Cloudflare R2 vs Google Cloud Storage
Cloudflare R2 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 | Cloudflare R2 | Google Cloud Storage | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.015/GB-mo | $0.020/GB-mo | 1.3× Cloudflare R2 |
| Data transfer out | Free | $0.120/GB | — |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Cloudflare pricing (May 2026) · Google 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 | Cloudflare R2 | Google Cloud Storage | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $0.30 | $12 | Cloudflare R2saves $12/mo (98%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $7.50 | $130 | Cloudflare R2saves $123/mo (94%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $30 | $1,240 | Cloudflare R2saves $1,210/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
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
Google Cloud Storage
by Google
Google's object store, priced slightly under S3 on storage and above it on egress. Worth using when the compute reading the data already sits in the same region.
Free tier: 5 GB-month always free in US regions
Common questions
- Is Cloudflare R2 or Google Cloud Storage cheaper in 2026?
- Cloudflare R2 is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- What is the difference in egress cost between Cloudflare R2 and Google Cloud Storage?
- Cloudflare R2 does not charge for data transfer out at all, while Google Cloud Storage charges $0.120 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.
- Which has the better free tier, Cloudflare R2 or Google Cloud Storage?
- Both publish one. Cloudflare R2: 10 GB-month of storage, plus zero egress fees at any volume. Google Cloud Storage: 5 GB-month always free in US regions.
- 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.