AWS S3 vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage
Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage is cheaper across every workload modelled here.
List prices checked
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 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.023/GB-mo | $0.0080/GB-mo | 2.9× Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage |
| Data transfer out | $0.090/GB | Free | — |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026) · Wasabi pricing (August 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 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $9.46 | $0.16 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storagesaves $9.30/mo (98%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $102 | $4.00 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storagesaves $98/mo (96%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $946 | $16 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storagesaves $930/mo (98%) |
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
Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage
by Wasabi
Flat per-terabyte pricing at $7.99/TB with no egress or request fees, subject to a fair-use policy that egress should not exceed stored volume and a 90-day minimum retention per object.
Free tier: 30-day trial; no egress or API request charges
Common questions
- Is AWS S3 or Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage cheaper in 2026?
- Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- What is the difference in egress cost between AWS S3 and Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage?
- Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage 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 Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage?
- Both publish one. AWS S3: 5 GB of standard storage for 12 months. Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage: 30-day trial; no egress or API request charges.
- 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.