{"slug":"best-object-storage-for-egress-heavy-workloads","title":"Best object storage for egress-heavy workloads","question":"What are the best object storage services for egress-heavy workloads in 2026?","verdict":"As of 2026-09-09, Claude, Gemini and Grok collectively rank Cloudflare R2 #1 for object storage for egress-heavy workloads on ModelsAgree — unanimous among the 3 models that have answered. The models' case: Zero egress fees is its entire thesis and the single most decisive factor for egress-heavy workloads. The models' main caveat: Storage-per-GB and Class A/B operation costs are middling and it is Cloudflare-ecosystem-gravitational. The strongest alternative is Backblaze B2 — Free egress up to 3x your average monthly storage, and truly unlimited free egress through the Cloudflare/Fastly Bandwidth Alliance partnerships, plus. Source: https://modelsagree.com/best/best-object-storage-for-egress-heavy-workloads (modelsagree.com, CC BY 4.0).","category":"Storage","url":"https://modelsagree.com/best/best-object-storage-for-egress-heavy-workloads","updated":"2026-09-09","models":["Claude","Gemini","Grok"],"consensus":"All 3 models rank Cloudflare R2 the top pick","disagreement":null,"combined":[{"rank":1,"product":"Cloudflare R2","domain":"cloudflare.com","score":15,"appearances":3,"modelRanks":{"Claude":1,"Gemini":1,"Grok":1},"reason":"Zero egress fees is its entire thesis and the single most decisive factor for egress-heavy workloads; S3-compatible API, deep integration with Cloudflare's global CDN and Workers so bytes leave from edge PoPs at no bandwidth charge, and pricing is purely storage + operations. For anyone serving large or unpredictable read traffic (media, downloads, AI datasets, static assets), it is almost unbeatable on total cost."},{"rank":2,"product":"Backblaze B2","domain":"backblaze.com","score":12,"appearances":3,"modelRanks":{"Claude":2,"Gemini":2,"Grok":2},"reason":"Free egress up to 3x your average monthly storage, and truly unlimited free egress through the Cloudflare/Fastly Bandwidth Alliance partnerships, plus among the lowest storage prices in the market; simple, S3-compatible, and battle-tested for backup and media serving. Excellent value when paired with a CDN."},{"rank":3,"product":"Wasabi","domain":"wasabi.com","score":9,"appearances":3,"modelRanks":{"Claude":3,"Gemini":3,"Grok":3},"reason":"Flat per-GB storage with no egress and no API-request fees under its policy, making costs trivially predictable for high-download workloads; S3-compatible and simple to reason about at scale."},{"rank":4,"product":"Hetzner Object Storage","domain":null,"score":3,"appearances":2,"modelRanks":{"Claude":5,"Grok":4},"reason":"EU-native S3-compatible store with a low base that already includes 1 TB storage + 1 TB egress, then only ~€1/$1.20 per extra TB out—among the cheapest all-in numbers for European or cost-sensitive high-volume serving without a $0-marketing asterisk."},{"rank":5,"product":"Bunny.net","domain":"bunny.net","score":2,"appearances":1,"modelRanks":{"Claude":4},"reason":"Purpose-built for egress-heavy media/content delivery: geo-replicated edge storage tightly fused to a very cheap, fast global CDN, with bandwidth priced far below hyperscalers. For video, images, game assets, and software distribution, its delivery cost-per-GB and edge latency are its whole reason to exist."},{"rank":6,"product":"Tigris","domain":"tigrisdata.com","score":2,"appearances":1,"modelRanks":{"Gemini":4},"reason":"Provides a globally distributed, active-active S3-compatible architecture with zero egress fees, serving cached and stored objects from edge locations close to users with minimal configuration."},{"rank":7,"product":"MinIO","domain":"min.io","score":1,"appearances":1,"modelRanks":{"Gemini":5},"reason":"Delivers the absolute lowest marginal cost and highest raw throughput for multi-petabyte egress when deployed on fixed-bandwidth flat-rate providers (such as Hetzner or OVHcloud), bypassing per-gigabyte cloud transfer models entirely."},{"rank":8,"product":"OVHcloud Object Storage","domain":null,"score":1,"appearances":1,"modelRanks":{"Grok":5},"reason":"True $0 public egress (most regions as of 2026) at ~$7.55/TB storage, S3-compatible classes, EU data-sovereignty story, and no API/egress line items for standard serving—solid European alternative when R2/B2 residency or US CLOUD Act exposure is a problem."