either with a customer-managed key in Key Vault or a Microsoft-managed key. Learn more about encryption scopes.
Encryption Scopes | Price |
---|---|
Encryption Scopes (per month) | $1 |
Blob storage accounts provide access to the latest features, but not to page blobs, files, queues, or tables. Using general-purpose v2 storage accounts is recommended for most users.
Data storage prices pay-as-you-go
All prices are per GB per month.
Data storage prices pay-as-you-go | Premium | Hot | Cool | Archive |
---|---|---|---|---|
First 50 terabyte (TB)/month | $0.15 per GB | $0.018 per GB | $0.01 per GB | $0.002 per GB |
Next 450 TB/month | $0.15 per GB | $0.0173 per GB | $0.01 per GB | $0.002 per GB |
Over 500 TB/month | $0.15 per GB | $0.0166 per GB | $0.01 per GB | $0.002 per GB |
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity helps you lower your data storage cost by committing to one-year or three-years of Azure Storage. Reserved capacity can be purchased in increments of 100 TB and 1 PB sizes for 1-year and 3-year commitment duration. All prices are per month. For more information, please see documentation.
1-year reserved | 3-year reserved | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity | Hot | Cool | Archive | Hot | Cool | Archive |
100 TB/month | $1,545 | $840 | $183 | $1,244 | $676 | $168 |
1 PB/month | $15,050 | $8,179 | $1,783 | $11,963 | $6,502 | $1,636 |
Early deletion penalty
Blobs are subject to an early deletion penalty if they are deleted, overwritten or moved to a different tier before the minimum number of days required by the tier have transpired. Any blob that is moved to the Archive tier is subject to an Archive early deletion period of 180 days. Any blob that is moved to the Cold tier is subject to a Cold tier early deletion period of 90 days. Any blob that is moved to the Cool tier is subject to a Cool tier early deletion period of 30 days. This charge is prorated based on the data storage price of the corresponding tier, i.e. deleting an archived blob after 120 days will lead to this object being charged for 180 days. Please refer to the documentation page for the full details.
Operations and data transfer
Operations and data transfer | Premium | Hot | Cool | Archive |
---|---|---|---|---|
Write operations (per 10,000)1 | $0.0228 | $0.065 | $0.13 | $0.13 |
|
$0.0019 | $0.005 | $0.013 |
|
Iterative Read Operations (per 10,000)1 | $0.0228 | $0.0052 | $0.0052 | $0.0052 |
Iterative Write Operations (100’s)1 | Free N/A | $0.065 | $0.065 | $0.065 |
|
Free | Free N/A | $0.01 |
|
Data Write (per GB) | Free | Free | Free | Free |
Index (GB/month) | N/A | Free N/A | N/A | N/A |
All other Operations (per 10,000), except Delete, which is free | $0.0019 | $0.005 | $0.005 | $0.005 |
1Information on mapping API calls to transactions can be found here.
Additional cross-region data transfer network changes may apply based on source/destination of each storage access. Learn more at the Bandwidth pricing page.
When using ADLS Gen2 API for transactions, read and write transactions occur for every 4 MB of data.
For blobs in Archive, the only valid operations are GetBlobProperties, GetBlobMetadata, ListBlobs, SetBlobTier, SetBlobTags, GetBlobTags, FindBlobsByTags, DeleteBlob, and CopyBlob. Setting the tier from Archive to Hot or Cool typically takes up to 15 hours to complete. Learn more.
SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
Azure Blob Storage now supports the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). This support provides the ability to securely connect to Blob Storage accounts via an SFTP endpoint, allowing you to leverage SFTP for file access, file transfer, as well as file management. Learn more about the feature here.
SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) | SFTP enabled for storage account (per hour) |
---|---|
SFTP charges in increments of | $0.30 |
Additional Blob Features
Additional features and protocols can be used on Blob Storage accounts and Data Lake Storage accounts. Not all features are available for every protocol or feature combination. Details can be found here.
Blob Index
Blob Index is an intelligent data sub-resource for blob; consisting of user-defined key/value tag attributes that are automatically indexed for querying. This provides a managed multi-dimensional classification for your blob objects, allowing for quick, simple, and cost-effective data discovery capabilities beyond listing by prefix filters on blob name. Learn more about the feature at blob documentation.
