Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage review
by Wasabi TechnologiesObject storage
S3-compatible hot object storage at $7.99 per TB a month in every region, with no egress or API request fees while downloads stay within what you store.
- 30-day free trial
- No card needed
- Self-serve
- Usage-based
- Public prices
What you're paying for
- Worth the price (main value)
- Compliance included
Hot 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.
You pay one rate for capacity: $7.99 per TB a month in all 16 regions, with ingress, API requests and egress up to your stored volume included. One hot storage class sits behind an S3-compatible API, so existing S3 tools and AWS SDKs work by changing the endpoint. Teams that read their data back often, such as backup restores or media libraries, get a bill that does not grow with downloads or request counts. The floors to weigh are a 1 TB minimum charge, a 90-day minimum storage duration and a 4 KB minimum billable object.
- No request or egress line on the billThe pricing FAQ lists storage at $7.99 per TB a month and ingress, egress and API requests as free, subject to the free egress and API policies. Our 1 TB scenario, with 1 TB downloaded and 11 million requests, comes to $7.99.Evidence: Pricing page and pricing FAQ (2026-10-15)
- Same rate in every regionThe May 2026 pricing notice sets Pay as You Go at $7.99 per TB a month for North America, EMEA and APAC from July 1, 2026. The regions page lists 16 regions, and you pick one per bucket.Evidence: Wasabi docs: May 2026 pricing notice; storage regions page (2026-10-15)
- Retention no user can reverseThe Object Lock docs say Compliance Mode "cannot be reversed for any reason, by any user, regardless of user permissions", and administrative logs can be saved to a compliance-mode bucket.Evidence: Wasabi docs: Object Lock, administrative logging (2026-10-15)
- Own ISO 27001 and self-serve SSOWasabi Technologies LLC is ISO 27001:2022 certified (audit by A-LIGN, valid until June 9, 2028), and any customer, trial or paid, can set up SAML or OpenID SSO in their own account.Evidence: Wasabi docs: ISO 27001 compliance, SSO (2026-10-15)
- Best for
- Teams storing 1 TB or more of long-lived data that is read back often, such as backups, archives or media, who want one flat price per TB.
- Good to know
- Billing floors apply: a 1 TB minimum charge, a 90-day minimum storage duration and a 4 KB minimum object. Free egress is a guideline tied to what you store.
How Wasabi Hot 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 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage | Backblaze B2 | Cloudflare R2 | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | 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. | 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 includedHot to archive storage in one API, with cross-region buckets, retention locks that cannot be undone and compliance papers you accept yourself. |
| Overall score | 6.2 | 8.6Best | 8.1 | 7.3 |
| Free option | 30-day free trial | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | No card needed | No card needed | –Not measured | Card required |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $7.99/TB-mo | $6.95/TB/mo | $0.015/GB-month | $0.02/GiB-month |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Standard storage price | $7.99/TB-month, same in all 16 regions (the FAQ counts 1 TB as 1,024 GB) | $6.95/TB per 30 days, billed per byte-hour; same in all 4 regions | $0.015/GB-month | $0.02/GiB-month (Iowa, us-central1; prorated to the sub-second) |
| Egress to the internet | No fee while monthly downloads stay at or below active storage; no price above that | 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 | $0.12/GiB for the first 10 TiB (all destinations except China and Australia); free within the same Google Cloud location |
| Request fees | None (API requests free under a fair-use policy) | 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 | Class A $0.005 per 1,000; Class B $0.0004 per 1,000 (Standard, single region) |
| Free option | No permanent free storage; 30-day trial of 100 GB with a company email, no card | First 10 GB always free, no credit card | 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 |
| Reference scenario (1 TB/mo) | $7.99, the 1 TB minimum charge, computed | $6.95, egress and calls free within the rules, computed | $23.10, no egress charge, computed | $149.00 in Iowa, $120 of it egress, computed |
| Billing minimums | 1 TB a month ($7.99), 90-day storage duration, 4 KB per object | None stated (no minimum file size, storage duration or monthly charge) | None on Standard; 30 days on Infrequent Access | None on Standard; 30 to 365 days on colder classes |
| S3 API | S3-compatible main API (AWS SDKs work by changing the endpoint) | S3-compatible, next to the B2 Native API | S3-compatible; versioning, Object Lock and replication calls not implemented | Interoperability mode (XML API with HMAC keys) |
| Versioning and object lock | Versioning; compliance-mode Object Lock | Versioning on by default; compliance-mode Object Lock | No versioning; R2 bucket locks the account can remove | Versioning; Bucket Lock and Object Retention Lock (Locked mode cannot be removed) |
| Replication | Between regions on the same continent; paid accounts only | Cloud Replication within or between regions (another region needs a second account) | No built-in replication | Built into dual- and multi-region buckets; cross-bucket replication |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Data centres' SOC 2 only; Wasabi's own ISO 27001:2022 | Own SOC 2 Type 2 report; ISO 27001 held by its data centres | Cloudflare SOC 2 Type II names R2; ISO 27001:2022 | Google Cloud SOC 2 Type II (quarterly, names Cloud Storage); ISO 27001 |
| HIPAA BAA | Through the sales team | On request for covered entities | Enterprise customers only | Self-serve in the console (IAM & Admin) |
| Regions | 16, including 4 in the EU and 2 in the UK | 4 (US East, US West, EU Central, CA East); one per account | 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 |
| Bottom line | 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. | 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, 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. |
Evidence: Wasabi Hot 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; Google 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.
