AWS Snowball
Physical data transfer device
Legacy service: AWS Snowball closed to new customers in November 2025. Previously, AWS shipped a storage device to your site so you could copy data onto it and send it back, and the data was loaded into S3.
- Cost$$ Medium
- Difficulty●●●●●
- Costs money when idle?No
- Managed by AWS
- In examsCLF · SAA
⚠️ Retired or retiring service
Open Snowball on the map →
Closed to new customers since November 2025; use DataSync / Data Transfer Terminal
Think of it asLike renting a truck to haul boxes of files instead of faxing them page by page.
When to use it
✓ Use it when
Only for existing customers already using it; new projects should choose another solution.
✗ Avoid it when
Any new project → DataSync (over the network) or Data Transfer Terminal (bring drives to an AWS upload location).
Common uses
- (Formerly) moving hundreds of TB to S3
- (Formerly) migrating data centers in places with poor connectivity
- (Formerly) exporting data out of AWS
What does it cost?
- Pricing model: Fee per device rental (job) and per day the device is kept, plus shipping; loading into S3 has no transfer fee.
