Google Cloud Storage review
by Google CloudObject storage
Object storage on Google Cloud with four storage classes in one API, built-in cross-region buckets, a permanent free tier and every price published in USD.
- Free plan
- Card required
- Self-serve
- Usage-based
- Public prices
What you're paying for
- Compliance included (main value)
- Saves engineering time
- Built-in reach
Hot to archive storage in one API, with cross-region buckets, retention locks that cannot be undone and compliance papers you accept yourself.
You pay for object storage with Google Cloud’s platform work already done. Standard, Nearline, Coldline and Archive sit in the same buckets and API, and lifecycle rules or Autoclass move objects between them. Dual- and multi-region buckets replicate across regions without a setup of your own, Bucket Lock and Object Retention Lock give retention that cannot be removed once locked, and the SOC 2 Type II reports, ISO 27001 certificate and HIPAA BAA come without a sales call. Transfer to Google Cloud services in the same location is free. The cost to weigh is internet egress, billed per GiB.
- Retention that cannot be undoneThe Bucket Lock docs say a locked retention policy cannot be removed or its period reduced, and Object Retention Lock has a Locked mode (COMPLIANCE in the XML API) with retention up to 100 years.Evidence: Cloud Storage docs: Bucket Lock, Object Retention Lock (2026-10-15)
- Audit papers without a sales callGoogle Cloud’s SOC 2 Type II reports are issued quarterly with Cloud Storage in scope, the ISO 27001 page lists Cloud Storage, and console help shows the HIPAA BAA accepted on the IAM & Admin page.Evidence: Google Cloud SOC 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA pages; console help on the BAA (2026-10-15)
- Four classes and cross-region bucketsStandard to Archive ($0.02 to $0.0012 per GiB-month in Iowa) share one API; lifecycle rules and Autoclass move objects between classes, and dual- and multi-region buckets replicate across regions.Evidence: Pricing page; lifecycle and availability docs (2026-10-15)
- Free transfer inside Google CloudThe pricing page lists transfer within the same location as free, for example BigQuery US reading a us-central1 bucket, and Cloud CDN waives Cloud Storage transfer charges (cache fill may apply).Evidence: Pricing page: data transfer within Google Cloud (2026-10-15)
- Best for
- Teams that build on Google Cloud, or need retention locks, cross-region buckets and a HIPAA BAA, and want every price published in USD.
- Good to know
- Internet egress is billed per GiB ($0.12 for the first 10 TiB), so $120 of our $149 scenario is downloads, and S3 support is an interoperability mode.
How Google Cloud Storage compares
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Object storage: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Google Cloud Storage | Backblaze B2 | Cloudflare R2 | Amazon S3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | 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 S3-compatible storage at a flat $6.95 per TB a month, with read, write and list calls free and egress free up to 3x what you store. | Worth the priceS3-compatible storage where downloads carry no egress fee, so serving or moving data out costs only the requests it takes. | 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. |
| Overall score | 7.3 | 8.6Best | 8.1 | 6.4 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan | Free trial |
| Card to start | Card required | No card needed | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.02/GiB-month | $6.95/TB/mo | $0.015/GB-month | $0.023/GB-mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Standard storage price | $0.02/GiB-month (Iowa, us-central1; prorated to the sub-second) | $6.95/TB per 30 days, billed per byte-hour; same in all 4 regions | $0.015/GB-month | $0.023/GB-month (US East, first 50 TB; binary GB) |
| Egress to the internet | $0.12/GiB for the first 10 TiB (all destinations except China and Australia); free within the same Google Cloud location | Free up to 3x average stored data, then $0.01/GB; free to listed CDN and compute partners | No egress fee for any storage class | $0.09/GB for the first 10 TB (US East); 100 GB a month free across AWS |
| Request fees | Class A $0.005 per 1,000; Class B $0.0004 per 1,000 (Standard, single region) | Class A, B and C calls free; event notifications (Class D) $0.004 per 10,000 after 2,500 a day | Class A $4.50 per million; Class B $0.36 per million | PUT, COPY, POST, LIST $0.005 per 1,000; GET $0.0004 per 1,000 |
| Free option | 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 | First 10 GB always free, no credit card | 10 GB-month, 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B a month, permanent | No permanent free storage; up to $200 in credits for new accounts |
