Is 180 days. If an object is deleted during this period, an additional charge will be applied and calculated using the following formula: [24h*180 - # of hours of storage of the object] x price pe
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Executive summary
Cloud providers commonly enforce minimum retention windows (often 90 or 180 days) that produce “early deletion” or “minimum billing” charges when objects are removed before the window ends; examples include S3 Glacier Deep Archive’s 180‑day minimum and Azure Blob Archive’s 180‑day early deletion rule [1] [2]. Industry commentary calls these practices “retention minimums” or “delete penalties,” arguing they are effectively extra charges layered onto low headline storage prices [3].
1. What the 180‑day number means in practice — not just a calendar rule
Many archive tiers require that an object remain stored for a minimum duration (for example, S3 Glacier Deep Archive is 180 days and Azure Archive enforces a 180‑day early deletion period). If you delete or move an object before that minimum elapses you pay for the remaining days pro rata as an “early deletion” or minimum‑duration charge rather than having the provider quietly forgive the leftover time [1] [2].
2. How providers calculate the extra charge — prorated days, not a mysterious flat fee
Sources show providers compute the cost as the unused portion of the minimum window times the storage rate, usually prorated (example: Azure’s docs show an early deletion fee calculated as (180 − days stored)/30 × $/GB‑month in sample math) [2]. AWS guidance similarly treats the minimum as a duration that, if unmet, means you incur the billed minimum rather than a distinct “penalty” line item [1].
3. Why vendors include minimum retention — the business and pricing logic
Industry analysis frames minimum retention as a tradeoff that enables very low per‑GB archive pricing: providers rely on predictable aggregate storage to optimize physical media and operational workflows, so requiring multi‑month minimums lets them offer low headline rates while protecting cost recovery if customers delete soon after upload (Backblaze calls these “delete penalties” and warns they’re often under‑emphasized in marketing) [3].
4. Real‑world effects for customers — surprises and design consequences
Customers who move data into archive tiers expecting immediate cost savings can be surprised: short‑lived or transient objects stored in deep archive will still be billed up to the minimum window, sometimes making cheaper nominal tiers more expensive for high churn data. Forum and vendor discussions warn teams to align backup and retention schedules with provider minimums (e.g., avoid workflows that delete within 90–180 days) to prevent early‑deletion charges [4] [3].
5. Alternatives and mitigation strategies reported in sources
Practitioners advise planning lifecycle policies and upload cadence around the retention minimum: either avoid putting short‑lived data into archive tiers, lengthen retention to exceed the minimum, or choose providers with no‑minimum policies (Backblaze publicly markets no minimums; forum users recommend matching retention to provider rules) [3] [4]. Monitoring and lifecycle analytics (storage lens, metrics) can identify objects that have not satisfied the minimum so teams can delay deletions until the free window expires [1].
6. Where this rule shows up outside pure storage — regulatory and platform examples
The 180‑day concept appears in other contexts too: social media and platform policies sometimes retain account data for up to 180 days after deletion for compliance or operational reasons, which raises user‑privacy concerns about lingering exposure; security commentators highlight the risk that users remain vulnerable to breaches long after they thought data was removed [5] [6]. These are retention, not billing, applications of the same time horizon [5] [6].
7. Conflicting framing and stakeholder agendas to watch
Vendors promoting deep‑archive tiers emphasize low per‑GB rates; their commercial logic favors long minimums. Competitors and some commentators call those minimums “penalties,” reframing them as hidden costs to influence buyer perception (Backblaze and forums amplify this critical framing) [3] [4]. Users should read pricing pages and sample calculations carefully because marketing and commentator incentives differ: providers want to sell low headline prices; critics want buyers to compare total cost of ownership for their access/retention patterns [3] [4].
Limitations and final note: Available sources document 90‑ and 180‑day minimums for specific archive tiers and show sample math and industry reaction, but they do not provide a single universal formula text matching your bracketed expression; the sources describe prorated early‑deletion charges and sample calculations rather than one canonical pricing formula [1] [2] [3].