Chapter 4 of 6 · 2 min
Does deleting files in S3 reduce the bill immediately?
Usually, yes. Deleting costs $0 and rent stops the hour the file is gone. Two settings break that, and one of them can make next month’s bill go up.
The lesson 3 film is on chapter 1.
When a delete does nothing
If versioning, the version history setting, is on, a delete removes nothing. Amazon tucks the old copy out of sight and keeps charging full rent for it, $2.30 a month for every 100 GB. To free the space you delete the hidden versions too, or set a rule that clears them after a set number of days.
When a delete costs money
- 30 daysminimum
- Standard-IA, the rarely-opened shelf: delete on day 10 and the other 20 days are billed at once
- 90 daysminimum
- the two instant and flexible archive shelves
- 180 daysminimum
- the deep archive, plus a fee to get the file out first
So a big clean-up of a cheap shelf can show up as a bump before it shows up as a saving. Clean the normal shelf first, where every delete is free and immediate.
Prices are for US East, October 2026. Lifecycle rule examples for versioned buckets has every rate and the steps.
NEXT · CHAPTER 5 OF 6What is cheaper than S3?Two rivals charge less rent and no truck. Leaving costs one truck.S3 Savings reads three months of your real S3 bill and shows which of these answers apply to your buckets. Free, read-only, no card.