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Cloud Backup Vendor Lock-in Cost Calculator

See what you're paying to stay — and what it would cost to leave

Cloud storage pricing pages show the cost of storing data. They rarely show what you pay to use it. AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Microsoft Azure all charge egress fees every time you download, transfer, or retrieve data — and those fees compound at scale. For businesses storing tens or hundreds of terabytes, egress fees can easily exceed the base storage cost. And if you decide to leave? The same fees apply to every byte you transfer out. This calculator shows you both numbers: what you're currently paying in access fees every year, and what it would cost to move to a different provider today — including the break-even point at which the switch pays for itself.
Check your provider dashboard. Include all buckets/containers.
Include backup restores, files served to users, analytics queries. Not sure? Use an estimate →
Each read, write, list, or copy of a file = one operation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Cloud vendor lock-in occurs when a business becomes dependent on a specific cloud provider's services in ways that make switching expensive, time-consuming, or technically complex. In cloud storage, lock-in manifests primarily through egress fees — charges applied when you transfer data out of the provider — which create a financial penalty for leaving and an ongoing cost for using your own data.
Leaving AWS S3 requires paying egress fees on every byte transferred out. AWS charges $0.09/GB for the first 10TB transferred, $0.085/GB for the next 40TB, and $0.07/GB above that. For a business storing 50TB, the data transfer out fees alone would be approximately $4,250–$4,500. This does not include engineering time for the migration or the cost of running both providers simultaneously during cutover.
AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Microsoft Azure all charge egress fees when data is transferred to the internet. Backblaze B2 charges $0.01/GB above its free allowance (3× monthly stored data). Wasabi and StorX charge zero egress fees. However, Wasabi has a 90-day minimum storage duration which can increase effective costs for workloads that cycle through data frequently. Wasabi also limits free egress to 1× your stored data volume per month.
Yes — egress fee and data transfer fee refer to the same charge. It is the fee a cloud provider applies when data leaves their network, whether to the internet, to another cloud provider, or to an on-premises system. The term "egress" refers to outbound data transfer. Ingress (inbound data transfer) is almost always free on major cloud providers.
Partially, within the same provider's ecosystem. AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure all offer free or reduced-cost data transfer between services within the same region. However, transfers to the public internet or to a different provider always incur egress fees on these platforms. The only way to fully eliminate egress fees is to use a provider that does not charge them — such as StorX or Wasabi (noting Wasabi's 90-day minimum storage duration and 1:1 egress cap).
For workloads with high retrieval frequency — such as media serving, frequent backup restores, or analytics — storage cost per GB matters less than egress cost. A provider charging $0.023/GB/month storage with $0.09/GB egress will cost significantly more than a provider charging $0.004/GB/month with zero egress for the same workload. For active data access, zero-egress providers are almost always cheaper at meaningful scale.
The S3 API (Amazon S3's application programming interface) has become the de facto standard for object storage. Most cloud storage providers — including Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and StorX — offer S3-compatible APIs, meaning applications built for AWS S3 can switch to these providers by changing a single endpoint URL, with no code changes required. This dramatically reduces the engineering cost of migration. Providers that use proprietary APIs or data formats have significantly higher switching costs.

For informational purposes only — not financial, legal, or technical advice

Pricing and data are sourced from third-party websites and may change without notice. Providers may update their rates, terms, or policies at any time. Always verify figures directly with the relevant provider before making any decision. StorX makes no guarantee of accuracy, completeness, or current validity of the information displayed.
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