Security Operations Tools
Security Log Retention Cost Calculator
Enter daily log volume and retention period by tier to compute total monthly storage cost and framework compliance check.
No data is transmitted — everything runs locallyTool
Example — 50GB/day · 30d hot · 60d warm · 275d cold
Hot tier (30d)
$150
1500GB × $0.10/GB
Warm tier (60d)
$90
3000GB × $0.03/GB
Cold tier (275d)
$55
13750GB × $0.004/GB
Total monthly
$295
50GB/day ingestion
About this tool
Security Log Retention Cost Calculator
The Security Log Retention Cost Calculator computes tiered log storage costs from daily volume with compliance framework retention requirement comparison.
• Calculate monthly log storage cost for a SIEM budget proposal
• Model cost savings from moving warm/cold logs to S3 Glacier instead of SIEM
• Verify log retention periods meet PCI, HIPAA, and SOC 2 requirements
• Compare SIEM retention cost vs tiered cold storage for long-term compliance
Affiliate disclosure
Uptime, incident, and on-call management. Better Stack provides status pages, incident management, and on-call scheduling for engineering teams.
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FAQ
What does this tool tell you?
The Security Log Retention Cost Calculator computes tiered log storage costs from daily volume with compliance framework retention requirement comparison.
What affects the result most?
Log volume estimation: web server 1-5KB/request, firewall 0.5-2KB/event, EDR 5-20KB/event. Compression: logs compress 5-10× — 1TB raw ≈ 100-200GB stored. Tiered storage: hot (0-30d, fast search), warm (30-90d, slower), cold (90d+, archive).
How should I use the result?
The calculation is deterministic — the same inputs always produce the same output — so the most useful workflow is to vary one input at a time and see which factor moves the result most. That tells you where to focus your attention before committing to a decision.