Storage Classes (Standard, Nearline, Coldline, Archive)

Cloud Storage offers four storage classes designed for different access frequencies and cost profiles. All four classes provide the same durability, low latency, and API interface — the difference is in storage cost, retrieval cost, and minimum storage duration.

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The Four Storage Classes

Storage Class	Best For	Min Storage Duration	Retrieval Fee	Availability SLA (multi-region)
Standard	Frequently accessed ("hot") data	None	None	99.95%
Nearline	Data accessed less than once per month	30 days	Per GB	99.9%
Coldline	Data accessed less than once per quarter	90 days	Per GB (higher)	99.9%
Archive	Data accessed less than once per year	365 days	Per GB (highest)	99.9%

Key Principle

As you move from Standard to Archive:

• Storage cost decreases significantly
• Retrieval cost increases significantly
• Minimum storage duration increases

All four classes provide 99.999999999% (eleven 9s) durability — the same level of data protection regardless of class.

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Standard Storage