Object storage · Comparison
Cloudflare R2 vs Google Cloud Storage vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage
3 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 | Cloudflare R2 | Google Cloud Storage | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceS3-compatible storage where downloads carry no egress fee, so serving or moving data out costs only the requests it takes. | Compliance includedHot to archive storage in one API, with cross-region buckets, retention locks that cannot be undone and compliance papers you accept yourself. | Worth the priceHot object storage at a flat $7.99 per TB a month in every region, with no egress or API request fees while downloads stay within what you store. |
| Overall score | 8.1Best | 7.3 | 6.2 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | 30-day free trial |
| Card to start | –Not measured | Card required | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.015/GB-month | $0.02/GiB-month | $7.99/TB-mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Standard storage price | $0.015/GB-month | $0.02/GiB-month (Iowa, us-central1; prorated to the sub-second) | $7.99/TB-month, same in all 16 regions (the FAQ counts 1 TB as 1,024 GB) |
| Egress to the internet | No egress fee for any storage class | $0.12/GiB for the first 10 TiB (all destinations except China and Australia); free within the same Google Cloud location | No fee while monthly downloads stay at or below active storage; no price above that |
| Request fees | Class A $4.50 per million; Class B $0.36 per million | Class A $0.005 per 1,000; Class B $0.0004 per 1,000 (Standard, single region) | None (API requests free under a fair-use policy) |
| Free option | 10 GB-month, 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B a month, permanent | 5 GB-months, 5,000 Class A, 50,000 Class B and 100 GB egress a month, permanent (3 US regions); $300 credit for 90 days | No permanent free storage; 30-day trial of 100 GB with a company email, no card |
| Reference scenario (1 TB/mo) | $23.10, no egress charge, computed | $149.00 in Iowa, $120 of it egress, computed | $7.99, the 1 TB minimum charge, computed |
| Billing minimums | None on Standard; 30 days on Infrequent Access | None on Standard; 30 to 365 days on colder classes | 1 TB a month ($7.99), 90-day storage duration, 4 KB per object |
| S3 API | S3-compatible; versioning, Object Lock and replication calls not implemented | Interoperability mode (XML API with HMAC keys) | S3-compatible main API (AWS SDKs work by changing the endpoint) |
| Versioning and object lock | No versioning; R2 bucket locks the account can remove | Versioning; Bucket Lock and Object Retention Lock (Locked mode cannot be removed) | Versioning; compliance-mode Object Lock |
| Replication | No built-in replication | Built into dual- and multi-region buckets; cross-bucket replication | Between regions on the same continent; paid accounts only |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Cloudflare SOC 2 Type II names R2; ISO 27001:2022 | Google Cloud SOC 2 Type II (quarterly, names Cloud Storage); ISO 27001 | Data centres' SOC 2 only; Wasabi's own ISO 27001:2022 |
| HIPAA BAA | Enterprise customers only | Self-serve in the console (IAM & Admin) | Through the sales team |
| Regions | 6 location hints (best effort); EU, US and FedRAMP jurisdictions | 43, including 13 in Europe, plus dual-regions and ASIA, EU and US multi-regions | 16, including 4 in the EU and 2 in the UK |
| Bottom line | 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. | From its public pages, Google Cloud Storage has nearly every protection and compliance feature we score, publishes every price in USD and keeps a permanent free tier. Internet egress, billed per GiB, is the main cost, and S3 support is an interoperability mode. | From its public pages, Wasabi sells hot S3-compatible storage at one flat $7.99 per TB a month, with no egress or request fees and retention locks no one can reverse. The 1 TB minimum, the 90-day duration and the fair-use egress rule decide whether it fits. |
Evidence: Cloudflare R2: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Google Cloud Storage: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage: 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 Cloudflare R2 review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Cloudflare R2 when
- You store under 1 TB, delete data within 90 days, or download more than you store.
- Pick Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage when
- You want a flat $7.99 per TB with no request fees, versioning, compliance-mode Object Lock and 16 regions.
From our Google Cloud Storage review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Google Cloud Storage when
- You need versioning, retention no one can remove, built-in replication or a self-serve HIPAA BAA.
- Pick Cloudflare R2 when
- Most of your data is downloaded to the internet: R2 charges no egress fee, and our 1 TB scenario is $23.10 there.
From our Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage when
- You need versioning and compliance-mode Object Lock, and your monthly downloads stay within what you store.
- Pick Cloudflare R2 when
- You download more than you store each month, or store well under 1 TB: R2 has no egress fee and a 10 GB free tier.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- 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
- Google Cloud StorageStandard storage$0.02/GiB-monthIowa (us-central1); $0.023 in Northern Virginia, $0.026 in the US multi-region, $0.022 per region in dual-regions
- Class A $0.005 and Class B $0.0004 per 1,000 operations (single region)
- Internet egress $0.12/GiB for the first 10 TiB
- No minimum storage duration and no retrieval fee
- GB means JEDEC GB (GiB)
- Wasabi Hot Cloud StoragePay as You Go$7.99/TB-moSame in all regions since July 1, 2026; 1 TB minimum monthly charge; billed every 30 days by card; taxes extra
- No fees for egress, API requests or ingress (egress expected at or below active storage)
- 90-day minimum storage duration
- 4 KB minimum billable object
- Basic support: email and tickets
- Premium Support add-on from $100 a month (telephone, 24x7x365)
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Cloudflare R2 2026-10-15, Google Cloud Storage 2026-10-15, Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage 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 3 self-serve products here (8.1/10).
- If you want to try it without entering a card
- Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage30-day free trial, no card needed; scored 6.2/10.
- 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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