💰 3 Easy Ways to Save Money on AWS Backup

by David Burgos

Managing backups in the cloud is essential — but it shouldn’t drain your budget.

If you're using AWS Backup, you're already on the right track for centralized, automated backup management. But chances are, you’re paying more than you need to. The good news? With just a few tweaks, you can cut AWS Backup costs by up to 90% — yes, really.

By the way, this is a text version of my Youtube video

Here are 3 simple, effective strategies to save money on AWS Backup without compromising your data security. Let’s dive in! 👇

1️⃣ Reduce Retention Time (Don’t Keep Backups Forever)

Default backup policies love to keep data forever. That sounds nice… until the bill shows up.

The truth is, most backups don’t need to be kept for months or years. Ask yourself:

  • Do you really need 90 days of daily backups?
  • Can you trim old backups to 7, 14, or 30 days?

👉 Action tip:
Go to your AWS Backup Plan settings and review your retention rules. If your business or compliance needs allow, reduce the retention window.

For example:

From 90 days to 30 days = ~66% cost savings on that backup set.

2️⃣ Reduce Backup Frequency (More ≠ Better)

Backing up every hour might sound like a good idea — but unless you really need it, it’s just burning money.

💡 Instead of daily or hourly backups, ask:

  • Can you switch to weekly backups for older, less-critical resources?
  • Can you mix frequencies using different backup plans?

👉 Action tip:
In your backup plans, use tags to group resources by criticality. Set high-frequency backups only for essential resources, and reduce frequency for the rest.

🎯 Example:

  • Databases → daily backups
  • Archived file systems → weekly or monthly backups

3️⃣ Use Cold Storage (AWS Backup Archive Tier = Up to 90% Cheaper)

🔥 This is the biggest cost-saving tip of all.

AWS Backup offers a special "cold storage" tier called the Archive tier, which can be 75–90% cheaper than the standard Warm storage.

It’s perfect for:

  • Long-term compliance backups
  • Infrequently accessed backups
  • Old backups you still need to keep just in case

👉 Action tip:
When you create or edit your backup plans, make sure you enable cold storage in your lifecycle rules. You can set backups to move automatically after a set number of days (e.g., move to Archive after 30 days in Warm storage).

💸 Real-world saving:

  • 1 TB in Warm storage = ~$23/month
  • 1 TB in Archive tier = ~$2–5/month

🚀 Final Thoughts: Set It, Forget It, Save Big

AWS Backup is powerful, but out of the box, it’s not optimized for cost.

By making these 3 small changes:

  1. Reduce retention time ⏱️
  2. Reduce backup frequency 🔁
  3. Use Archive tier cold storage ❄️

…you can save thousands per year, especially at scale.

💡 Pro tip: Review your backup plans at least once a quarter — it’s the easiest “quick win” in AWS cost optimization.