Blob Index | Price |
---|---|
Blob Index (per 10K tags) | $0.03 |
Data transfer prices for block blobs
When you write data to a GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS account, the data is replicated to another Azure region. The geo-replication data transfer charge is for bandwidth used to replicate data to the second Azure region. This charge also applies when you change the storage account's replication setting from LRS to GRS or RA-GRS or from ZRS to GZRS or RA-GZRS.
GZRS, or RA-GZRS are not currently available for Premium Block Blobs.
Data transfer prices for block blobs | GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS |
---|---|
Data transfer per GB | $0.02 |
Other features
Change feed provides you a log of changes in the Blob data in an ordered manner. The feature is by default disabled, and can be enabled on the Storage account. Once enabled, change feed will track each blob change and store the change event in the change feed. Learn more about the feature.
Blob Changes | Price |
---|---|
Blob Changes (per 10K changes) | $0.01 |
Encryption scopes enable you to optionally manage encryption at the level of the container or an individual blob either with a customer-managed key in Key Vault or a Microsoft-managed key. Learn more about encryption scopes.
Encryption Scopes | Price |
---|---|
Encryption Scopes (per month) | $1 |
General-purpose v1 storage accounts enable access to block blobs, page blobs, files, queues, and tables, offering low transaction prices but with higher storage prices. General-purpose v1 accounts do not provide access to Cool or Archive storage.
Data storage
Note: General-purpose v1 accounts don’t have access to Hot, Cool, or Archive tiered storage. For access to tiered storage, upgrade to a general-purpose v2 account.
Storage Capacity | LRS | ZRS | GRS | RA-GRS |
---|---|---|---|---|
First 1 terabyte (TB)/month | $0.024 per GB | $0.03 per GB | $0.048 per GB | $0.061 per GB |
Next 49 TB (1 to 50 TB)/month | $0.0236 per GB | $0.0295 per GB | $0.0472 per GB | $0.0599 per GB |
Next 450 TB (50 to 500 TB)/month | $0.0232 per GB | $0.029 per GB | $0.0464 per GB | $0.0589 per GB |
Next 500 TB (500 to 1,000 TB)/month | $0.0228 per GB | $0.0285 per GB | $0.0456 per GB | $0.0579 per GB |
Over 1,000 TB/month | Contact us | Contact us | Contact us | Contact us |
Operations and data transfer
The following pricing information provides costs for HTTP operations against your block blob data, and costs of retrieving data from, or writing data into, your block blobs.
Operations and data transfer | LRS | ZRS | GRS | RA-GRS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Write operations (per 10,000)* | $0.00036 | $0.00036 | $0.00036 | $0.00036 |
List and Create Container Operations (per 10,000) | $0.00036 | $0.00036 | $0.00036 | $0.00036 |
Read operations (per 10,000)** | $0.00036 | $0.00036 | $0.00036 | $0.00036 |
All other operations (per 10,000) | $0.00036 | N/A | $0.00036 | N/A |
Data Retrieval (per GB) | Free | Free | Free | Free |
Data Write (per GB) | Free | Free | Free | Free |
Data transfer prices for block blobs
When you write data to a GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS account, the data is replicated to another Azure region. The geo-replication data transfer charge is for bandwidth used to replicate data to the second Azure region. This charge also applies when you change the storage account's replication setting from LRS to GRS or RA-GRS or from ZRS to GZRS or RA-GZRS.
GZRS, or RA-GZRS are not currently available for Premium Block Blobs.
Data transfer prices for block blobs | GRS, RA-GRS, GZRS, or RA-GZRS |
---|---|
Data transfer per GB | $0 |
Other features
Change feed provides you a log of changes in the Blob data in an ordered manner. The feature is by default disabled, and can be enabled on the Storage account. Once enabled, change feed will track each blob change and store the change event in the change feed. Learn more about the feature.
Blob Changes | Price |
---|---|
Blob Changes (per 10K changes) | $0.01 |
Encryption scopes enable you to optionally manage encryption at the level of the container or an individual blob either with a customer-managed key in Key Vault or a Microsoft-managed key. Learn more about encryption scopes.