| Reference scenario (1 TB/mo) | $149.00 in Iowa, $120 of it egress, computed | $6.95, egress and calls free within the rules, computed | $23.10, no egress charge, computed | $122.00 in US East, $90 of it egress, computed |
| Billing minimums | None on Standard; 30 to 365 days on colder classes | None stated (no minimum file size, storage duration or monthly charge) | None on Standard; 30 days on Infrequent Access | None on S3 Standard; 30 to 180 days on colder classes |
| S3 API | Interoperability mode (XML API with HMAC keys) | S3-compatible, next to the B2 Native API | S3-compatible; versioning, Object Lock and replication calls not implemented | Native (the S3 API itself) |
| Versioning and object lock | Versioning; Bucket Lock and Object Retention Lock (Locked mode cannot be removed) | Versioning on by default; compliance-mode Object Lock | No versioning; R2 bucket locks the account can remove | Versioning; compliance-mode Object Lock |
| Replication | Built into dual- and multi-region buckets; cross-bucket replication | Cloud Replication within or between regions (another region needs a second account) | No built-in replication | Cross-Region and Same-Region Replication |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Google Cloud SOC 2 Type II (quarterly, names Cloud Storage); ISO 27001 | Own SOC 2 Type 2 report; ISO 27001 held by its data centres | Cloudflare SOC 2 Type II names R2; ISO 27001:2022 | AWS SOC 2 report in AWS Artifact; ISO 27001 list names S3 |
| HIPAA BAA | Self-serve in the console (IAM & Admin) | On request for covered entities | Enterprise customers only | Self-serve in AWS Artifact |
| Regions | 43, including 13 in Europe, plus dual-regions and ASIA, EU and US multi-regions | 4 (US East, US West, EU Central, CA East); one per account | 6 location hints (best effort); EU, US and FedRAMP jurisdictions | 36, including EU and AWS GovCloud (US) |
| Bottom line | 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, Backblaze B2 has the lowest list price in our 1 TB scenario, with free API calls, egress free up to 3x storage and solid data protection. Each account sits in one of 4 regions, with one storage class. | 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, 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. |
Evidence: Google Cloud Storage: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Backblaze B2: 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; Amazon S3: 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.
Score
- Pricing clarity
- 7.0 / 10, Good
- storage, request and egress prices published; can be bought online; free egress is 100 GB to "each" destination on the pricing page but to "all" destinations in the free-tier docs; product page says Autoclass has no class transition charges; the pricing page bills Coldline/Archive-to-Standard transitions as Class A operations; pricing-examples page bills egress at $0.12 for the first 1 TB and $0.11 from 1 to 10 TB, while the price list gives $0.12 up to 10 TiB
- Free tier
- 9.1 / 10, Excellent
- 5 GB stored free, free requests, 100 GB egress a month
- Price for 1 TB a month
- 2.6 / 10, Fair
- $149/mo: Iowa (us-central1) Standard: 1,000 GiB × $0.02 storage + 1,000 GiB × $0.12 internet egress + 1M Class A × $0.005/1,000 + 10M Class B × $0.0004/1,000 = $20 + $120 + $5 + $4 = $149; assumes 1 TB taken as 1,000 billed GiB (Google bills in JEDEC GB, i.e. GiB)
- Egress and billing rules
- 6.0 / 10, Good
- egress billed per GB; no minimum storage duration; no minimum object size; no minimum monthly charge stated
- S3 API and data protection
- 9.0 / 10, Excellent
- S3 interoperability mode, versioning, compliance-mode object lock, lifecycle transition and expiry, replication, customer-held or managed keys
- Compliance, regions and access
- 10.0 / 10, Excellent
- own SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, self-serve HIPAA BAA, SSO on a self-serve account, bucket-scoped keys, audit log, 43 regions, EU region
Review
Review from public pages
Written from Google Cloud Storage's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 15, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
What the public pages show
We read Google Cloud's Cloud Storage product page, pricing page and pricing examples, the free program docs, the Cloud Storage docs (interoperability, S3 migration, HMAC keys, versioning, soft delete, Bucket Lock, Object Retention Lock, lifecycle, locations, encryption, IAM, audit logs, quotas), the SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR pages, the console help page on the BAA and data processing terms, the Customer Care page and the exit program page on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up, open the console or call the API for this review. The pricing page showed its prices in USD.
