An offline blob access tier offering the cheapest storage, meant for data that is hardly ever read. Archived blobs must first be rehydrated to the Hot, Cool or Cold tier, which may take as long as 15 hours, before you can read or change them, and ZRS, GZRS and RA-GZRS accounts can't use this tier.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Archive tier in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- BLOB
Short for binary large object: raw binary data, like pictures, audio, video or documents, that only an application can make sense of. Azure keeps these files as blobs in Blob Storage.
- Access tier
Setting for block blobs in standard accounts (Hot, Cool, Cold or Archive). Cooler tiers cost less to store but more to access.
- General-purpose v1
The older storage account kind (
Storage), which lacks access tiers, Archive and premium file shares and retires on 13 October 2026. Converting to ZRS requires first upgrading to GPv2, a one-way change. - CRUD
Shorthand for create, read, update and delete, the four basic things you do with data. Data-plane roles in Azure Cosmos DB, for instance, authorise those operations on items.
- FIRST
A DAX function available only inside visual calculations. It fetches the value at the start of one axis of the visual's matrix, which makes it handy for comparing each point with the first; its opposite is LAST.
- Hot
The online blob access tier where storing data costs the most but accessing it costs the least.
- Cool
Online blob tier that is cheaper than Hot to store data in but dearer to access.
- Cold
Online access tier for blobs that costs less to store than Cool but more to read, while data stays instantly available.
Related terms
- Azure Files
Azure's managed file shares over SMB or NFS. There is no Archive tier, and a single encryption key applies across the whole storage account.
- Early deletion
A fee charged when a blob leaves the cool, cold or archive tier (whether deleted, overwritten or moved) before staying the minimum 30, 90 or 180 days. It is worked out pro rata on the days still outstanding.