Does S3 versioning cost money?

What is billed

Every version has a size, a storage class and a monthly charge, and the current version is not special. Overwrite a file and the previous copy becomes a noncurrent version that keeps being billed. Delete a file without a version ID and S3 writes a delete marker on top; the versions underneath stay, still billed.

A delete marker has no data of its own. AWS says delete markers accrue a minimal charge for storage equal to the size of the key name, and that they live in S3 Standard. A million markers with 60-character keys is about 60 MB, so the markers are never the problem; the versions they hide are.

• Current version: billed at its storage class rate.
• Each noncurrent version: billed the same way, for as long as it exists.
• Delete marker: billed at the size of its key name, in S3 Standard.
• Enabling versioning: no charge.

Where the money goes

The bill grows with churn, not with size. A folder of signed PDFs that nobody edits costs the same with versioning on or off. A spreadsheet that a sync job rewrites every night has 30 versions after a month and 365 after a year, each the full file. Backup folders, exports and anything a script overwrites on a schedule are where noncurrent storage quietly outgrows current storage.

Storage Lens splits current and noncurrent bytes; if noncurrent bytes are most of the bucket, you need a rule.

The two rules that cap it

Lifecycle rules do the cleanup, and two of them matter. NoncurrentVersionExpiration deletes versions a set number of days after they became noncurrent, optionally keeping the newest few with NewerNoncurrentVersions. ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker removes a delete marker once no versions remain under it, so the bucket does not fill with placeholders. Add AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload to clear parts from uploads that never finished, which are billed too.

Choose the retention from how long it takes your team to notice a bad overwrite, not from the bill. Thirty days with the three newest versions kept is a sensible default for working folders. Worked examples are in S3 lifecycle rules for versioned buckets.

{
  "Rules": [{
    "ID": "expire-old-versions",
    "Status": "Enabled",
    "Filter": {},
    "NoncurrentVersionExpiration": { "NoncurrentDays": 30, "NewerNoncurrentVersions": 3 },
    "Expiration": { "ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker": true },
    "AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload": { "DaysAfterInitiation": 7 }
  }]
}

Why keep it on anyway

Versioning is what makes an accidental overwrite or delete recoverable without a backup, and recovering a file takes minutes when the version is still there. It can be suspended but never disabled, so plan the lifecycle rule at the same time as switching it on.