The pages make the cost model clear. There is no plan: you pay per GiB of storage (priced per GiB-hour or GiB-month, prorated to the sub-second), per 1,000 operations by class and per GiB of internet egress, and the pricing notes define GB as JEDEC GB, so "GB" and "GiB" on these pages are the same unit. Standard storage has no minimum duration, and the simple bill on the pricing-examples page matches the price list. The free trial needs a credit card or other payment method, and the Always Free tier needs a billing account.
A few points need a question. The pricing page gives 100 GB of free egress to "each" destination, while the free-tier docs say "all" destinations. The product page says Autoclass has no class transition charges, while the pricing page bills moves from Coldline or Archive back to Standard as Class A operations. The detailed example on the pricing-examples page bills egress at $0.12 per GB for the first 1 TB and $0.11 from 1 to 10 TB, while the pricing page lists $0.12 per GiB up to 10 TiB. And the HIPAA page FAQ says to talk to an account manager about the BAA, while console help shows it accepted on the IAM & Admin page.
Strengths
- Every price published in USD
The pricing page lists storage, operation, retrieval, replication and network prices for every location and class. The simple bill on the pricing-examples page matches those rates; the detailed example uses different egress tiers ($0.11 per GB from 1 TB).
- Versioning and locks no one can lift
Versioning, soft delete (on by default for 7 days), Bucket Lock, Object Retention Lock in Locked mode, object holds, and customer-managed (CMEK) or customer-supplied (CSEK) keys are all documented.
vs Cloudflare R2: Cloudflare R2 has no object versioning, and its bucket locks can be removed by the account.
- Storage classes that move on their own
Lifecycle rules change an object’s class or delete it, and Autoclass moves objects by last access, from Standard at $0.02 to Archive at $0.0012 per GiB-month in Iowa.
vs Backblaze B2: Backblaze B2 and Wasabi have one storage class each, so their lifecycle rules can only expire objects.
- Cross-region buckets built in
The locations page lists 43 regions, 13 of them in Europe, plus dual-regions and the ASIA, EU and US multi-regions, which store data in more than one region by default.
vs Cloudflare R2: Wasabi replicates within a continent on paid accounts only; Cloudflare R2 has no built-in replication.
- Compliance papers without a sales call
SOC 2 Type II reports and the ISO 27001 certificate are downloaded from Compliance Reports Manager, and the HIPAA BAA and data processing addendum are accepted on the IAM & Admin page.
vs Cloudflare R2: Cloudflare R2 offers its BAA to Enterprise customers; Backblaze B2 and Wasabi handle it on request or through sales.
Things to know
- Internet egress is metered
Downloads to the internet cost $0.12 per GiB for the first 10 TiB a month to most destinations, $0.19 to Australia, and $0.23 for the first TiB to China ($0.22 from 1 to 10 TiB). In our 1 TB scenario that is $120 of the $149 total.
Workaround: Transfer to Google Cloud services in the same location is free, and Cloud CDN waives Cloud Storage transfer charges (cache fill may apply).
- S3 support is an interoperability mode
The XML API works with "some" S3 tools through HMAC keys. Certain operations, such as listing or creating buckets, need a default project or an x-amz-project-id header, and only x-amz-* headers with an x-goog-* equivalent (plus x-amz-decoded-content-length) are processed.
Workaround: The migration guide lists the changes. Agentless Storage Transfer Service imports from S3 have no charge of its own; operation and source egress charges still apply.
- Deleted data can stay on the bill
Soft delete is on by default with 7 days of retention, and the docs say soft-deleted objects continue to accrue storage charges; noncurrent versions are billed like live ones.
Workaround: Set the soft delete retention between 7 and 90 days, or turn it off per bucket.
- Payment method needed even for free use
The free trial asks for a credit card or other payment method at sign-up, with a temporary hold of $0.00 to $1.00, and the Always Free tier needs a billing account.
Pricing reality
Cloud Storage has no plan fee. You pay per GiB of storage ($0.02 per GiB-month for Standard in Iowa, prorated to the sub-second), per 1,000 operations (Class A $0.005, Class B $0.0004 for Standard in one region) and per GiB of internet egress ($0.12 for the first 10 TiB to most destinations). Our scenario is $20 + $120 + $5 + $4 = $149.00 a month at list price, computed with 1 TB taken as 1,000 billed GiB and Always Free left out; egress is about 80% of it. Costs grow with dual-regions (storage billed in both regions plus $0.02 per GiB replication in North America and Europe), minimum durations and retrieval fees on colder classes, Class A charges on class changes for many small objects, and soft-deleted data. Paid support starts at the greater of $29 a month or 3% of charges; taxes and commitment prices are not stated.
