Direct answer: at official list prices on 8 November 2026 (USD, US East/Oregon, excluding tax and discounts), one TiB of file storage for a month costs about 307.20 on AWS EFS Standard and 163.84 on EFS One Zone; 61.44 on Azure Files Standard LRS, 29.39 on Azure Files Hot LRS and 163.84 on Azure Files Premium LRS; and 163.84 on Google Filestore Basic HDD, 307.20 on Basic SSD, 256.00 on Zonal and 460.80 on Regional. The storage unit price differs by almost 10x, but the billing models differ: EFS charges for actual usage plus throughput/read-write; Azure charges per used or provisioned capacity plus transactions; Filestore charges for provisioned capacity whether you use it or not. Adding 5 million reads and 1 million writes per month (64 KiB average), the example monthly totals are about 321 for EFS Standard, 178 for EFS One Zone, 38 for Azure Hot, 64 for Azure Standard, 164 for Azure Premium and 256 for Filestore Zonal.
This guide is for platform engineering, infrastructure, DevOps and procurement teams. It compares AWS EFS, Azure Files and Google Cloud Filestore storage prices, transactions/throughput, cold data and 1 TiB/10 TiB/100 TiB TCO, then gives a selection framework and a 90-day cost-reduction checklist. Prices come from the AWS EFS pricing page and AWS Price List API, the Azure Files pricing page and Azure Retail Prices API, and the Google Cloud Filestore pricing page (all accessed 8 November 2026; AWS price list version 4 November 2026). Official price facts, editorial calculations and exclusions are kept separate. This is not procurement advice.
(1) Separate the billing models first: EFS is usage plus throughput/read-write; Azure is tier (used or provisioned) plus transactions; Filestore is provisioned capacity. (2) The 1 TiB storage price differs by almost 10x, but transactions, throughput, protocol, performance and minimum capacity can reverse the conclusion. (3) Cold data (IA/Archive/Cool) is not free: retrieval/reads, minimum storage duration, minimum billable file size, snapshots and backups all need separate math.
Basis: GB/GiB, usage/provisioned and transactions
All three provide managed NFS/SMB file storage, but the billing units differ: EFS uses GB-month based on actual usage and charges separately for elastic throughput data transfer or provisioned throughput; Azure Files uses GiB-month, with usage-based Standard/Hot/Cool tiers and provisioned Premium/provisioned v2 capacity, IOPS and throughput; Filestore uses GiB-month based on provisioned capacity, with transactions normally included in the instance price. At minimum, align the capacity unit (1 TiB = 1,024 GiB, about 2.4% above 1,000 GB; the GB vs GiB byte definition can add about 7.4%), multi-AZ coverage, whether transactions/throughput are included, and whether backup is included.
| Item | AWS EFS | Azure Files | Google Filestore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | GB-month (usage) | GiB-month (usage or provisioned) | GiB-month (provisioned capacity) |
| Storage charge | Actual usage; no minimum fee | Standard/Hot/Cool usage; Premium/provisioned v2 provisioned | Provisioned capacity, used or not |
| Performance/requests | Elastic Throughput read 0.03, write 0.06/GB; Provisioned 6/MiBps-month; IA/Archive reads extra | Transactions per 10K; Cool retrieval 0.01/GB; Premium transactions included | Transactions included in instance price; Custom Performance charges IOPS |
| Backup/snapshot | EFS Backup through AWS Backup, billed separately | Snapshots and soft delete billed separately | Backup 0.08/GiB-month |
| Minimums | IA/Archive minimum billable file 128 KiB; Archive minimum 90 days | No minimum capacity on usage tiers; provisioned tiers have IOPS/throughput minimums | Basic HDD below 1 TiB has an instance fee; 100 GB-1 TiB only via GKE CSI |
Sources: AWS EFS pricing page, Azure Files pricing page, Google Filestore pricing page (accessed 8 November 2026). Editorial summary; "transactions included" means no separate per-10K-request charge, but instance/share performance limits still apply.
