The per-GB rate is a trap. The real bill is dominated by egress the fee to download your data, which AWS S3 charges at about $90 per TB and Cloudflare R2, Wasabi and iDrive e2 charge at zero. Set how much you store and download per month to rank S3-compatible providers by true cost.
Indicative published USD list prices for standard/hot tiers. Request fees not modelled; confirm on the provider before committing.
Object storage is sold on the per-GB rate, but the real bill is dominated by egress, the fee to download your data. Storing 1TB and serving 1TB a month, AWS S3 Standard costs about $113, while the cheapest S3-compatible option, Tebi, costs about $3. AWS, Google and Azure charge 8-12¢ per GB egress (roughly $80-120 per TB); Cloudflare R2, Wasabi and iDrive e2 charge zero.
Method: published storage rate × 1TB stored + egress rate × 1TB downloaded per month; per-request fees excluded. Cite this: "usefulHQ Object Storage Cost Study 2026", usefulhq.com/object-storage/. Figures update as prices are reviewed.
| Real $/mo ▲ | Provider | Storage $/GB | Egress $/GB | Free tier | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3Cheapest | TebiFree egress | $0.003 | Free | 25GB | Very cheap, free egress | Visit |
| $4 | iDrive e2Free egress | $0.004 | Free | 10GB | Cheapest with free egress | Visit |
| $5.9 | FilebaseFree egress | $0.006 | Free | 5GB | S3 gateway to decentralized storage | Visit |
| $6 | Telnyx StorageFree egress | $0.006 | Free | 5GB | Zero egress, S3-compatible | Visit |
| $6.7 | UpCloud ObjectFree egress | $0.007 | Free | – | EU; flat, no egress fee | Visit |
| $6.9 | WasabiFree egress | $0.007 | Free | – | No egress; 1TB + 90-day minimums | Visit |
| $7 | Hetzner Object | $0.006 | $0.001 | – | EU; very cheap, 1TB incl | Visit |
| $7 | Seagate LyveFree egress | $0.007 | Free | – | No egress or API fees, predictable | Visit |
| $7.5 | Contabo ObjectFree egress | $0.007 | Free | – | Very cheap flat rate, no egress | Visit |
| $11 | Storj | $0.004 | $0.007 | 25GB | Decentralized, low egress | Visit |
| $15 | Cloudflare R2Free egress | $0.015 | Free | 10GB | Zero egress fees, ever | Visit |
| $16 | Backblaze B2 | $0.006 | $0.010 | 10GB | Cheapest storage; free egress to 3x/day | Visit |
| $17 | GleSYSFree egress | $0.017 | Free | – | EU, no egress fee | Visit |
| $20 | TigrisFree egress | $0.020 | Free | 5GB | Globally distributed, zero egress | Visit |
| $20 | Bunny Storage | $0.010 | $0.010 | – | Edge storage + cheap CDN egress | Visit |
| $23 | OVH Object | $0.012 | $0.011 | – | EU; S3 + Swift | Visit |
| $25 | Linode Object | $0.020 | $0.005 | – | $5 base incl 250GB + 1TB | Visit |
| $26 | Oracle ObjectFree egress | $0.025 | Free | 20GB | 10 TB/mo egress free | Visit |
| $28 | Vultr Object | $0.018 | $0.010 | – | $6 base incl 1TB storage + transfer | Visit |
| $30 | DigitalOcean Spaces | $0.020 | $0.010 | – | $5 base incl 250GB + 1TB transfer | Visit |
| $35 | Scaleway Object | $0.015 | $0.020 | 75GB | EU; 75GB free | Visit |
| $40 | Exoscale SOS | $0.020 | $0.020 | – | Swiss/EU S3-compatible | Visit |
| $40 | Cloudian HyperStore | $0.020 | $0.020 | – | On-prem/hybrid S3 platform | Visit |
| $92 | Alibaba OSS | $0.018 | $0.074 | 5GB | Asia-Pacific; large network | Visit |
| $97 | Azure Blob (Cool) | $0.010 | $0.087 | 5GB | Cheaper storage, access fees | Visit |
| $102 | AWS S3 Infrequent Access | $0.013 | $0.090 | 5GB | Cheaper storage, retrieval fee | Visit |
| $105 | Azure Blob (Hot) | $0.018 | $0.087 | 5GB | Microsoft ecosystem | Visit |
| $113 | AWS S3 Standard | $0.023 | $0.090 | 5GB | Industry standard; steep egress | Visit |
| $113 | IBM Cloud Object | $0.023 | $0.090 | – | Enterprise; regional/cross-region | Visit |
| $140 | Google Cloud Storage | $0.020 | $0.120 | 5GB | Highest egress of the big three | Visit |
Egress is the fee to download data out of the provider, the biggest hidden object-storage cost. AWS/Google/Azure charge ~8-12¢/GB (≈$80-120 per TB/month), while R2, Wasabi and iDrive e2 charge $0. Serving a lot of data makes zero-egress providers far cheaper. Set your monthly download above to see it.
For storage alone, iDrive e2, Storj and Backblaze B2 (~½¢/GB or less). But if you download a lot, zero-egress R2/Wasabi/iDrive e2 usually win overall. Rank by your real workload above, not the headline rate.
Mostly yes, same API, just change the endpoint and keys. R2, B2, Wasabi, DO Spaces and others are S3-compatible. A few niche S3 features vary, so check the provider's list, but standard operations just work.
Wasabi: 1TB and 90-day minimums. B2: free egress up to 3× stored/day. DO/Linode/Vultr bundle a base allowance into a flat fee. Per-request fees apply on all and aren't modelled here.