Encryption Scopes | Price |
---|---|
Encryption Scopes (per month) | $1 |
Azure pricing and purchasing options

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Azure Blob Storage
Learn more about Azure Blob Storage features and capabilities.
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SLA
Review the Service Level Agreement for Azure Blob Storage.
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Review technical tutorials, videos, and more Azure Blob Storage resources.
Frequently asked questions
Blob storage
-
A Blob Storage account is specialized for storing data as blobs, and allows users to specify an access tier based on the frequency of access to data in that account. General Purpose accounts can be used to store blobs as well as files, disks, tables, and queues.
-
No. Block blob prices in general-purpose storage accounts have not changed.
-
If you see “Hot,” “Cool,” or “Archive” in the resource name, this means the charge is associated with Blob Storage accounts. For example, if you see “Standard IO – Cool Block Blob (GB),” this means you’re using and being charged for Blob storage or general-purpose v2 accounts. “Standard IO – Block Blob (GB)” is the metric associated with the use of block blobs in general-purpose storage accounts.
-
Premium* Blob storage is available only to the premium block blob storage account type and is best suited for IO intensive workloads that require low and consistent storage latency.
Storage GB pricing increases from Archive to Cool, from Cool to Hot, and from Hot to Premium. And the cost of transactions increases, conversely, from Premium to Hot, from Hot to Cool, and from Cool to Archive. Archive and Cool tiers should be used for rarely and infrequently accessed data, respectively. The Cool tier has a lower availability SLA than the Hot tier.
Please note you can set the access tier of a blob as Hot, Cool, or Archive in Blob Storage and General Purpose v2 accounts. At present you cannot tier data from Premium into Hot, Cool or Archive and you cannot tier data from Hot, Cool or Archive to Premium. We are working on supporting object tiering for Premium in the future.
-
You’ll be charged for both read operations per 10,000 blobs and for data retrieval per GB when you toggle your Blob storage or general-purpose v2 account from Cool to Hot. For example, if you have 10,000 blobs equaling 100 GB of data in a Blob Storage or General Purpose v2 account, and you toggle that account from Cool to Hot, you’ll be charged 10,000 x ($0.01/10,000) + 100 × $0.01 = $1.01 for data retrieval.
-
For general-purpose v2 accounts, you are charged for write operations (per 10,000). For Blob storage accounts, there is no charge for Write operations.
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity FAQs
-
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity helps you lower your data storage cost by committing to one-year or three-years of Azure Storage on Block Blob or Azure Data Lake Storage.
-
Azure Storage Reserved Capacity provides options to purchase standard storage capacity in units of 100 TB and 1 PB per month blocks for one-year or three-years terms. To purchase Azure Storage Reserved Capacity, you can choose the required number of units for Hot, Cool or Archive storage tier on any of the available storage redundancies (e.g. LRS, ZRS, GRS), and for a specific region (e.g., US West 2). Additionally, you can choose to pay with a single, upfront payment or monthly payments.
Get started in the Azure portal.
-
Reservations are available today for 100 TB or 1 PB blocks, with higher discounts applicable on 1 PB blocks. In the reservation purchase experience through Azure portal, Microsoft may provide you recommendations based on your previous usage to help determine the sizes you should purchase.
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For Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers, Azure Prepayment will be used first to purchase Azure Storage Reserved Capacity. In scenarios where EA customers have used all their Azure Prepayment, Azure Storage Reserved Capacity can still be purchased, and those purchases will be invoiced for the single, upfront payment on their next overage bill.
For customers purchasing via Azure.com, at the time of purchase, the credit card on file will be charged for the full upfront payment (or monthly fixed payments) of Azure Storage Reservations.
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As soon as purchase is completed. If the purchase is made in the middle of the month, the reserved amount is pro-rated for that month.
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Azure Storage Reserved Capacity is purchased at a single subscription or shared resource group scope. Therefore, reservation is applied to your usage aggregated to the purchased scope and cannot be limited to a specific storage account, container or object within the subscription.
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