Storage unit prices: where the gap comes from
Storage-only unit prices (USD/GiB-month, 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB): EFS Standard 0.30, One Zone 0.16, Standard-IA 0.025, One Zone-IA 0.0133, Archive 0.008; Azure Standard LRS 0.06, Hot LRS 0.0287, Cool LRS 0.0228, Premium LRS 0.16; Filestore Basic HDD 0.16, Basic SSD 0.30, Zonal 0.25, Regional 0.45, Enterprise 0.45, High-Scale 0.25. Azure Hot/Cool look much cheaper because they are HDD usage tiers with transactions billed separately; EFS Standard is SSD, Multi-AZ and includes baseline throughput; Filestore charges for provisioned capacity, with separate performance and minimum-capacity limits.
| Service / tier | Price (USD/GiB-month) | Billing and fit |
|---|---|---|
| AWS EFS Standard | 0.30 | SSD, Multi-AZ, usage-based; baseline throughput included |
| AWS EFS One Zone | 0.16 | Single AZ; cross-AZ access 0.01/GB |
| AWS EFS Standard-IA | 0.025 | Cold data; reads/writes extra, minimum billable file 128 KiB |
| AWS EFS One Zone-IA | 0.0133 | Single-AZ cold data |
| AWS EFS Archive | 0.008 | Long-term archive; 90-day minimum, reads/writes 0.03/GB |
| Azure Files Standard LRS | 0.06 | Classic usage tier (transaction optimized); transactions extra |
| Azure Files Hot LRS | 0.0287 | v2 hot tier; read 0.0052/10K, write 0.065/10K |
| Azure Files Cool LRS | 0.0228 | v2 cool tier; retrieval 0.01/GB, higher read/write |
| Azure Files Premium LRS | 0.16 | SSD provisioned; transactions included |
| Filestore Basic HDD | 0.16 | Provisioned capacity; instance fee below 1 TiB |
| Filestore Basic SSD | 0.30 | Provisioned capacity; SSD performance |
| Filestore Zonal | 0.25 | Single zone; Custom Performance available |
| Filestore Regional | 0.45 | Regional; Custom Performance available |
| Filestore Enterprise | 0.45 | Regional, higher availability |
| Filestore High-Scale | 0.25 | High-throughput workloads |
Sources: AWS EFS pricing page and AWS Price List API (AmazonEFS, us-east-1, version 4 November 2026); Azure Retail Prices API (eastus, 8 November 2026); Google Filestore pricing page (Oregon/us-west1, 8 November 2026). Public list prices, excluding tax, discounts, commitments and enterprise agreements; Azure/GCP are GiB, AWS labels the unit GB.
TCO: 1 TiB / 10 TiB / 100 TiB storage only
Normalizing capacity to 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB, the monthly storage-only cost is below. The cheapest options are Azure Hot/Cool and EFS IA/Archive, but they carry transactions, retrieval or minimum-duration conditions; the most expensive are EFS Standard (SSD, Multi-AZ) and Filestore Regional. This table excludes transactions, throughput, snapshots/backups, cross-region replication and internet egress, so it is not a bill.
| Option | 1 TiB/month | 10 TiB/month | 100 TiB/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| EFS Standard | 307.20 | 3,072.00 | 30,720.00 |
| EFS One Zone | 163.84 | 1,638.40 | 16,384.00 |
| EFS Standard-IA | 25.60 | 256.00 | 2,560.00 |
| EFS Archive | 8.19 | 81.92 | 819.20 |
| Azure Files Standard LRS | 61.44 | 614.40 | 6,144.00 |
| Azure Files Hot LRS | 29.39 | 293.89 | 2,938.88 |
| Azure Files Cool LRS | 23.35 | 233.47 | 2,334.72 |
| Azure Files Premium LRS | 163.84 | 1,638.40 | 16,384.00 |
| Filestore Basic HDD | 163.84 | 1,638.40 | 16,384.00 |
| Filestore Basic SSD | 307.20 | 3,072.00 | 30,720.00 |
| Filestore Zonal | 256.00 | 2,560.00 | 25,600.00 |
| Filestore Regional | 460.80 | 4,608.00 | 46,080.00 |
Editorial calculation: capacity x unit price; 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB, 1 month = 730 hours; excludes transactions, throughput, snapshots/backups, replication, egress, tax and discounts. AWS labels the unit GB-month; this table treats 1,024 units as 1 TiB. Actual bills follow each provider's units (GB/GiB and 1,000/1,024 can create roughly 2.4%-7.4% differences).
