Organizations are managing more unstructured data than ever, from analytics-ready data lakes to cloud-native applications, media repositories, backup sets, and long-term archives. As data growth accelerates, customers want storage choices that are scalable and secure, but also easier to evaluate, easier to predict, and better aligned to the way their workloads actually behave.

That is why this is an especially exciting time to use IBM Cloud Object Storage. Customers now have multiple ways to get started, lower the cost of active workloads, and take advantage of regional incentives for new deployments.

Three ways to save with IBM Cloud Object Storage

Customers evaluating IBM Cloud Object Storage today have three strong ways to reduce cost, depending on workload pattern and where they are in the adoption journey.

1. One-Rate – a single rate, as low as $10/TB, for active workloads with egress included

For customers with hot, active workloads, IBM Cloud Object Storage One-Rate offers a simple all-inclusive pricing model designed to make planning easier and costs more predictable. This is a strong fit for enterprise data lakehouse environments, AI and analytics on unstructured data, cloud-native application storage, media repositories, and other active workloads with frequent reads, writes, retrievals, and data movement.

For active workloads, the promotional One-Rate pricing is available as low as $10/TB per month for data above 2 PB. This amounts to over 75% savings over traditional metered pricing plans. There is no minimum commitment period, and you can egress up to 100% of your stored capacity each month at no additional cost. You can lock in this rate if you sign up before December 31, 2026.

2. TRYCOS – a $500 credit for new customers to try IBM Cloud Object Storage

For customers who are new to IBM Cloud Object Storage and want a low-friction way to evaluate the service, TRYCOS provides a no-cost way to evaluate IBM Cloud Object Storage within the $500 credit limit. TRYCOS offers a $500 credit for 3 months for new customers who want to try IBM Cloud Object Storage before scaling more broadly. That credit can be used on any plan, including the Standard plan or One-Rate, which makes it a good fit for customers who are still determining which pricing model best matches their workload.

For example, a 7 TB pilot on the Standard tier would cost about $483 over 3 months at the list rate of ~$0.023/GB per month. With the $500 TRYCOS credit, customers can evaluate IBM Cloud Object Storage for that pilot workload at effectively no storage cost during the trial period.

3. COS35OFF – 35% off Standard plan tiers for new workloads in targeted regions

For customers bringing new workloads into select target regions, COS35OFF provides a strong regional incentive under the Standard plan. This promotion offers 35% off Standard plan tiers for up to 12 months from activation in Australia (Sydney), Canada (Montreal), Spain (Madrid), India (Chennai and Mumbai), and Japan (Tokyo and Osaka).

Because COS35OFF applies across Standard plan tiers, it can support workloads ranging from hot AI/ML data lakes to colder backup and disaster recovery workloads. For example, a 500 TB hot workload on the Standard tier, including API operations and 5 TB of public egress, would run about $12,044/month at list rates. With COS35OFF, the monthly cost drops to about $7,829, saving about $50,585 over 12 months.

For colder data, a 500 TB backup and disaster recovery workload on Cold Vault, including API operations plus retrieval and egress, would run about $3,160/month at list rates. With COS35OFF, the monthly cost drops to about $2,054, saving about $13,271 over 12 months.

How pricing plans and storage tiers fit different workloads

IBM Cloud Object Storage is built for modern enterprise workloads with the scalability, resiliency, security, and durability needed to support AI, analytics, cloud-native applications, media, backup, and long-term retention.

For customers with hot, active workloads, the simplest path is One-Rate. IBM Cloud Object Storage One-Rate provides a single predictable all-inclusive rate for active data, helping customers avoid the cost uncertainty that can come from separately modeling storage, retrieval, API requests, and egress.

For customers with unknown or changing access patterns, Smart Tier is a strong fit. It is designed to automatically align monthly billing to actual data activity, using built-in hot, cool, and cold classification behind the scenes.

For long-term retention, customers can use lifecycle policies to transition less active data into Archive or Accelerated Archive, helping reduce cost over time while keeping restore options available when needed.

Choose One-Rate for predictable cost on active workloads. Choose Smart Tier when access patterns change and you want cost optimization to happen automatically.

Figure: IBM Cloud Object Storage pricing plans and storage classes

Which IBM Cloud Object Storage offer is right for you?

The table below combines offer guidance with workload and savings examples to help customers choose the best fit.

¹ No code needed — applied automatically to your bill

² Apply code when creating your Cloud Object Storage instance

Savings examples are illustrative and will vary based on data volume, storage tier mix, API activity, retrieval patterns, and egress.

How to choose the right offer

•       New to IBM Cloud Object Storage? Start with TRYCOS. Use the $500 credit to pilot on any plan before committing.

•       Running active workloads at scale? Choose One-Rate for predictable all-inclusive pricing, with egress and API activity included.

•       Launching a new workload in Sydney, Montreal, Madrid, Mumbai, Chennai, Tokyo, or Osaka? Apply COS35OFF for 35% off Standard plan tiers for up to 12 months.

Ready to get started? Visit the IBM Cloud Object Storage product page to learn more and activate your offer.

• Visit the Cloud Object Storage Pricing Page
• Sign up for One-Rate now

Written By:

Quaid Nasir, Product Management, IBM Cloud Object Storage