S3 egress vs Cloudflare R2

Object storage list prices look similar until you add the download path. Compare S3 Standard in us-east-1 with R2 Standard on the object-storage calculator, including the 10 GB R2 grant. The decision usually flips on internet egress and on Class A/B operations, not on the storage line alone.

Download-heavy worked example

Hold 500 GB stored, 50,000 writes, 5,000,000 reads, and 5 TB internet download. Free tiers on. Using SightLab’s published storage and egress catalogs:

• S3 Standard us-east-1: enter 500 GB stored, a modest write/read mix, and 5 TB internet on the object-storage calculator to see storage, requests, and egress as separate lines.
• R2 Standard: the same inputs on the calculator apply the storage grant and documented zero internet egress. Writes and reads may sit inside the included Class A/B grants.

When the gap shrinks

If almost no bytes leave the bucket (backups that are written once and rarely restored), both bills collapse to storage plus a little request cost, and S3’s ecosystem (lifecycle, replication, inventory, IAM) can dominate the choice. If the workload is millions of tiny PUTs, compare Class A against S3 PUT on the calculator — do not assume R2 wins on requests. Always run your own write/read mix.

Assumptions to keep visible

No Intelligent-Tiering, no Glacier restore, no CloudFront. Decimal GB. On-demand list prices, not an invoice. Re-run from the object storage calculator with provider AWS versus Cloudflare and the same stored GB and egress GB.