# Azure Blob Storage vs Wasabi

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/azure-blob-vs-wasabi/

Every value below is read from Azure Blob Storage's and Wasabi's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Azure Blob Storage | Wasabi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Egress over allowance | First 100 GB a month free, then $0.087 per GB over Microsoft's global network, falling to $0.083 above ~10 TB, $0.07 above ~50 TB and $0.05 above ~150 TB. Routing over the public internet instead is $0.08 at the first tier. This is Azure-wide bandwidth rather than a Blob-specific charge. | None. Wasabi charges for capacity only, with no egress or API request fees. |
| Storage (entry plan) | None. Azure Blob has no plans and no free storage band: the Hot LRS storage meter's cheapest tier begins at tierMinimumUnits 0 and charges $0.0208 per GB-month from the first gigabyte, with volume tiers only above 50 TB. Azure's free account offer sits outside the rate card and is time-limited, so it is not an allowance this criterion can record. | None. Wasabi includes no free storage at any price. Pay-as-you-go carries a minimum monthly charge equal to 1 TB of active storage, so an account storing less than 1 TB is billed for 1 TB — a floor on the bill, not an allowance. Wasabi Cloud NAS has a 10 TB monthly minimum. |
| Storage price | $0.0208 per GB-month for Hot LRS in East US, falling to $0.019968 above 50 TB and $0.019136 above 500 TB. Azure prices vary by region and redundancy; this and every Azure figure on the site is East US, locally redundant. | $7.99 per TB per month, flat, with no separate charge for egress or API requests |
| Operations price | $0.05 per 10,000 write operations and $0.004 per 10,000 reads on Hot LRS — $5.00 and $0.40 per million. Listing and creating containers is $0.05 per 10,000; all other operations $0.004. | None. API requests are not charged separately. |
| Minimum storage duration | None on Hot. Cool carries a 30-day minimum, Cold 90 days and Archive 180 days — the longest early-deletion window of any provider here, and three times S3's 90-day Glacier figure. | 90 days on pay-as-you-go. Deleting an object sooner incurs a Timed Deleted Storage charge equal to the storage charge for the remaining days. Objects under 4 KB are billed as 4 KB. |

## Where they differ

### Egress over allowance

- Azure Blob Storage: First 100 GB a month free, then $0.087 per GB over Microsoft's global network, falling to $0.083 above ~10 TB, $0.07 above ~50 TB and $0.05 above ~150 TB. Routing over the public internet instead is $0.08 at the first tier. This is Azure-wide bandwidth rather than a Blob-specific charge. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Wasabi: None. Wasabi charges for capacity only, with no egress or API request fees. ([source](https://wasabi.com/pricing))

### Storage (entry plan)

- Azure Blob Storage: None. Azure Blob has no plans and no free storage band: the Hot LRS storage meter's cheapest tier begins at tierMinimumUnits 0 and charges $0.0208 per GB-month from the first gigabyte, with volume tiers only above 50 TB. Azure's free account offer sits outside the rate card and is time-limited, so it is not an allowance this criterion can record. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Wasabi: None. Wasabi includes no free storage at any price. Pay-as-you-go carries a minimum monthly charge equal to 1 TB of active storage, so an account storing less than 1 TB is billed for 1 TB — a floor on the bill, not an allowance. Wasabi Cloud NAS has a 10 TB monthly minimum. ([source](https://wasabi.com/pricing/faq))

### Storage price

- Azure Blob Storage: $0.0208 per GB-month for Hot LRS in East US, falling to $0.019968 above 50 TB and $0.019136 above 500 TB. Azure prices vary by region and redundancy; this and every Azure figure on the site is East US, locally redundant. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Wasabi: $7.99 per TB per month, flat, with no separate charge for egress or API requests ([source](https://wasabi.com/pricing))

### Operations price

- Azure Blob Storage: $0.05 per 10,000 write operations and $0.004 per 10,000 reads on Hot LRS — $5.00 and $0.40 per million. Listing and creating containers is $0.05 per 10,000; all other operations $0.004. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Wasabi: None. API requests are not charged separately. ([source](https://wasabi.com/pricing))

### Minimum storage duration

- Azure Blob Storage: None on Hot. Cool carries a 30-day minimum, Cold 90 days and Archive 180 days — the longest early-deletion window of any provider here, and three times S3's 90-day Glacier figure. ([source](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/access-tiers-overview))
- Wasabi: 90 days on pay-as-you-go. Deleting an object sooner incurs a Timed Deleted Storage charge equal to the storage charge for the remaining days. Objects under 4 KB are billed as 4 KB. ([source](https://wasabi.com/pricing/faq))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Azure Blob Storage if Workloads already on Azure, where keeping storage in the same region as the compute avoids the bandwidth charge that dominates an object storage bill.

Pick Wasabi if Anyone who wants one number. Capacity is the only charge — no egress fees, no API request fees — which makes the bill predictable in a way nothing else in this category manages.

Consider something else: Azure Blob Storage — Egress is charged beyond the first 100 GB a month, where R2, Wasabi and Tigris charge nothing — and Azure's rates vary by region and redundancy, so a quoted figure only holds for the combination it was read for.

Consider something else: Wasabi — The flat rate is $7.99 per terabyte whether you store a gigabyte or a terabyte of it, so small buckets pay for capacity they are not using. Check Wasabi's own terms for minimum storage duration before storing anything short-lived.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Wasabi: No
- Pricing model: Azure Blob Storage: Per region, per redundancy and per access tier, with storage, operations and bandwidth metered separately. Rates are published in Azure's public Retail Prices API rather than only on a pricing page, so a figure can be re-verified exactly rather than re-read.
- Regions: Wasabi: 22 storage regions across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, addressed as S3 service URLs
- S3-compatible API: Wasabi: Supported

## Questions this comparison answers

**Egress over allowance: Azure Blob Storage or Wasabi?**

Azure Blob Storage: First 100 GB a month free, then $0.087 per GB over Microsoft's global network, falling to $0.083 above ~10 TB, $0.07 above ~50 TB and $0.05 above ~150 TB. Routing over the public internet instead is $0.08 at the first tier. This is Azure-wide bandwidth rather than a Blob-specific charge.
Wasabi: None. Wasabi charges for capacity only, with no egress or API request fees.

**Storage (entry plan): Azure Blob Storage or Wasabi?**

Azure Blob Storage: None. Azure Blob has no plans and no free storage band: the Hot LRS storage meter's cheapest tier begins at tierMinimumUnits 0 and charges $0.0208 per GB-month from the first gigabyte, with volume tiers only above 50 TB. Azure's free account offer sits outside the rate card and is time-limited, so it is not an allowance this criterion can record.
Wasabi: None. Wasabi includes no free storage at any price. Pay-as-you-go carries a minimum monthly charge equal to 1 TB of active storage, so an account storing less than 1 TB is billed for 1 TB — a floor on the bill, not an allowance. Wasabi Cloud NAS has a 10 TB monthly minimum.

**Should I choose Azure Blob Storage or Wasabi?**

Pick Azure Blob Storage if Workloads already on Azure, where keeping storage in the same region as the compute avoids the bandwidth charge that dominates an object storage bill.
Pick Wasabi if Anyone who wants one number. Capacity is the only charge — no egress fees, no API request fees — which makes the bill predictable in a way nothing else in this category manages.