Object storage · Comparison
Amazon S3 vs Cloudflare R2
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Amazon S3 | Cloudflare R2 |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Compliance includedThe S3 API itself, with compliance-mode Object Lock, replication and a self-serve HIPAA BAA in place, billed per use with no minimum charge. | Worth the priceS3-compatible storage where downloads carry no egress fee, so serving or moving data out costs only the requests it takes. |
| Overall score | 6.4 | 8.1Best |
| Free option | Free trial | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.023/GB-mo | $0.015/GB-month |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Standard storage price | $0.023/GB-month (US East, first 50 TB; binary GB) | $0.015/GB-month |
| Egress to the internet | $0.09/GB for the first 10 TB (US East); 100 GB a month free across AWS | No egress fee for any storage class |
| Request fees | PUT, COPY, POST, LIST $0.005 per 1,000; GET $0.0004 per 1,000 | Class A $4.50 per million; Class B $0.36 per million |
| Free option | No permanent free storage; up to $200 in credits for new accounts | 10 GB-month, 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B a month, permanent |
| Reference scenario (1 TB/mo) | $122.00 in US East, $90 of it egress, computed | $23.10, no egress charge, computed |
| Billing minimums | None on S3 Standard; 30 to 180 days on colder classes | None on Standard; 30 days on Infrequent Access |
| S3 API | Native (the S3 API itself) | S3-compatible; versioning, Object Lock and replication calls not implemented |
| Versioning and object lock | Versioning; compliance-mode Object Lock | No versioning; R2 bucket locks the account can remove |
| Replication | Cross-Region and Same-Region Replication | No built-in replication |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | AWS SOC 2 report in AWS Artifact; ISO 27001 list names S3 | Cloudflare SOC 2 Type II names R2; ISO 27001:2022 |
| HIPAA BAA | Self-serve in AWS Artifact | Enterprise customers only |
| Regions | 36, including EU and AWS GovCloud (US) | 6 location hints (best effort); EU, US and FedRAMP jurisdictions |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Amazon S3 is the reference S3 service and has every protection and compliance feature we score. Storage and requests are priced per use with no minimum, and internet egress, billed per GB, is the main cost to plan for. | From its public pages, Cloudflare R2 removes the egress fee and keeps billing simple, with a permanent free tier and no minimums on Standard. Versioning, the S3 Object Lock API and replication are not implemented, so it suits serving data more than strict retention. |
Evidence: Amazon S3: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Cloudflare R2: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
When to pick each
In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.
From our Amazon S3 review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Amazon S3 when
- You need versioning, compliance-mode Object Lock, replication or a self-serve BAA from the S3 API itself.
- Pick Cloudflare R2 when
- Your data is downloaded often: R2 charges no egress fee, and our 1 TB scenario is $23.10 there against $122 on S3.
From our Cloudflare R2 review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Cloudflare R2 when
- Your data is downloaded often: our 1 TB scenario is $23.10 here against $122 on S3, where $90 is egress.
- Pick Amazon S3 when
- You need versioning, compliance-mode Object Lock, replication or a HIPAA BAA you accept yourself.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- Amazon S3S3 Standard$0.023/GB-moUS East, first 50 TB; $0.022 next 450 TB, $0.021 over 500 TB; GB = 2^30 bytes
- PUT, COPY, POST, LIST $0.005 per 1,000 requests
- GET $0.0004 per 1,000 requests
- Internet egress $0.09/GB for the first 10 TB
- No minimum storage duration or object size
- Cloudflare R2Standard storage$0.015/GB-monthClass A $4.50 per million, Class B $0.36 per million, no egress fee, no minimum storage duration
- No minimum object size
- S3-compatible API and Workers API
- Usage rounded up to the next billing unit
- Requests rejected with 401 Unauthorized are not charged
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Amazon S3 2026-10-15, Cloudflare R2 2026-10-15.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Cloudflare R2Self-serve sign-up; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (8.1/10).
- Lowest starter price
- Cloudflare R2$0.015/GB-month for the Standard storage plan.
- Highest overall score
- Cloudflare R28.1/10 (Excellent). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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