Adding transactions and throughput: a 1 TiB workload example
Assume 1 TiB of active data, 5 million reads and 1 million writes per month, 64 KiB average (about 328 GB read and 65.5 GB written, decimal GB). The result changes: Azure Hot is about 38, Standard about 64 and Premium about 164; EFS Standard with Elastic Throughput about 321 and One Zone about 178; Filestore Zonal about 256 with transactions included. But if EFS throughput stays within the baseline/burst allowance, Bursting can remove the per-GB throughput charge at the cost of throughput ceilings and burst credits; conversely, small-file/metadata-heavy workloads can make Azure transaction costs dominate.
| Option | Storage | Reads | Writes | Total/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFS Standard + Elastic Throughput | 307.20 | 9.83 | 3.93 | 320.96 |
| EFS One Zone + Elastic Throughput | 163.84 | 9.83 | 3.93 | 177.60 |
| Azure Files Standard LRS | 61.44 | 0.75 | 1.50 | 63.69 |
| Azure Files Hot LRS | 29.39 | 2.60 | 6.50 | 38.49 |
| Azure Files Cool LRS | 23.35 | 6.50 | 13.00 | 46.13 |
| Azure Files Premium LRS | 163.84 | 0 | 0 | 163.84 |
| Filestore Basic HDD | 163.84 | 0 | 0 | 163.84 |
| Filestore Zonal | 256.00 | 0 | 0 | 256.00 |
Editorial calculation: reads 5,000,000 x 64 KiB = about 327.68 GB; writes 1,000,000 x 64 KiB = about 65.54 GB. EFS Elastic Throughput read 0.03/GB, write 0.06/GB; Azure Standard read 0.0015/10K, write 0.015/10K; Hot read 0.0052/10K, write 0.065/10K; Cool read 0.013/10K, write 0.13/10K plus 0.01/GB retrieval (327.68 GB = about 3.28). Premium and Filestore include transactions in the capacity price; excludes EFS IA tiering, Azure soft delete/snapshots, tax and discounts.
Performance and provisioning: do not compare only per-GiB prices
File-storage performance is rarely free: EFS can charge per transferred GB (Elastic) or per provisioned throughput (Provisioned); Azure Premium/provisioned v2 separates storage, IOPS and throughput, with the first 3,000 IOPS at no extra charge; Filestore Custom Performance adds an instance fee plus per-GiB and per-IOPS charges. High-throughput, low-latency or highly concurrent workloads must include this layer in TCO, or they risk choosing the lowest unit price and receiving the highest bill.
| Mechanism | Price (USD) | Fit/caveat |
|---|---|---|
| EFS Elastic Throughput | Read 0.03/GB; write 0.06/GB | Pay per transfer, no provisioning; cost rises with traffic |
| EFS Provisioned Throughput | 6/MiBps-month | Steady high throughput; billed on average provisioned above baseline |
| Azure provisioned v2 SSD | 0.10/GiB-month + 0.027/IOPS-month + 0.0394/MiBps-month | First 3,000 IOPS free; HDD components differ |
| Azure Premium (classic) | 0.16/GiB-month | SSD provisioned; transactions included; burst allowance |
| Filestore Custom (Zonal) | 20/instance-month + 0.12/GiB-month + 0.0145/IOPS-month | Provisioned IOPS; Oregon example |
| Filestore Custom (Regional) | 40/instance-month + 0.21/GiB-month + 0.027/IOPS-month | Regional; higher availability |
Sources: AWS EFS pricing page and Price List API; Azure Files pricing page and Retail Prices API (eastus, 8 November 2026); Google Filestore pricing page (us-west1, 8 November 2026). The Azure "first 3,000 IOPS at no extra cost" statement comes from the official provisioned v2 documentation; minimum capacity/IOPS follows the official page and portal. Editorial conversion at 730 hours/month, excluding tax and discounts.
Cold data, snapshots and backups: the easiest costs to miss
Cold tiers can cut the storage unit price to a fraction, but retrieval/reads, minimum storage duration, minimum billable file size and backup retention charge back. EFS Standard-IA is 0.025 and Archive 0.008, but IA/Archive reads cost 0.01/0.03 per GB, Archive has a 90-day minimum and 128 KiB minimum billable file; Azure Cool is 0.0228 but retrieval is 0.01/GB and read/write requests are higher; Filestore Backup is 0.08/GiB-month. Snapshots/soft delete, cross-region backup networking and AWS Backup all need separate treatment.
| Item | Price | Caveat |
|---|---|---|
| EFS Standard-IA | 0.025/GiB-month; read/write 0.01/GB | Minimum billable file 128 KiB; tiering extra |
| EFS Archive | 0.008/GiB-month; read/write 0.03/GB | 90-day minimum; minimum billable file 128 KiB |
| Azure Files Cool LRS | 0.0228/GiB-month; retrieval 0.01/GB | Read 0.013/10K, write 0.13/10K; not for frequent access |
| Azure Premium snapshots | 0.136/GiB-month (LRS) | Differential snapshots; soft delete separate |
| Filestore Backup | 0.08/GiB-month | Cross-region backup has network charges; restore takes time |
| EFS Backup | AWS Backup pricing applies | Vault, warm/cold tier and restore charges separate |
| Object-storage archive | Usually lower (e.g., S3 Glacier) | Not POSIX/SMB; application must use object APIs |
Sources: AWS EFS pricing page (128 KiB minimum billable file for IA/Archive, 90-day Archive minimum); Azure Retail Prices API (eastus, 8 November 2026); Google Filestore pricing page (backup 0.08/GiB-month). Editorial summary; snapshots, soft delete, backup vaults and restore charges follow the official bill.
