Archive Storage Class

Reduce container image storage costs for rarely accessed images using ECR's archive storage tier.

What is archive storage

The archive storage class provides low-cost, long-term storage for container images that are rarely accessed but need to be retained.1 Images stored in the archive tier cannot be pulled directly—they must first be restored, which takes approximately 20 minutes.2

Think of it as S3 Glacier for Docker images: much cheaper storage, but with a restoration delay before use.

A practical note on economics

Based on AWS ECR pricing, archive storage only makes economic sense if your rarely-used image storage exceeds 150 TB. Below that threshold, the costs are equivalent, making the operational complexity and retrieval delays not worth it.

If you find yourself with more than 150 TB of rarely-accessed container images, it might be worth asking some questions about your retention strategy first.

When to use archive storage

Ideally, unused images should be deleted entirely. Use lifecycle policies to automatically delete old images you no longer need—this eliminates storage costs completely.

Archive storage is particularly useful for teams with compliance or regulatory requirements that mandate retaining images for extended periods, even when those images are unlikely to ever be pulled again.

Key features

Automated archiving via lifecycle policies

ECR lifecycle policies support archiving images based on usage patterns.2 You can configure rules based on:

  • Image age – Archive images older than X days since push
  • Image count – Keep N most recent images, archive the rest
  • Last pull time – Archive images that haven’t been pulled in X days

This automation ensures old images move to archive storage without manual intervention.

Unlimited archive capacity

You can archive an unlimited number of images, and archived images do not count against your 10,000 image per repository limit.2 This solves the common problem of hitting repository limits with old images you can’t delete due to compliance requirements.

Important constraints

Minimum 90-day storage duration

Archived images have a minimum storage duration of 90 days.2 If you delete an image before 90 days, you’ll still be charged for the full 90-day period. Plan your archival strategy accordingly—don’t archive images you might delete soon.

Archived images cannot be pulled

Archived images cannot be pulled directly—pull requests will fail with a 404 error until the image is restored.2 Factor the 20-minute restore time into any disaster recovery or rollback procedures.

Retrieval costs apply

Retrieving archived images incurs a per-GB retrieval charge.3

Cost optimization strategy

Archive storage is ideal for:

  • Compliance-driven retention – Keep old images for audits without paying premium storage costs
  • Version history – Maintain historical versions of all releases without storage bloat
  • Disaster recovery – Store emergency rollback images that you hope to never need
  • Development environments – Archive old feature branch images after merging

The archive storage class becomes cost-effective when you have images that won’t be pulled for extended periods. For images accessed even occasionally, standard storage may be more economical when factoring in retrieval costs.

Resources

Footnotes

  1. Announcing Amazon ECR Archive Storage ↩

  2. Using archive storage ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Amazon ECR pricing ↩