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Cloudflare R2 vs Backblaze B2

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Cloudflare R2 and Backblaze B2 built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 18 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Cloudflare R2 if…

Serving files to the public, where egress is the bill everyone underestimates. Nothing to pay for bandwidth out, on any storage class, so a busy bucket costs what it costs to store rather than what it costs to read.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Backblaze B2 if…

Bulk capacity where egress is predictable — free up to three times what you store each month, which covers most backup and archive patterns comfortably at $6.95 per terabyte.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Cloudflare R2: Operations are charged and rounded up to the whole million, so a workload of many tiny reads and writes pays here instead. The saving is on bandwidth, not on request volume.
  • Backblaze B2: Egress is only free to that 3x ceiling. A bucket read far more often than its size, like a public media library, is the shape this pricing is not built for.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Cloudflare R2 alternatives · Backblaze B2 alternatives

7 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Cloudflare R2 documentationVisit Backblaze B2 documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionCloudflare R2Backblaze B2
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerFree tierFree tier
What the free plan includes
10 GB-month of standard storage, 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations a month, and egress free with no cap. The allowance covers standard storage only, not infrequent access.
The first 10 GB of storage is always free, egress is free up to three times average monthly storage, and the first 2,500 Class D transactions each day are free.
Egress over allowanceFree. Cloudflare charges nothing for egress to the internet on any storage class; Infrequent Access adds a $0.01/GB retrieval fee instead.Free up to three times your stored capacity each month on the $6.95/TB tier; unlimited free egress on the $15/TB tier. Egress beyond the 3x allowance is chargeable.
Limits
Storage (entry plan)10 GB-month free each month, plus 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations10 GB free, permanently — 'First 10GB storage is always free.' The statement is a row-level note on Backblaze's pricing-model table, so it applies to B2 storage rather than to one plan, and it is an ongoing allowance rather than the 'Start Free' trial the page advertises separately.
Infrastructure
Uptime SLA
99.9% monthly uptime, in a dedicated R2 SLA that applies to use of R2 only and names no plan tier. The SLA settles its own precedence — "in the event of a conflict between the terms of this R2 SLA and ... other agreement governing Customer’s use of the Services, the terms of this R2 SLA apply" — so Cloudflare’s application-services plan table, which covers the website plans rather than the Developer Platform, does not qualify it. The remedy is a credit set as a percentage of the fees paid for that product in the preceding 30 days, so the commitment stands on a free account while the compensation for breaching it is worth nothing there.
Credits begin below 99.9% monthly user uptime. The SLA is per user account and covers B2 Cloud Storage and Computer Backup.
Storage
Storage price$0.015 per GB-month for Standard, $0.01 for Infrequent Access. Billed rounded up to the whole GB-month.$6.95 per TB per month on B2 Overdrive; $15 per TB per month on the unlimited-egress tier
Operations price$4.50 per million Class A operations (writes and listings) and $0.36 per million Class B (reads) on Standard; $9.00 and $0.90 on Infrequent Access. Rounded up to the whole million.Transactions are not charged on the $6.95/TB tier. Backblaze notes that its published chart uses U.S. West rates and that competitor rates vary by region and volume.
Minimum storage durationNone on Standard storage — billing averages peak storage per day, so an object deleted after five days is charged for five days. Infrequent Access carries a 30-day minimum, billed even if the object is deleted, moved or replaced sooner.None. Backblaze states no minimum file size or storage duration fee on B2 Cloud Storage, so an object deleted an hour after upload is billed only for that hour.
S3-compatible APISupportedSupported

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

Cloudflare R2

10 GB-month of standard storage, 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations a month, and egress free with no cap. The allowance covers standard storage only, not infrequent access.

Backblaze B2

The first 10 GB of storage is always free, egress is free up to three times average monthly storage, and the first 2,500 Class D transactions each day are free.

Sources (2) →

Egress over allowance

Cloudflare R2
Free. Cloudflare charges nothing for egress to the internet on any storage class; Infrequent Access adds a $0.01/GB retrieval fee instead.
Backblaze B2
Free up to three times your stored capacity each month on the $6.95/TB tier; unlimited free egress on the $15/TB tier. Egress beyond the 3x allowance is chargeable.
Sources (2) →

Storage (entry plan)

Cloudflare R2
10 GB-month free each month, plus 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations
Backblaze B2
10 GB free, permanently — 'First 10GB storage is always free.' The statement is a row-level note on Backblaze's pricing-model table, so it applies to B2 storage rather than to one plan, and it is an ongoing allowance rather than the 'Start Free' trial the page advertises separately.
Sources (2) →

Uptime SLA

Cloudflare R2

99.9% monthly uptime, in a dedicated R2 SLA that applies to use of R2 only and names no plan tier. The SLA settles its own precedence — "in the event of a conflict between the terms of this R2 SLA and ... other agreement governing Customer’s use of the Services, the terms of this R2 SLA apply" — so Cloudflare’s application-services plan table, which covers the website plans rather than the Developer Platform, does not qualify it. The remedy is a credit set as a percentage of the fees paid for that product in the preceding 30 days, so the commitment stands on a free account while the compensation for breaching it is worth nothing there.

Backblaze B2

Credits begin below 99.9% monthly user uptime. The SLA is per user account and covers B2 Cloud Storage and Computer Backup.

