Is AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 cheaper in 2026?

Cloudflare R2 is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.

What is the difference in egress cost between AWS S3 and Cloudflare R2?

Cloudflare R2 does not charge for data transfer out at all, while AWS S3 charges $0.090 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.

Which has the better free tier, AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2?

Both publish one. AWS S3: 5 GB of standard storage for 12 months. Cloudflare R2: 10 GB-month of storage, plus zero egress fees at any volume.

What do these estimates not include?

Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.

AWS S3 vs Cloudflare R2

Cloudflare R2 is cheaper across every workload modelled here.

List prices checked May 2026

Rate cards side by side

Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.

Billing axis	AWS S3	Cloudflare R2	Difference
Storage	$0.023/GB-mo	$0.015/GB-mo	1.5× Cloudflare R2
Data transfer out	$0.090/GB	Free	—
Free tier	Yes	Yes	—

Source: Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026) · Cloudflare pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.

Monthly cost for three real workloads

The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.

Workload	AWS S3	Cloudflare R2	Cheaper
Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process.	$9.46	$0.30	Cloudflare R2saves $9.16/mo (97%)
Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers.	$102	$7.50	Cloudflare R2saves $94/mo (93%)
Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought.	$946	$30	Cloudflare R2saves $916/mo (97%)

Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.

What each one is for

AWS S3

by Amazon Web Services

The reference implementation every competitor is compatible with. Storage is mid-priced and egress is the most expensive in the category, which is the entire reason the S3-compatible market exists.

Free tier: 5 GB of standard storage for 12 months

Cloudflare R2

by Cloudflare

S3-compatible storage with no egress charge at all, at any volume, permanently. For read-heavy workloads it is not marginally cheaper than S3 but cheaper by an order of magnitude.

Free tier: 10 GB-month of storage, plus zero egress fees at any volume

Common questions

Is AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 cheaper in 2026?: Cloudflare R2 is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
What is the difference in egress cost between AWS S3 and Cloudflare R2?: Cloudflare R2 does not charge for data transfer out at all, while AWS S3 charges $0.090 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.
Which has the better free tier, AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2?: Both publish one. AWS S3: 5 GB of standard storage for 12 months. Cloudflare R2: 10 GB-month of storage, plus zero egress fees at any volume.
What do these estimates not include?: Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.