I. Introduction
The web as we know it is ephemeral. Websites, apps, and services come and go, taking their data with them. One of the fatal flaws of the traditional web is that developers and users rely on centralized data infrastructure. As with any single point of failure, this creates risk: if the host disappears, the data does too.
Arweave was introduced as a solution. By paying once, data can be stored and accessed for at least 200 years. This article breaks down how long-term, redundant storage is made possible through Arweave’s unique protocol design, which includes a random proof-of-access mining algorithm and a sustainable storage endowment. Whether you’re a developer, archivist, or individual user, Arweave provides a compelling model for storing large datasets.
II. Breaking down Arweave’s storage model
How does Arweave’s pay-once storage model actually work?
When someone uploads data to Arweave, they make a one-time payment. The data is distributed and redundantly stored across at least 20 independent nodes. About 5% of the payment goes to miners immediately for accepting and storing the data. The remaining 95% enters a decentralized storage endowment, which gradually compensates miners over time for continued storage and availability.
This model is based on a long-term bet that storage costs will decline over time. Historically, storage costs have dropped an average of 38% per year (Kryder’s Law). Arweave assumes just a 0.5% annual decline in its model. Even at that conservative rate, the endowment remains solvent indefinitely. At today’s costs, a token used for storage would only need to be reissued after 200 years. With typical decline rates, many of those tokens are effectively burned, making Arweave deflationary.
More on Arweave’s storage endowment.
Why Arweave’s pricing can’t be compared 1:1 with AWS or Filecoin
At first glance, Arweave may seem expensive compared to cloud services like AWS or other decentralized networks like Filecoin. But those comparisons miss the point.
AWS and S3 operate on a rental model. You pay monthly to keep data online, and if you stop paying, the data disappears. Filecoin follows a similar model where users must regularly renew contracts to maintain availability. In both cases, you’re in a continuous payment loop and reliant on external providers.
Arweave is different. Once data is uploaded, it’s replicated across a global network and secured via cryptographic proofs. There’s no need to manage accounts, renew contracts, or trust a company to stay solvent. Replication is built-in, redundancy is automatic, and your payment is final.
III. Cost analysis by dataset size
As of July 14, 2025, here are estimated one-time costs to store data on Arweave permanently:
- 10 GB = ~$160
- 100 GB = ~$1,600
- 1 TB = ~$16,000
To put that in perspective, here’s how those upfront costs spread out over time:
| Dataset Size | Arweave One-Time Cost | Monthly Equivalent (Over Time) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 GB | $160 | ~$0.67/month (over 20 years) |
| 100 GB | $1,600 | ~$6.67/month (over 20 years) |
| 1 TB | $16,000 | ~$66.67/month (over 20 years) |
Compare that to Amazon S3, which charges around $23 per TB per month (or $276 per year) for redundant cloud storage. At first glance, Arweave appears expensive, but it is a one-time payment. Your data is stored across 20 or more nodes with no renewal costs, surprise fees, or vendor lock-in.
Breakeven timeline vs. S3
| Dataset Size | S3 Annual Cost | Arweave Breakeven Point |
|---|---|---|
| 10 GB | ~$2.76/year | ~58 years |
| 100 GB | ~$27.60/year | ~58 years |
| 1 TB | ~$276/year | ~58 years |
This 58-year breakeven assumes you’re comparing the full one-time Arweave payment to decades of monthly rent on S3.
But that framing misses how Arweave actually works. The protocol doesn’t pay miners that $16,000 all at once for a 1 TB upload. Only about 5% of the fee goes to miners up front. The remaining 95% enters a long-term endowment, which pays miners gradually over time based on actual storage activity.
As a result, the effective rate miners earn to store your data is closer to $0.25 to $1 per TB-month, depending on network conditions and token value. That is already 20 to 100 times cheaper than S3’s $23/TB-month rate.
This estimate comes from analyzing real endowment payout behavior. Because most of the upload fee is streamed over time and tied to storage proofs, the monthly cost to the network is far lower than what users pay up front.
At those raw costs, Arweave reaches cost parity with S3 in about 7 years. That is the more meaningful breakeven when comparing protocol efficiency rather than surface-level prices.
