AWS S3 vs Cloudflare R2
AWS S3 is the original and most widely used object storage service with an enormous ecosystem of compatible tools and services. Cloudflare R2 is S3-compatible storage with a game-changing zero-egress pricing model, making it dramatically cheaper for workloads with high data read/download requirements. R2 is S3's most serious pricing challenger.
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Object storage for the internet vs Zero-egress object storage.
| Feature | AWS S3 | Cloudflare R2 |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing from | $0.023/GB/mo | $0.015/GB/mo |
| Storage pricing | $0.023/GB/mo (first 50 TB) | $0.015/GB/mo |
| Egress pricing | $0.09/GB (internet egress) | $0 egress to internet |
| Best for | Mature ecosystem, compliance, and enterprise integration | High-download workloads like media, backups, SaaS |
| S3 compatibility | Original S3 API | S3-compatible API |
| CDN | CloudFront (separate pricing) | Cloudflare CDN included free |
| Free tier | 5 GB free for 12 months (new accounts) | 10 GB free forever, 1M operations/mo |
The third option most teams miss
Picking between AWS S3 and Cloudflare R2 isn't the only choice.
Appaca automatically selects R2 or S3 for each asset type based on access patterns-storing hot media assets on R2 for zero-egress serving and archival data on S3 for maximum compliance coverage. Cut your storage bill without changing your application code.
- No code, no deployment, no devops
- Built-in database, dashboards, team access
- Refine with chat as your needs change
- Free to start, no per-seat pricing surprises
Common questions
R2 offers 99.999999999% (11 nines) durability like S3. Cloudflare's SLA and global infrastructure are enterprise-grade. For most workloads, R2 reliability is comparable to S3.
Yes, R2's S3-compatible API means most S3 SDKs and tools work with R2 by changing the endpoint URL. Cloudflare's Super Slurper tool automates bulk migration from S3 to R2.
Choose S3 for deep AWS ecosystem integration (Lambda triggers, Athena queries, Glue ETL), US government compliance requirements (GovCloud), or when your data already lives within AWS to avoid inter-cloud egress costs.