How to choose: protocol, ecosystem, capacity and performance
Start with four questions: protocol/client (NFS or SMB, Windows/AD), deployment ecosystem (AWS/GCP/Azure, Kubernetes CSI), capacity and performance floor, and whether multi-AZ/cross-region is required. Windows/SMB, AD integration and Azure File Sync usually point to Azure Files; Linux/Kubernetes on AWS fits EFS; GKE fits Filestore's CSI and NFS. Filestore charges for provisioned capacity, so small workloads need extra care over minimum capacity and instance fees.
| Scenario | Prefer | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| Windows/SMB, AD, Azure File Sync | Azure Files | SMB/NFS version, identity integration, transaction/provisioned tier |
| Linux/Kubernetes shared files on AWS | EFS | Throughput mode, EFS CSI, cross-AZ access charges |
| GKE/Google Cloud NFS | Filestore | Minimum capacity, Zonal/Regional, CSI driver |
| Small capacity, unpredictable access | Azure usage tier or EFS | Avoid Filestore Basic HDD instance fee below 1 TiB |
| High throughput/low latency | EFS Provisioned, Azure provisioned v2, Filestore Custom | IOPS/throughput ceilings and provisioning cost |
| Multi-AZ/disaster recovery | EFS Standard, Azure ZRS/GRS/GZRS, Filestore Regional | Replication/cross-region traffic and RPO/RTO |
| Cold data/archive | EFS IA/Archive, Azure Cool, Filestore Backup | Retrieval fees, minimum duration, minimum billable file |
| Pure archive, app can use object APIs | Object-storage archive tier | POSIX/SMB compatibility and refactoring cost |
Editorial selection framework, not a vendor recommendation; validate protocol, compliance, performance tests and the actual bill.
90-day cost-reduction checklist
Use the first 90 days to establish who uses what, how much, which data is hot/cold, where performance spend goes and how long backups are retained. The order is inventory, tiering, provisioning/throughput, snapshots/backups, multi-AZ/replication, procurement. The top three wastes are usually provisioned capacity above actual use, snapshots/backups without retention policies, and cold data left on SSD/hot tiers.
| Phase | Action | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-2 | Inventory shares/file systems, protocols, capacity, IOPS/throughput and transactions | Cost baseline, top consumers |
| Weeks 2-3 | Classify hot/warm/cold by access frequency; set lifecycle | Tiering plan, migration list |
| Weeks 3-5 | Compare provisioned capacity/IOPS/throughput with actual use; right-size | Provisioning optimization, performance validation |
| Weeks 5-7 | Delete old snapshots, set retention, test restore | Backup cost, RTO records |
| Weeks 6-8 | Assess whether multi-AZ/cross-region replication is required; check traffic charges | DR plan, replication cost |
| Weeks 8-10 | Compare usage, provisioned and commitment discounts; re-quote | Procurement recommendation, budget |
| Weeks 10-12 | Set budget alerts, monthly review, assign owners | Alerts, review process |
Editorial optimization advice, not an official template; capacity, performance, backup and compliance requirements follow enterprise standards and vendor documentation.
FAQ
How much does 1 TiB of file storage cost per month?
At list prices on 8 November 2026 and 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB: EFS Standard about 307.20, One Zone about 163.84; Azure Standard LRS about 61.44, Hot LRS about 29.39, Premium LRS about 163.84; Filestore Basic HDD about 163.84, Zonal about 256 and Regional about 460.80. These are storage-only, excluding transactions, throughput, backup, replication and tax.
Why is EFS so much more expensive than Azure Files?
The billing models differ: EFS Standard is SSD, Multi-AZ, usage-based and includes baseline throughput; Azure Hot/Cool are HDD usage tiers with transactions and retrieval billed separately. After aligning transactions, throughput, availability and performance, the gap narrows or even reverses. Do not substitute a per-GiB price for TCO.
Which Azure Files tier is cheapest?
Storage-only, Cool LRS is 0.0228/GiB-month, then Hot LRS 0.0287, Standard LRS 0.06 and Premium LRS 0.16. Cool charges read 0.013/10K, write 0.13/10K and retrieval 0.01/GB, so frequent access can make it more expensive than Hot. Model the access pattern first.