Sources (2) →
  • R2 Service Level Agreement — Cloudflare ↗

    “This R2 Service Level Agreement ("R2 SLA") applies to use of R2 only. In the event of a conflict between the terms of this R2 SLA and the terms of the Enterprise Customer Support and Service Level Agreement, Enterprise Subscription Terms of Service, or other agreement governing Customer’s use of the Services (the "Agreement"), the terms of this R2 SLA apply, but only to the extent of such conflict. [...] Cloudflare will provide a Monthly Uptime Percentage of 99.9% for Customer’s use of R2 ("Service Level Objective"). [...] a credit against future payments for Customer’s R2 usage based on the percentage of the fees paid by Customer for R2 usage in the thirty (30) days preceding submission of a valid Claim”

    Read 2026-09-21 · official site · Report a correction

  • Backblaze Service Level Agreement ↗

    “monthly user uptime percentage user credit percentage >= 99.9% 0%”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

Storage price

Cloudflare R2
$0.015 per GB-month for Standard, $0.01 for Infrequent Access. Billed rounded up to the whole GB-month.
Backblaze B2
$6.95 per TB per month on B2 Overdrive; $15 per TB per month on the unlimited-egress tier
Sources (2) →

Operations price

Cloudflare R2
$4.50 per million Class A operations (writes and listings) and $0.36 per million Class B (reads) on Standard; $9.00 and $0.90 on Infrequent Access. Rounded up to the whole million.
Backblaze B2
Transactions are not charged on the $6.95/TB tier. Backblaze notes that its published chart uses U.S. West rates and that competitor rates vary by region and volume.
Sources (2) →
  • R2 pricing — Cloudflare Docs ↗

    “Class A Operations $4.50 / million requests $9.00 / million requests Class B Operations $0.36 / million requests $0.90 / million requests [...] If you have performed one million and one operations, you will be billed for two million operations.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Cloud Storage Pricing — Backblaze ↗

    “Free transactions [...] This chart features published rates for the U.S. West region. Backblaze competitors' rates can vary by region, amount stored, and other factors.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Minimum storage duration

Cloudflare R2

None on Standard storage — billing averages peak storage per day, so an object deleted after five days is charged for five days. Infrequent Access carries a 30-day minimum, billed even if the object is deleted, moved or replaced sooner.

Backblaze B2

None. Backblaze states no minimum file size or storage duration fee on B2 Cloud Storage, so an object deleted an hour after upload is billed only for that hour.

Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Support on entry paid planBackblaze B2: Giga support with every subscription. Tera and Peta are paid add-ons bought per service.
Response time commitmentBackblaze B2: Target response for email support: one business day on Giga, the included plan; 4 business hours on Tera; 2 business hours on Peta. Email support runs 9am to 5pm Pacific.
SOC 2Backblaze B2: SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, audited by an independent third-party firm; the data centers Backblaze operates in are also SOC 2 compliant.Cloudflare R2: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Cloudflare R2.
ISO 27001Backblaze B2: Not a Backblaze organizational certification — Backblaze states it primarily operates in data centers that hold ISO 27001 certificates, a facility-level attestation rather than one covering Backblaze itself.Cloudflare R2: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Cloudflare R2.
HIPAABackblaze B2: A Business Associate Agreement is available on request for business customers who are Covered Entities under HIPAA.Cloudflare R2: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Cloudflare R2.
GDPR / data residencyBackblaze B2: Adheres to GDPR and UK GDPR privacy policies; Data Processing Agreement addendums are available for EEA/EU and UK residents.Cloudflare R2: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Cloudflare R2.
PCI DSSBackblaze B2: Card processing is handled through Stripe, which combined with Backblaze's internal security controls contributes to PCI-DSS adherence — not a direct PCI-DSS certification of Backblaze's own storage platform.Cloudflare R2: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Cloudflare R2.
Encryption at restCloudflare R2: All objects and metadata encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM automatically, no configuration required.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Egress over allowance: Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2?

Cloudflare R2: Free. Cloudflare charges nothing for egress to the internet on any storage class; Infrequent Access adds a $0.01/GB retrieval fee instead.

Backblaze B2: Free up to three times your stored capacity each month on the $6.95/TB tier; unlimited free egress on the $15/TB tier. Egress beyond the 3x allowance is chargeable.

Storage (entry plan): Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2?

Cloudflare R2: 10 GB-month free each month, plus 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations

Backblaze B2: 10 GB free, permanently — 'First 10GB storage is always free.' The statement is a row-level note on Backblaze's pricing-model table, so it applies to B2 storage rather than to one plan, and it is an ongoing allowance rather than the 'Start Free' trial the page advertises separately.

Should I choose Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2?

Pick Cloudflare R2 if Serving files to the public, where egress is the bill everyone underestimates. Nothing to pay for bandwidth out, on any storage class, so a busy bucket costs what it costs to store rather than what it costs to read.

Pick Backblaze B2 if Bulk capacity where egress is predictable — free up to three times what you store each month, which covers most backup and archive patterns comfortably at $6.95 per terabyte.

Provider pages

Cloudflare R2S3-compatible object storage on Cloudflare's network, priced on capacity and operations with no charge for egress to the internet.Backblaze B2S3-compatible object storage sold per terabyte, with free egress capped at a multiple of stored capacity.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.