}],"perModel":{"Claude":[{"rank":1,"product":"Cloudflare R2","reason":"Zero egress fees is its entire thesis and the single most decisive factor for egress-heavy workloads; S3-compatible API, deep integration with Cloudflare's global CDN and Workers so bytes leave from edge PoPs at no bandwidth charge, and pricing is purely storage + operations. For anyone serving large or unpredictable read traffic (media, downloads, AI datasets, static assets), it is almost unbeatable on total cost.","fix":"Storage-per-GB and Class A/B operation costs are middling and it is Cloudflare-ecosystem-gravitational; not ideal for write-heavy or operation-heavy workloads, and multi-region/compliance controls are thinner than the hyperscalers."},{"rank":2,"product":"Backblaze B2","reason":"Free egress up to 3x your average monthly storage, and truly unlimited free egress through the Cloudflare/Fastly Bandwidth Alliance partnerships, plus among the lowest storage prices in the market; simple, S3-compatible, and battle-tested for backup and media serving. Excellent value when paired with a CDN.","fix":"Egress beyond the 3x cap is billed, and raw performance/consistency and enterprise features (fine-grained IAM, global multi-region) lag the majors — best as a CDN origin, not a low-latency primary store."},{"rank":3,"product":"Wasabi","reason":"Flat per-GB storage with no egress and no API-request fees under its policy, making costs trivially predictable for high-download workloads; S3-compatible and simple to reason about at scale.","fix":"The \"no egress\" is a fair-use policy capped at your stored volume — download more than you store and you can be throttled or asked to upgrade; also a 90-day minimum storage charge and 1TB minimum, punishing for churny or small-object datasets."},{"rank":4,"product":"Bunny.net","reason":"Purpose-built for egress-heavy media/content delivery: geo-replicated edge storage tightly fused to a very cheap, fast global CDN, with bandwidth priced far below hyperscalers. For video, images, game assets, and software distribution, its delivery cost-per-GB and edge latency are its whole reason to exist.","fix":"It's a content-delivery platform, not a general-purpose S3 backend — weaker for arbitrary application object storage, analytics data lakes, or strict S3-API dependence."},{"rank":5,"product":"Hetzner Object Storage","reason":"S3-compatible object storage bundled with Hetzner's famously cheap, generous bandwidth; extremely strong raw value for European-hosted, egress-heavy workloads where you want predictable low bills without CDN gymnastics.","fix":"Region footprint is limited (EU-centric), the product is younger and less feature-rich than R2/B2, and there's no built-in global edge — latency for distant users needs your own CDN in front."}],"Gemini":[{"rank":1,"product":"Cloudflare R2","reason":"Completely eliminates egress fees unconditionally, offers standard S3 API compatibility, and integrates natively with Cloudflare's global edge network for automatic CDN caching without cross-cloud transit hops.","fix":"High-frequency metadata and write operations incur relatively expensive Class A/B request fees, and it lacks mature cold-tier storage options."},{"rank":2,"product":"Backblaze B2","reason":"Pairs rock-bottom base storage pricing with zero egress fees when routed through Bandwidth Alliance CDN partners (such as Cloudflare or Fastly), plus a generous free direct egress allowance of up to three times stored data volume.","fix":"Direct public egress beyond the 3x allowance incurs per-GB costs, and centralized datacenter locations necessitate a third-party CDN to achieve global low latency."},{"rank":3,"product":"Wasabi","reason":"Offers zero egress fees and zero API request charges under a simple flat storage rate, providing total cost predictability for sustained read-heavy access patterns.","fix":"Bound by a strict fair-use policy where monthly egress cannot exceed total stored data volume, alongside a 90-day minimum retention billing policy that penalizes ephemeral objects."