Score
- Pricing clarity
- 7.0 / 10, Good
- storage, request and egress prices published; can be bought online; no price for egress above the free-egress guideline; pricing FAQ examples use different per-GB figures; trial size differs between the trial page and the docs
- Free tier
- 2.0 / 10, Fair
- no permanent free storage; trial: 100 GB for 30 days (10 GB for 14 days with a freemail address), no card
- Price for 1 TB a month
- 9.0 / 10, Excellent
- $7.99/mo: any US region (same price in all regions): 1 TB stored at $7.99 per TB a month = $7.99 (1,000 GB is under the 1 TB minimum of 1,024 GB, so the 1 TB minimum charge applies either way) + egress 1 TB $0 (equal to active storage, within the free-egress guideline) + 1M writes and 10M reads $0 (no API request fees) = $7.99; taxes not included
- Egress and billing rules
- 2.0 / 10, Fair
- egress free up to 1x the data stored; 90-day minimum storage duration; objects billed as at least 4 KB; minimum monthly charge $7.99
- S3 API and data protection
- 9.5 / 10, Excellent
- S3-compatible API, versioning, compliance-mode object lock, lifecycle expiry, replication, customer-held or managed keys
- Compliance, regions and access
- 7.5 / 10, Good
- data centres' SOC 2 only, ISO 27001, HIPAA BAA by request, SSO on a self-serve account, bucket-scoped keys, audit log, 16 regions, EU region
Review
Review from public pages
Written from Wasabi Hot 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 Wasabi's pricing page and pricing FAQ, the Reserved Capacity Storage page, the product terms, the free trial page, the security, compliance and trust center pages, the storage regions page, the support data sheet, the Customer Agreement and BAA, and the Wasabi Academy docs on sign-up, billing, Object Lock, lifecycle, replication, SSO, logging and the S3 API on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up or start a trial for this review. Prices are listed in US dollars.
The pages make the cost model clear. There is one hot storage class at $7.99 per TB a month in every region since July 1, 2026 (it was $6.99), and no fees for egress, API requests or ingress. The pricing FAQ and product terms set the floors: at least 1 TB is billed each month, objects deleted or overwritten before 90 days are billed for the remaining days, and objects under 4 KB are billed as 4 KB. Free egress has a condition: monthly downloads at or below your active storage are 'a good fit', and if you go above that on a regular basis, Wasabi may limit or suspend the service.
A few points need a question. The trial page offers 100 GB for 30 days with a company email (10 GB for 14 days with a freemail address), while the sign-up doc says up to 1 TB. The pricing FAQ examples use different per-GB figures. The support data sheet says Basic email support runs 24/7 on one page and business days only on the next. The product terms say you can cancel at any time, while the Customer Agreement asks for 30 days' notice. And the pages name SOC 2 reports for the data centres, not one for Wasabi itself.
Strengths
- Downloads and requests do not change the bill
Our 1 TB scenario, with 1 TB downloaded, 1 million writes and 10 million reads, costs $7.99 a month, the same as storing 1 TB with no traffic.
vs Amazon S3: The same scenario comes to $122.00 on Amazon S3 and $149.00 on Google Cloud Storage, most of it egress.
- Same price in all 16 regions
Pay as You Go is $7.99 per TB a month in North America, EMEA and APAC, and each bucket goes in the region you pick, including 4 EU and 2 UK regions.
vs Backblaze B2: Backblaze B2 has 4 regions and ties each account to the one region chosen at sign-up.
- Retention no one can reverse
Object Lock has a Compliance Mode no user can reverse, plus Governance Mode and legal holds. Versioning and replication between regions on the same continent are documented too.
vs Cloudflare R2: Cloudflare R2 has no object versioning, and its own bucket locks can be removed by the account.
- Own ISO 27001 and self-serve SSO
Wasabi holds its own ISO 27001:2022 certificate, and SAML or OpenID SSO is open to trial and paid accounts, with IAM-style users, roles and policies and administrative logs you can download in ranges of up to 90 days or save to a compliance-mode bucket.
vs Backblaze B2: Backblaze B2's ISO 27001 is held by its data centres.
- A trial without a card
The trial page says no credit card is needed to start and nothing is charged automatically when the trial ends.
Things to know
- Billing floors on Pay as You Go
At least 1 TB ($7.99) is billed every month, even with no data, and the account cannot be paused. Objects deleted or overwritten within 90 days are billed for the remaining days, and objects under 4 KB are billed as 4 KB.