To summarize:
- 58 years: Breakeven if comparing user’s up-front cost to ongoing S3 billing
- 7 years: Breakeven based on actual miner earnings vs. S3 rental rates
Arweave’s model front-loads the cost to guarantee long-term access. Once paid, your data is stored for 200 years or more, with no renewals, no vendor lock-in, and no hidden fees.
IV. Arweave vs. other decentralized storage networks
IPFS/Filecoin vs Arweave
IPFS is a peer-to-peer protocol for content-addressed file storage. Files are accessible via unique hashes, but unless someone pins the content, it can disappear from the network. Filecoin introduces a market to incentivize storage, but the model is contract-based and time-bound. Users must continuously renew deals with storage providers to keep data online. Prices fluctuate based on auctions, provider availability, and network conditions.
Data redundancy
In Filecoin, redundancy is optional and varies by storage provider. Users must negotiate replication levels in their storage deals, and ensuring multiple copies requires managing multiple contracts or relying on providers to replicate voluntarily. If a provider exits or defaults on the deal, the data may be lost unless it was manually replicated elsewhere.
Walrus vs Arweave
The Walrus network is built on Sui and offers time-bound storage contracts. Data is split into encrypted slivers using erasure coding and stored across nodes for a max of 53 epochs (around 2 years). To keep data available, users must renew payments periodically. There’s no built-in permanence. Availability depends on active upkeep and network participation.
Real-time cost estimates (as of 07.14.2025):
- 10 GB = ~$2.57 for two years
- 100 GB = ~$25.68 for two years
- 1 TB = ~$256.78 for two years
*Note: 80% of storage costs are currently subsidized by the Walrus Foundation, so true costs would be ~5x higher without subsidy.
Data redundancy
Walrus uses erasure coding to split data into fragments, which are distributed across the network. A file can be reconstructed even if up to two-thirds of the fragments are lost. This provides fault tolerance but doesn’t guarantee long-term availability. Arweave, by contrast, guarantees at least 20 full replicas of every file and ties miner rewards directly to availability proofs.
Link to Walrus storage cost calculator.
V. Tradeoffs to consider
Arweave isn’t the cheapest solution upfront, and that’s intentional. If storage were priced too low, the endowment could run out of funds, which would jeopardize data permanence. Users prioritize reliability, and Arweave’s economic model is designed to ensure data remains accessible even in worst-case scenarios.
Not all use cases require permanent storage. For data that changes frequently or has a short lifespan, solutions like Load Network are building temporary storage layers on top of Arweave. For users concerned about privacy, tools like ArDrive offer encrypted vaults where only your wallet can decrypt the content, while Arweave handles the long-term storage.
The screenshot below shows the storage prices (07.15.2025) for Load Network compared to other storage solutions.
VI. Optimizing for large uploads
Arweave was built to handle data at internet scale. Unlike systems where each file is adjudicated individually like a smart contract, Arweave uses a global Merkle tree and a single economic contract (the endowment). There’s no need to specify storage terms per file.
To scale uploads efficiently, Arweave uses recursive bundling, grouping files into bundles, then bundling those bundles. This structure allows the network to process arbitrarily large datasets without introducing onchain congestion or fee markets.
Learn more about the open-source bundler, Turbo.
VII. Use cases that justify large-scale storage
From public datasets to full blockchain archives, Arweave supports a wide range of large-scale use cases. Some of the largest uploaders in tx’s as of July 2025:
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Redstone Oracles stores timestamped price feeds, metadata, and historical logs.
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AO uses Arweave to store logs of autonomous agents, creating a “hologram of state” that can be recomputed from any point in time.
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KYVE Network stores on and offchain data and offers data validation and retrieval tooling.
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Ardrive Turbo bundles data for larger, more efficient uploads to Arweave.
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NFT collections, social protocols, digital archives, and more are all embracing Arweave for long-term value preservation. See more Arweave stats on DataOS.
VIII. Conclusion
Storing large datasets is a technical and economic challenge. Most systems rent storage month to month, exposing users to price volatility, platform risk, and ongoing operational overhead. Arweave takes a different approach, with a one-time payment, your data is stored permanently, replicated across the network, and secured by a sustainable economic endowment.
For more info on how to upload data to Arweave, checkout these tools:
- Turbo - CLI tool
- Ardrive - Dropbox like UI
- Bazar Studio - UI to upload tradeable data
- Load Network - EVM network that uses Arweave for storage