Amazon S3 vs Cloudflare R2

Updated November 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Amazon S3

AWS's object storage service, with many storage classes from hot data to deep archive.

Free plan + paid

Visit Amazon S3 Amazon S3 profile

Cloudflare R2

Cloudflare's S3-compatible object storage with no egress fees and a monthly free tier.

Free plan + paid

Visit Cloudflare R2 Cloudflare R2 profile

The short answer

Amazon S3 suits teams already on AWS or needing archive tiers, lifecycle rules and deep integration with other AWS services. Cloudflare R2 suits developers serving files to the internet, especially on Cloudflare Workers, because it charges nothing for egress. The biggest difference is pricing shape: S3 bills for storage, requests and data transferred out, while R2 bills for storage and operations only.

Amazon S3 or Cloudflare R2: our take

Both are object storage services, and R2 speaks the S3 API, so most S3 tools and SDKs work with it after changing the endpoint. The split is in pricing and breadth. S3 charges per gigabyte stored, per request and per gigabyte transferred out, so bills depend heavily on how often data is read from outside AWS. R2 has no egress fees on any storage class; you pay for stored data, with Standard storage at $0.015 per GB-month, and for two classes of operations. Its writes cost more per million than on some rivals, so write-heavy workloads should be priced out.

S3 has far more storage classes: Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Infrequent Access, Express One Zone and the Glacier classes, with Glacier Deep Archive from $0.00099 per GB a month. Intelligent-Tiering moves objects between tiers automatically. Add lifecycle rules, versioning, cross-region replication, fine-grained access policies and event notifications into nearly every AWS analytics and AI service, and S3 is the stronger fit for long-term archives and data pipelines. It is designed for 11 nines of durability. R2 offers Standard and a cheaper Infrequent Access class, which has retrieval fees and no free tier.

For getting started, R2's free tier covers 10 GB of Standard storage plus a set number of reads and writes each month. AWS offers new customers up to $200 in credits. R2 also has a native Workers API, so serverless code on Cloudflare can read and write buckets without managing keys, and built-in tools to migrate data from other S3-style providers in bulk or as objects are requested.

Choose S3 if your workloads live on AWS, you need cold archive storage, or you rely on its data management features. Choose R2 if you mainly serve images, downloads or datasets to the public web, where egress would dominate an S3 bill, or if you build on Cloudflare Workers. Some teams keep archives in S3 and put publicly served files in R2.

Choose Amazon S3 if…

Teams building on AWS that need archive tiers, lifecycle rules and deep service integrations
Many storage classes, including automatic tiering and Glacier archives
Integrates with nearly every AWS service

Choose Cloudflare R2 if…

Developers serving files to the web who want to avoid egress fees, especially on Cloudflare Workers
No egress charges for any storage class
Free tier of 10 GB storage and millions of operations a month

What is Amazon S3?

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is the object storage service from Amazon Web Services and the one whose API most other providers copy. You store files as objects in buckets and access them over the S3 API, SDKs, the AWS console or command line. S3 offers a range of storage classes, from Standard for frequently used data through Intelligent-Tiering, which moves objects between tiers automatically, to Glacier classes for cheap long-term archives. Around storage it adds lifecycle rules, versioning, replication across regions, fine-grained access policies, event notifications to serverless functions and integration with nearly every AWS analytics and AI service. Pricing is pay-as-you-go per gigabyte stored, per request and per gigabyte transferred out, so bills depend heavily on access patterns, and a free tier is available to new AWS accounts. It runs in AWS regions worldwide. It suits teams already on AWS or needing its archive tiers and ecosystem.

What is Cloudflare R2?

Cloudflare R2 is an object storage service on Cloudflare's developer platform. It exposes an S3-compatible API, so existing S3 tools and SDKs work after switching the endpoint, and it also has a native API for Cloudflare Workers, which lets serverless code read and write buckets without managing keys. The main draw is that R2 charges nothing for egress, so serving files, images or datasets to the internet doesn't add bandwidth bills. You pay for stored data and for two classes of operations, with a Standard class and a cheaper Infrequent Access class that adds retrieval fees. A free tier covers 10 GB of Standard storage plus a set number of reads and writes each month. Migration tools can copy data from other S3-style providers, either in bulk or gradually as objects are requested. It runs entirely in Cloudflare's network and is managed from the dashboard, API or CLI. It suits developers serving public assets or building apps on Cloudflare.

Side by side

Attribute	Amazon S3	Cloudflare R2
Pricing	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web	Web
Best for	Teams building on AWS that need archive tiers, lifecycle rules and deep service integrations	Developers serving files to the web who want to avoid egress fees, especially on Cloudflare Workers
Status	Active	Active

Verified facts, compared

Facts both apps publish, checked on each vendor's own site.

Fact	Amazon S3	Cloudflare R2
Free Tier	Up to $200 in credits for new AWS customers	10 GB storage per month