Over five years, an LTO-8 or LTO-9 system holding two copies is the cheapest way to keep 500 TB or more in the US: about $19,200 for LTO-8 and $26,900 for LTO-9 at September 2026 prices, against $27,660 for five years of Glacier Deep Archive before any restore. Below about 100 TB, cloud archive storage usually costs less unless you restore often.
Our model counts what you buy once: cartridges for two copies and the drives (one below 500 TB, two from 500 TB). Prices are midpoints of new US seller listings from the price tracker. The cloud figure is AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive list pricing for US East, from our tape vs cloud 5-year cost page.
Five-year cost compared
| Archive | LTO-8, two copies | LTO-9, two copies | LTO-10, two copies | Glacier Deep Archive, 5 years | One full Glacier restore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 TB | $7,824 | $11,824 | $25,781 | $5,532 | $8,615 |
| 500 TB | $19,247 | $26,911 | $56,567 | $27,660 | $43,074 |
| 1,000 TB | $25,545 | $32,623 | $66,019 | $55,321 | $86,147 |
Tape's cost is front-loaded and then nearly flat, so the longer you keep the data, the better tape looks. A cloud archive costs the same each month and charges again to read data back: one full restore of 500 TB from Glacier Deep Archive with bulk retrieval and internet egress costs about $43,074 on top of storage.
Which tape system has the lowest TCO
| System | Best fit | Five-year cost notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone LTO-8 drive | Up to a few hundred TB, manual tape changes | Lowest total cost today; drive about $6,474 |
| Standalone LTO-9 drive | Growing archives, existing LTO-8 tapes | About $4,100 more for the drive, fewer cartridges per PB |
| Autoloader or small library | Jobs that span several cartridges, unattended backups | Adds the library chassis and a powered device; prices vary by model, see the library guide |
| LTO-10 full-height drive or library | Very large archives short on slots | Highest drive cost; pays off through density, not price |
What a full TCO also includes
Our numbers leave out costs that depend on your setup, so add them for your own case: backup software licences, a library or autoloader, power, offsite storage for the second copy, staff time, and a migration to newer media when the drives near end of support.
Power is the smallest of these for tape: see our energy and operating cost comparison. Software is often the largest, so compare tape features in the software finder.
Frequently asked questions
Is tape cheaper than cloud over five years?
From roughly 500 TB, yes in our model: two LTO-8 copies cost about $19,200 and two LTO-9 copies about $26,900, against $27,660 for five years of Glacier Deep Archive at 500 TB, before any restore fees.
What is not included in these tape costs?
Software licences, a library or autoloader, power, offsite storage, staff time and the migration at the end of the drive's life.
How many tape drives do I need?
One drive is enough for a small archive. From about 500 TB we count two, so a backup and a restore can run at the same time and a drive failure does not stop you.
When is LTO-10 the cheapest option?
Not at current prices. LTO-10 costs more per terabyte in media and drives; it is chosen for density in large libraries.