How to find and export your Amazon S3 data.

Amazon S3 shows total storage and object count for your account in the Account snapshot on the Buckets page and in the S3 Storage Lens default dashboard, at no extra cost. Per bucket, the daily BucketSizeBytes and NumberOfObjects metrics in CloudWatch give the same figures. Report total storage in GB.

At a glance

Report in: GB
Category: Databases and warehouses
Checked: September 2026

Check your data

Where Amazon S3 shows how much you have.

Sign in with an IAM user or role that has S3 Storage Lens and CloudWatch read permissions. The account root user cannot view Storage Lens dashboards.
In the S3 console, open Storage Lens > Dashboards and choose default-account-dashboard. The snapshot section on the Overview tab shows Total storage and Object count, and the Buckets and Storage classes tabs break them down.
For one bucket, open it and choose the Metrics tab to see its daily storage charts under Bucket metrics. The same numbers are in CloudWatch under the AWS/S3 namespace.
From the CLI, pull a day of storage for one storage class: aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --namespace AWS/S3 --metric-name BucketSizeBytes --dimensions Name=BucketName,Value=my-bucket Name=StorageType,Value=StandardStorage --start-time 2026-09-10T00:00:00Z --end-time 2026-09-11T00:00:00Z --period 86400 --statistics Average. Repeat for each StorageType you use, such as StandardIAStorage or GlacierStorage.
For object-level detail, open the bucket's Management tab and choose Create inventory configuration under Inventory configurations. Pick Include all versions or Current versions only, and add the Size, Last modified date and Storage class fields. The first report can take up to 48 hours.

Plan and role. No paid tier is needed. Storage Lens free metrics and the CloudWatch daily storage metrics cost nothing, but you need IAM permissions to view them. Free Storage Lens metrics can be queried for 14 days.

What to report on the Polyshares intake.

Report Amazon S3 in GB. The intake also asks how many years the company has used it and how many seats it has.

On the Polyshares intake, report total storage in GB. BucketSizeBytes counts both current and noncurrent object versions plus the parts of incomplete multipart uploads, so a versioned bucket can report far more than its live data. If versioning is on, total the Size column of an Inventory report set to current versions only to see the live figure.

Note which storage classes hold the data. Objects in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, S3 Glacier Deep Archive and the Intelligent-Tiering Archive Access and Deep Archive Access tiers must be restored before they can be read or copied, which adds time and cost to an export.

For years in use, sort an Inventory report by last modified date to find the oldest objects, or use the bucket creation date. Last modified is the later of creation and last change, so rewritten objects look newer than they are. For seats, count the users, devices or customers whose files the buckets store.

Export the full history.

Build an S3 Inventory report for each bucket you plan to copy. It is your checklist of object counts, sizes and storage classes, and it can serve as the manifest for Batch Operations.
Restore archived objects first. For a few objects, select them and choose Actions > Initiate restore. For many, create an S3 Batch Operations job with the Restore operation and your Inventory manifest, and set how many days the restored copy stays available.
Copy the bucket with the AWS CLI, either to local disk or to another bucket: aws s3 sync s3://my-bucket /data/my-bucket or aws s3 sync s3://my-bucket s3://destination-bucket. Glacier objects are skipped with a warning; once restores finish, add --force-glacier-transfer.
For very large or cross-account copies, create an S3 Batch Operations job with the Copy operation and an Inventory manifest, created in the destination Region. On versioned buckets where order matters, copy noncurrent versions in one job, then current versions in a second job.
Compare the destination object count and total size against the Inventory report.

aws s3 sync copies the current version of each object only. To keep version history, run an Inventory report that includes all versions and copy those versions with Batch Operations.

Batch Operations Copy handles objects up to 5 GB each and manifests of up to 20 billion objects. All source objects must be in one bucket and all destination objects in one bucket, and an unversioned destination overwrites objects with the same key. Use aws s3 sync for objects larger than 5 GB.

Restoring from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval or S3 Glacier Deep Archive creates a temporary copy, and you pay for both the archived object and the restored copy while it exists. Standard and Bulk restores from the Intelligent-Tiering archive tiers have no retrieval charge and move objects back to the Frequent Access tier. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval objects need no restore.

The intake only needs the size, so you do not have to run an export to fill it in. You also do not need to clean or scrub an export. Polyshares handles anonymization before anything moves.

Why Amazon S3 data has value for AI training.

S3 buckets collect the files other systems produce: documents, photos, recordings, logs and data exports, often going back years. Object keys and prefixes usually encode the customer, date or job a file belongs to.

When files can be tied back to database records, such as inspection photos to work orders or call recordings to tickets, each pair gives a model both the content and the known result.

What stays private.

You choose which buckets and prefixes to copy, so buckets holding backups, credentials or regulated records can stay out of the export entirely.

We anonymize identifying details before anything moves. Polyshares does that work, so your team does not have to scrub records first.

Your company keeps ownership of its data. The license is bounded to defined material and a defined use.

Polyshares is the buyer and pays your company directly. There is no fee or commission, and Polyshares reviews the record before it makes any offer.

Common questions about Amazon S3 data.

Why is BucketSizeBytes larger than the files I see in the console?

The metric includes noncurrent object versions and the parts of incomplete multipart uploads. On a versioned bucket, old versions can be a large share of the total.

How current are the S3 storage numbers?

The CloudWatch storage metrics are reported once per day, and Storage Lens dashboards update daily. The first S3 Inventory report can take up to 48 hours to arrive.

Can I copy objects stored in Glacier storage classes?

Objects in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, S3 Glacier Deep Archive and the Intelligent-Tiering archive tiers must be restored first, then copied. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval objects can be copied directly.

Do I have to pay for Storage Lens to see my total storage?

No. The free metrics on the default dashboard include total storage and object count. Advanced metrics add prefix-level detail and 15 months of query history for an extra charge.

Source: Amazon S3: Viewing S3 Storage Lens metrics on the dashboards, Amazon S3: CloudWatch metrics and dimensions, Amazon S3: Restoring an archived object, Amazon S3: Copy objects with Batch Operations. Checked September 2026.

Put your numbers on the intake.

List your systems, their sizes and your headcount in one intake. Polyshares reviews the record and prices it. There is no fee or commission to your company.