Q: "How expensive is Amazon S3 for storing videos?" A: Check out this S3 & CloudFront Pricing Calculator (has a link to a Google Sheet that you can download and run your own numbers).
And here’s an article about How To Reduce S3 and CloudFront Video Hosting Costs
Amazon S3 has two types of pricing: 1) For Storage, and 2) For Usage
If you just upload a bunch of files to S3, and those files never get downloaded (regardless of file type), then you'll be paying for just storage. But if you embed those files in your member's area using a plugin like S3MediaVault.com and your members are watching your videos, listening to your audios, and downloading your PDF's/Docs/Zips, then you'll be paying for Storage *and* Usage. If you're thinking about storing the files on your own website, don't (see https://s3mediavault.com/how-why-use-amazon-s3-deliver-audio-video-pdf/ )
The good news is that the cost of S3 is really low. And there are no fixed monthly costs. You only pay for what you use. So unless you have hundreds of large videos and thousands of members consuming your content every day, the average S3 bill...
(based on what we've seen with our own account and from asking others) is going to be between $5 - $20 a month. Amazon has a pricing calculator, but it can be a bit confusing. So here's you a rough idea. This is for Video, as that's usually the main kind of content
in most online courses. If you have... 50 videos in your membership site, 50 MB in size each 50 members who watch each the video at least once Bandwidth used per member = 2.5 GB Rough S3 cost = $0.023 per GB Cost of S3 per member = 2.5 GB * $0.023 = $0.057 ~= 6 cents * 50 = $3
So your overall monthly bill would be $3/mo. Also, S3 has tiered pricing, so costs won't necessarily go up directly in proportion to increased usage. You could use a video service like Vimeo to host your videos, but Vimeo doesn't support Audio, PDF, Zips/Docs/Images - only videos.
So if you want a single, integrated, easy-to-use solution for securing and delivering all of your premium content and media files, at a really low cost, then a combination of Amazon S3 and S3MediaVault.com is your best option.