Workaround: Reserved Capacity Storage has a 30-day minimum duration; an unused account can be deleted with a pro-rated final charge.
- Free egress is a guideline
Egress is free while monthly downloads stay at or below active storage. If downloads go above that on a regular basis, Wasabi may limit or suspend the service, and no per-GB price for the extra is published.
Workaround: Ask sales before running a workload that downloads more than it stores each month.
- One storage class
Lifecycle rules can expire and delete versions but cannot move data to a colder class. Versions, bucket logs and locked copies are all billed as active storage.
Workaround: Set expiry rules for noncurrent versions to keep stored bytes in check.
- Some compliance items go through sales
The pages name the data centres’ SOC 2 reports, not a Wasabi report. The HIPAA BAA is arranged through sales and keeps ePHI in the US, and your own keys mean SSE-C only; the docs describe no key management service.
Workaround: The data centres’ SOC 2 reports and ISO certificates can be requested through a form in the docs.
Pricing reality
Pay as You Go bills active storage at $7.99 per TB a month in every region, measured daily and invoiced every 30 days by card; taxes are extra, and the FAQ counts 1 TB as 1,024 GB. Ingress, API requests and egress up to your active storage are included, as is Basic support (email and tickets). Our scenario (1 TB stored, 1 TB downloaded, 1 million writes, 10 million reads) is $7.99 a month, computed: 1,000 GB is under the 1 TB minimum, so the minimum charge applies, and the downloads equal the stored volume. The bill rises above the list rate with short-lived data (90-day minimum), objects under 4 KB, less than 1 TB stored, and versions or logs, which count as storage. Premium Support starts at $100 a month, and Reserved Capacity from 25 TB is priced by sales.
Exit path
Data leaves over the S3 API with any S3 tool or AWS SDK, free while a month’s downloads stay at or below active storage, so a full bucket can be downloaded once within a month. The Customer Agreement lets you export your content at any time during the term. The root user deletes the account in the console, which deletes all data at once with a pro-rated final charge; the agreement also mentions 30 days’ notice. Reserved Capacity terms are non-refundable.
Compared with
- Pick Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage when
- You want 16 regions to choose per bucket, or SSO with any SAML or OpenID provider on a self-serve account.
- Pick Backblaze B2 when
- You store under 1 TB, delete data within 90 days or download up to 3x what you store: B2 has no minimums at $6.95 per TB.
- 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.
- Pick Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage when
- Your data is read back often and you want one flat price: our 1 TB scenario is $7.99 here against $122 on S3.
- Pick Amazon S3 when
- You need storage classes with lifecycle transitions, a self-serve HIPAA BAA or a key management service.
Choose it if
- You store 1 TB or more of data that you keep for at least 90 days.
- Your monthly downloads stay at or below what you store, and you want no egress or request line on the bill.
- You need Object Lock retention that no user can reverse.
- You want the same price in whichever of 16 regions you choose.
Look elsewhere if
- You store well under 1 TB or keep objects for days rather than months.
- You regularly download more each month than you store.
- Your review requires the vendor’s own SOC 2 report or a key management service.
Bottom line
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.
Plan limits at a glance
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Standard storage price | $7.99/TB-month, same in all 16 regions (the FAQ counts 1 TB as 1,024 GB) |
| Egress to the internet | No fee while monthly downloads stay at or below active storage; no price above that |
| Request fees | None (API requests free under a fair-use policy) |
| Free option | No permanent free storage; 30-day trial of 100 GB with a company email, no card |
| Reference scenario (1 TB/mo) | $7.99, the 1 TB minimum charge, computed |
| Billing minimums | 1 TB a month ($7.99), 90-day storage duration, 4 KB per object |
| S3 API | S3-compatible main API (AWS SDKs work by changing the endpoint) |
| Versioning and object lock | Versioning; compliance-mode Object Lock |
| Replication | Between regions on the same continent; paid accounts only |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Data centres' SOC 2 only; Wasabi's own ISO 27001:2022 |
| HIPAA BAA | Through the sales team |
| Regions | 16, including 4 in the EU and 2 in the UK |
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 Wasabi Hot 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 Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage yet.
Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage lists 3 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Pay as You Go, costs $7.99/TB-mo.
- Wasabi Hot Cloud StorageTrialFree trial$0/mo100 GB for 30 days with a company email, or 10 GB for 14 days with a freemail address; no card, no auto-charge at the end
- Public access and object replication are off during the trial
- Downloads limited to 3x the data stored
- Account and data deleted if the trial ends without a purchase
- Wasabi Hot Cloud StorageLowest pricePay 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)
- Wasabi Hot Cloud StorageReserved Capacity StorageContact salesFrom 25 TB, for 1, 3 or 5 years paid up front; discounts off $7.99 by term and capacity
- No egress or API fees
- 30-day minimum storage duration
- Premium support included
- Non-refundable and non-cancellable
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: wasabi.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.