Updated on 2025-09-26 GMT+08:00

Direct Reading

Scenarios

You can enable direct reading if you want to obtain Archive objects immediately or if there are interface compatibility issues when OBS is interconnected with other systems.

With direct reading enabled for a bucket, you can access objects in the Archive storage class without restoring them first. However, downloading or copying Archive objects will incur costs for directly reading these objects. For details, see Product Pricing Details.

This section describes how to enable direct reading for Direct Reading objects in a created bucket. If you want to enable Direct Reading when creating a bucket, see Creating a Bucket.

Direct reading is only available in some regions. For details, see Function Overview.

Object Retrieval Comparison Before and After Direct Reading Is Enabled

Item

Direct Reading Disabled (Default)

Direct Reading Enabled

Retrieval method

Objects are restored and then read.

Objects are directly read.

Retrieval cost

Low

High

Retrieval time

Minutes

Milliseconds

Billing

Table 1 Billing for direct reading

Action

Billing Item

Description

Billing Mode

Direct reading

Requests

You are billed for the number of successfully read objects.

If N objects are successfully read, you are billed for N requests.

Pay-per-use

Direct reading traffic

Traffic for downloading and replicating Archive objects from a bucket with direct reading enabled. For more information, see Direct Reading.

The amount of data retrieved is determined by the range specified in the request header when the HTTP connection is established. Even if the transmission is interrupted early, the system calculates usage based on the full range defined in the original request. For example, if the request specifies a range from 50 MB to 100 MB, the system still bills you for the range of 50 MB to 100 MB, even if only one byte is actually transmitted.

Pay-per-use

Outbound Internet traffic (when objects are accessed over the Internet)

If you download or replicate objects over the Internet, the outbound Internet traffic costs will be incurred based on the object size.

Pay-per-use

Resource packages (outbound Internet traffic)

Example: Billing for downloading objects from a bucket with or without direct reading enabled

Assume that you need to download 100 Archive objects (100 GB in total) over the Internet. The following table compares the billing for downloading these objects from a bucket with or without direct reading enabled.

Table 2 Billing for downloading objects from a bucket with or without direct reading enabled

Billing Item

A Bucket Without Direct Reading Enabled

A Bucket With Direct Reading Enabled

Restore requests

100 PUT requests

N/A

Download requests

100 GET requests

100 GET requests

Temporary storage

Storage for 100 GB of Standard copies, which is charged once

N/A

Restore traffic

Assume that you use expedited restore, there will be traffic for restoring 100 GB of data at an expedited speed.

N/A

Direct reading traffic

N/A

Direct reading traffic for 100 GB of data

Outbound Internet traffic

Outbound Internet traffic for 100 GB of data

Outbound Internet traffic for 100 GB of data

Ways to Configure Direct Reading

You can use OBS Console or APIs to configure direct reading.