Learn how to set up an AWS S3 bucket with Express One Zone’s 85% cheaper pricing in 2025

AWS just made S3 Express One Zone a game-changer with up to 85% cheaper requests and 31% lower storage costs as of April 2025! This guide breaks down the new pricing, shows you how to use this ultra-fast cloud storage, and compares it to other S3 classes to save you time and money.

Amazon S3 Express One Zone is a storage solution that delivers quick data access to daily-used objects in one Availability Zone. Amazon S3 Express One Zone obtained new pricing changes during April 2025, which provide cost-efficient storage without sacrificing performance speed. The document explains the updated pricing strategy of Amazon S3 Express One Zone and its application criteria, as well as its positioning among other S3 storage classes.

The pricing for Amazon S3 Express One Zone has been significantly reduced as of April 2025:

• GET Requests: 85% reduction in request costs

• PUT Requests: 55% reduction in request costs

• Storage Costs: 31% reduction in storage costs per GB

• Data Upload/Retrieval: 60% reduction in transfer charges, now applied to all bytes, not just those over 512 KB

These changes make S3 Express One Zone more affordable for high-volume workloads that require frequent access.

S3 Express One Zone is ideal for:

• Low-latency needs: It offers fast access for real-time data processing.

• Single Availability Zone tolerance: Suitable for workloads that do not require data redundancy across multiple AZs.

• Temporary storage: Great for caches, intermediate data, or short-term files.

• High-throughput applications: Works well for real-time analytics, machine learning, or any applications needing rapid data access.

It’s not suitable for applications that need cross-AZ redundancy or long-term archival storage.

To start using Amazon S3 Express One Zone, follow these steps:

1. Open the AWS Management Console

2. Go to the S3 service section.

• Create a Bucket
• Click Create bucket
• Choose a unique name and select the Region
• Under Storage class settings, select S3 Express One Zone as the default storage class
• Choose a specific Availability Zone (you must select one manually for this class)

3. Upload Files to the Bucket

• Use the AWS Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs (e.g., Boto3 for Python) to upload files
• Ensure that the storage class for each object is set to S3 Express One Zone if not set as default

4. Access Data

Use standard S3 APIs to read/write files. Performance is automatically optimized for the single-AZ setup.

5. Monitor Usage

Use Amazon CloudWatch or S3 Storage Lens to monitor request activity, costs, and performance metrics.

6. Set Lifecycle Rules (Optional)

Configure rules to transition or delete files after a certain period if you're using the storage temporarily.

S3 Standard

• Durability: 11 9s (multi-AZ)
• Availability: 99.99%
• Latency: Low
• Storage Cost/GB: Medium
• Request Cost: Standard
• Best Use Case: General-purpose storage

S3 Express One Zone

• Durability: 11 9s (multi-AZ)
• Availability: 99.9%
• Latency: Low
• Storage Cost/GB: Low
• Request Cost: Lower
• Best Use Case: Archive or cold data

S3 Express One Zone

• Durability: 11 9s (single-AZ)
• Availability: 99.9%
• Latency: Ultra-low (milliseconds)
• Storage Cost/GB: ~31% cheaper than Standard
• Request Cost: Much lower
• Best Use Case: Fast access, temporary storage

• Real-Time Analytics: For businesses running real-time analytics pipelines (e.g., Spark or Flink), S3 Express One Zone can store intermediate files, ensuring minimal delay during processing.
• Machine Learning: The reduced latency of S3 Express One Zone can benefit ML workflows that require quick access to large datasets, such as training models.
• CI/CD Pipelines: S3 Express One Zone can store temporary build artifacts in DevOps pipelines, reducing costs while ensuring fast access during builds and deployments.
• Gaming and Media: Applications that need quick access to assets, such as gaming textures or media files, can use S3 Express One Zone to deliver a better user experience without the higher costs of standard storage.

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