},{"rank":4,"product":"Tigris","reason":"Provides a globally distributed, active-active S3-compatible architecture with zero egress fees, serving cached and stored objects from edge locations close to users with minimal configuration.","fix":"Higher baseline storage cost per GB than dedicated budget providers and a shorter production track record for massive multi-petabyte datasets."},{"rank":5,"product":"MinIO","reason":"Delivers the absolute lowest marginal cost and highest raw throughput for multi-petabyte egress when deployed on fixed-bandwidth flat-rate providers (such as Hetzner or OVHcloud), bypassing per-gigabyte cloud transfer models entirely.","fix":"Demands substantial operational overhead for cluster maintenance and hardware failure remediation, while its AGPLv3 license complicates proprietary commercial distribution."}],"Grok":[{"rank":1,"product":"Cloudflare R2","reason":"Unconditional $0 internet egress at any volume with no fair-use cap, S3-compatible API, and native placement on Cloudflare’s global edge (Workers + CDN) so public serving, media, and multi-cloud reads stay cheapest once traffic exceeds storage; $15/TB storage plus modest Class A/B ops is the right trade for this workload class. Assumption: the typical user is serving to the internet or other clouds, not staying inside one hyperscaler.","fix":"Higher raw storage than B2/Wasabi and per-request fees that add up on write-heavy or tiny-object patterns; not the pick if you only archive and almost never read."},{"rank":2,"product":"Backblaze B2","reason":"Lowest credible storage among mature S3-compatible services (~$6.95/TB) with free egress up to 3× stored volume and fully unmetered egress when fronted by Bandwidth Alliance partners (Cloudflare, Fastly, Bunny); for CDN-backed serving the all-in bill often undercuts R2 because storage is roughly half. Near-tie with R2 when a partner CDN is already in the path.","fix":"Only two regions and a hard 3× cap unless you add a partner CDN; thinner feature set and fewer compliance checkboxes than the hyperscalers."},{"rank":3,"product":"Wasabi","reason":"Flat ~$7.99/TB with $0 egress and $0 API fees under a simple 1:1 fair-use rule, no request nickel-and-diming, and straightforward S3 compatibility—predictable and cheap when monthly downloads stay near stored volume.","fix":"1 TB monthly floor plus 90-day minimum retention punish small or high-churn buckets; sustained egress well above stored capacity is explicitly out of policy."},{"rank":4,"product":"Hetzner Object Storage","reason":"EU-native S3-compatible store with a low base that already includes 1 TB storage + 1 TB egress, then only ~€1/$1.20 per extra TB out—among the cheapest all-in numbers for European or cost-sensitive high-volume serving without a $0-marketing asterisk.","fix":"Locations limited to DE/FI, per-account bucket/object caps, and unused included quota does not roll over; not global and not zero-egress at extreme ratios."},{"rank":5,"product":"OVHcloud Object Storage","reason":"True $0 public egress (most regions as of 2026) at ~$7.55/TB storage, S3-compatible classes, EU data-sovereignty story, and no API/egress line items for standard serving—solid European alternative when R2/B2 residency or US CLOUD Act exposure is a problem.","fix":"Weaker global edge and ecosystem than R2; APAC free-egress window is time-limited and Standard class is single-zone unless you pay for 3-AZ."}]},"missedByModel":{"Claude":[{"product":"Storj","reason":"decentralized, genuinely low egress and good durability, but its distributed model adds operational and performance unpredictability that keeps it off the top tier for typical practitioners"},{"product":"Amazon S3","reason":"unmatched durability, ecosystem, and features, but its high per-GB egress pricing is precisely the wrong fit for egress-heavy workloads — the category this question penalizes most"}],"Gemini":[{"product":"Storj","reason":"Offers low baseline storage and egress rates across a distributed network, but variable tail latency and decentralized node reliability keep it behind dedicated object stores for performance-sensitive egress"}],"Grok":[{"product":"IDrive e2","reason":"cheapest storage and 3× free egress but thinner public-serving track record and ecosystem"},{"product":"Filebase","reason":"free egress and strong claimed throughput at R2-like $15/TB but smaller vendor without Cloudflare’s network"}]}}