In November 2025, AWS introduced an Archive storage class for private ECR repositories, marketed as a way to reduce storage costs for large volumes of rarely used container images. However, Archive storage pricing is identical to Standard storage pricing for the first 150 TB per month. Below this threshold, Archive provides no storage savings yet introduces a per-gigabyte retrieval charge, a retrieval delay of up to 20 minutes, and a 90-day minimum storage duration. Adopting the Archive storage class before meeting the 150 TB threshold means paying the same storage price but taking on additional fees and operational overhead.

This inefficiency is easy to miss because the AWS announcement emphasized cost savings for "large volumes" without quantifying "large" or prominently disclosing the retrieval charge or the minimum storage duration. In other AWS services, optional storage classes typically offer a storage price reduction from the first byte, in exchange for access penalties. With ECR, however, access penalties apply as described, but the storage price is unchanged for the first 150 TB, a container storage volume that few organizations achieve.