Blob shows archive tier but account says hot - which pricing applies?

Question

Hi

This storage account setup we have seems confusing - blobs show as archive but the container shows as hot tier. And it looks like we are paying around 800 CAD for 13 TB of storage which seems like hot tier pricing.

Can someone explain how I can confirm all these thing from the portal?

PS: Also i am unable to open a support request for this, i only get the option for the Q and A forums.

Answer 1

Hi ,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Here is what might have happening in your case:

1. Storage Account Default Tier vs. Blob Tier

The default access tier for the storage account is set to Hot. This applies only to new blobs that are uploaded without explicitly setting a tier.

However, individual blobs can override this and be placed in Cool or Archive tier independently.

Your screenshots show that the actual blobs are in Archive, which means you should be paying Archive pricing for those specific blobs, not Hot tier.

2. Why You Might Be Paying Hot Tier Prices

There are a few potential issues:

• Some blobs may still be in the Hot tier. You have 51.36 million blobs, are you sure all are in Archive? Check blob counts by tier.
• Archive blobs incur rehydration and read costs. if there is any background process reading or rehydrating these blobs, you could be billed for that.
• Metadata and early deletion: Archive blobs deleted before 180 days still incur minimum charges.
• Hot tier pricing applies to non-blob services (logging, diagnostics, other account-level operations) if used.

3. How to Verify Costs in the Portal

To confirm exactly what you are being billed for:

a. Go to Cost Analysis

Go to Azure Portal > Cost Management + Billing > Cost Analysis.

Filter by:

Scope: the Storage Account.

  Group by Meter or Service name.

  
  Look for lines like:

  
     "Archive LRS Data Stored"

     
        "Hot LRS Data Stored"

        
           "Archive Rehydration Read Operations"
```b. Azure Storage Metrics

Go to the Storage Account > Monitoring > Metrics.

Add metrics like:

   Blob Count by Access Tier
   
```yaml
  Total Storage by Tier

  
  This will show actual data size and blob count per tier.
```c. Storage Explorer or AzCopy CLI

You can script or use [Azure Storage Explorer](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/storage/storage-explorer/) to bulk-export blob metadata, especially the access tier.

Example:


```yaml
az storage blob list --account-name <your_storage_account> \
--container-name <container_name> --output table \
--query "[].{name:name, tier:properties.accessTier}"

If your subscription is under a Visual Studio, Azure for Students, or Sponsorship plan, which does not come with full support. If so:

Upgrade to a Pay-As-You-Go plan or

Use Azure Advisor / Cost Analysis as workarounds.

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