Does Filestore have a minimum capacity?
Filestore charges for provisioned capacity whether used or not. Basic HDD below 1 TiB incurs an instance fee (waived once the instance reaches 1 TiB); 100 GB-1 TiB is currently available only to GKE users through the Filestore CSI driver. Check the available tier and minimum capacity for small workloads.
How are snapshots and backups billed?
EFS Backup goes through AWS Backup, billed by vault/warm-cold tier and restore; Azure Files snapshots and soft delete are billed separately (Premium LRS snapshots 0.136/GiB-month); Filestore Backup is 0.08/GiB-month, with network charges for cross-region backups. The longer the retention, the more likely snapshots/backups become the second-largest storage bill.
Can transaction costs exceed storage costs?
Yes, especially with small files, metadata-heavy or high-list workloads. Example: 100 million reads on Azure Cool cost 10,000 x 0.013 = 130, while 1 TiB of Cool storage is 23.35; on Hot it is 10,000 x 0.0052 = 52. Measure transaction volume before choosing a tier.
What does multi-AZ/cross-region replication cost?
EFS Standard is Multi-AZ by design; One Zone is cheaper but lives in one AZ. EFS Replication is billed at the destination region's storage rate plus cross-region transfer. Azure ZRS/GRS/GZRS cost more than LRS; Filestore Regional is 0.45/GiB-month. Decide based on RPO/RTO and business impact.
Can object storage replace file storage?
Only when the application supports object APIs (S3/HTTP) and can tolerate higher latency/eventual consistency. Lifting POSIX/NFS/SMB applications, databases, VM images or shared office files directly to object storage usually requires application changes or a file gateway; the refactoring cost can exceed the storage savings.
Research method and limitations
This article separates "official price facts" from "editorial calculations." EFS Standard/One Zone/IA/Archive pricing, Elastic/Provisioned Throughput, the 128 KiB minimum billable file and 90-day Archive minimum come from the AWS EFS pricing page and AWS Price List API (AmazonEFS, us-east-1, version 4 November 2026). Azure Files Standard/Hot/Cool/Premium prices, transaction and retrieval prices, provisioned v2 components and the first 3,000 free IOPS statement come from the Azure Files pricing page and Azure Retail Prices API (eastus, 8 November 2026). Filestore Basic HDD/SSD, Zonal/Regional/Enterprise/High-Scale, Custom Performance and Backup prices come from the Google Filestore pricing page (us-west1/Oregon, 8 November 2026). TCO, the workload example, the selection framework and the 90-day checklist are editorial.
Eight limitations: (1) only public list prices, excluding tax, enterprise discounts, commitments, support and migration; (2) only US East/Oregon, other regions differ; (3) capacity normalized to 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB, while AWS GB and Azure/GCP GiB metering can differ; (4) the workload example covers one read/write and object-size mix, with no performance benchmark; (5) not all snapshot/backup retention and restore costs are included; (6) cross-region replication, internet egress, DNS/CDN and related charges are excluded; (7) FSx, Azure NetApp Files, Google NetApp Volumes and on-prem NAS are not compared; (8) prices change, so recheck the official pages and bill before publishing or purchasing.
Sources and basis
- AWS, Amazon EFS Pricing: aws.amazon.com/efs/pricing. Standard/One Zone/IA/Archive, Elastic/Provisioned Throughput, minimum billable file and minimum storage duration. Accessed 8 November 2026.
- AWS Price List API, AmazonEFS us-east-1: pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/.../AmazonEFS/current/us-east-1/index.json. 0.30/0.16/0.025/0.0133/0.008, 0.03/0.06 read-write, 6/MiBps-month; version 4 November 2026.
- Microsoft Azure, Azure Files Pricing: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/storage/files. Standard/Hot/Cool/Premium, transactions, snapshots, provisioned v2. Accessed 8 November 2026.
- Azure Retail Prices API (serviceName=Storage, armRegionName=eastus, productName contains Files): prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices. 0.06/0.0287/0.0228/0.16, transaction and retrieval prices, provisioned v2 components. Accessed 8 November 2026.
- Google Cloud, Filestore Pricing: cloud.google.com/filestore/pricing. Basic HDD/SSD, Zonal/Regional/Enterprise/High-Scale, Custom Performance, Backup. Accessed 8 November 2026.
Data cut-off 8 November 2026; prices and plans follow the official AWS/Azure/Google pages and bills; this is not procurement, commercial or legal advice.