Exit path
Objects can be copied out with gcloud storage, the client libraries or S3 tools through the XML API, and downloads are billed as egress. Google’s exit program credits the data transfer when you move all data of the service off Google Cloud: you submit an Exit Notice, migrate within the program periods, submit a Completion Notice, and the credit appears on the final invoice. Partial moves are not covered.
Compared with
- Pick Google Cloud Storage when
- You build on Google Cloud, or want a permanent free tier of 5 GB-months with requests and egress, or dual- and multi-region buckets.
- Pick Amazon S3 when
- Your tools expect the S3 API as the main interface; our 1 TB scenario is also lower there, $122 against $149.
- 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.
- Pick Google Cloud Storage when
- You need several storage classes with lifecycle moves, many regions or a BAA you accept yourself.
- Pick Backblaze B2 when
- You want one flat price of $6.95 per TB, free API calls (Classes A to C) and egress free up to 3x what you store.
Choose it if
- Your compute or analytics already run on Google Cloud, where transfer in the same location is free.
- You need retention that cannot be removed once locked, for FINRA, SEC or CFTC records.
- You want a HIPAA BAA, SOC 2 Type II reports and ISO 27001 without talking to sales.
- You want dual- or multi-region buckets that keep data in more than one region for you.
Look elsewhere if
- Much of your data is downloaded to the internet each month and egress cost decides.
- Your tools need the S3 API as the main interface, not an interoperability mode.
- You want to start without giving a payment method.
Bottom line
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.
Plan limits at a glance
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Standard storage price | $0.02/GiB-month (Iowa, us-central1; prorated to the sub-second) |
| Egress to the internet | $0.12/GiB for the first 10 TiB (all destinations except China and Australia); free within the same Google Cloud location |
| Request fees | Class A $0.005 per 1,000; Class B $0.0004 per 1,000 (Standard, single region) |
| Free option | 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 |
| Reference scenario (1 TB/mo) | $149.00 in Iowa, $120 of it egress, computed |
| Billing minimums | None on Standard; 30 to 365 days on colder classes |
| S3 API | Interoperability mode (XML API with HMAC keys) |
| Versioning and object lock | Versioning; Bucket Lock and Object Retention Lock (Locked mode cannot be removed) |
| Replication | Built into dual- and multi-region buckets; cross-bucket replication |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Google Cloud SOC 2 Type II (quarterly, names Cloud Storage); ISO 27001 |
| HIPAA BAA | Self-serve in the console (IAM & Admin) |
| Regions | 43, including 13 in Europe, plus dual-regions and ASIA, EU and US multi-regions |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 15, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Google Cloud Storage yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 15, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Google Cloud Storage yet.
Google Cloud Storage lists 6 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Standard storage (Iowa, us-central1), costs $0.02/GiB-month.
- Google Cloud StorageFreeAlways Free$0/moMonthly, us-east1, us-west1 and us-central1 combined; needs a billing account
- 5 GB-months of Standard storage
- 5,000 Class A operations a month
- 50,000 Class B operations a month
- 100 GB of data transfer from North America (China and Australia excluded)
- Tag operations and Rapid storage not included
- Google Cloud StorageTrialFree Trial$0/mo$300 credit to spend over 90 days, new customers only; card or other payment method at sign-up
- No automatic charge when the trial ends
- Trial account closes after 90 days or when the credit is spent, unless upgraded
- Trial accounts cannot request quota increases
- 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)
- Google Cloud StorageNearline storage$0.01/GiB-monthIowa (us-central1); 30-day minimum storage duration
- Retrieval $0.01/GiB
- Class A $0.01 and Class B $0.001 per 1,000
- Google Cloud StorageColdline storage$0.004/GiB-monthIowa (us-central1); 90-day minimum storage duration
- Retrieval $0.02/GiB
- Class A $0.02 and Class B $0.01 per 1,000
- Google Cloud StorageArchive storage$0.0012/GiB-monthIowa (us-central1); 365-day minimum storage duration
- Retrieval $0.05/GiB
- Class A and Class B $0.05 per 1,000
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: cloud.google.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.