# Cloudflare R2 vs IDrive e2

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-idrive-e2/

Every value below is read from Cloudflare R2's and IDrive e2's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Cloudflare R2 | IDrive e2 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Egress over allowance | Free. 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 active storage volume each month — the same shape as Backblaze B2's allowance rather than the unconditional free egress R2 and Wasabi advertise. |
| Storage (entry plan) | 10 GB-month free each month, plus 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations | None on a paid account. IDrive e2 bills a minimum of $6 per TB charged per whole terabyte, so storing under 1 TB still costs a full terabyte — a floor on the bill rather than storage you are given. A 10 GB free trial is offered separately. |
| Storage price | $0.015 per GB-month for Standard, $0.01 for Infrequent Access. Billed rounded up to the whole GB-month. | $0.006 per GB per month, or $6 per TB, tierless — the cheapest published rate here. SSD storage is $0.01 per GB per month. |
| 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. | None. IDrive e2 states no additional charges for API transactions across class A, B and C. |
| Minimum storage duration | 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. | None. IDrive e2 states no minimum data retention restriction, unlike Wasabi's 90 days and the S3 infrequent-access classes' 30 to 180. |
| S3-compatible API | Supported | Supported |

## Where they differ

### 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. ([source](https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/pricing/))
- IDrive e2: Free up to three times your active storage volume each month — the same shape as Backblaze B2's allowance rather than the unconditional free egress R2 and Wasabi advertise. ([source](https://www.idrive.com/e2/pricing))

### Storage (entry plan)

- Cloudflare R2: 10 GB-month free each month, plus 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations ([source](https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/pricing/))
- IDrive e2: None on a paid account. IDrive e2 bills a minimum of $6 per TB charged per whole terabyte, so storing under 1 TB still costs a full terabyte — a floor on the bill rather than storage you are given. A 10 GB free trial is offered separately. ([source](https://www.idrive.com/e2/pricing))

### Storage price

- Cloudflare R2: $0.015 per GB-month for Standard, $0.01 for Infrequent Access. Billed rounded up to the whole GB-month. ([source](https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/pricing/))
- IDrive e2: $0.006 per GB per month, or $6 per TB, tierless — the cheapest published rate here. SSD storage is $0.01 per GB per month. ([source](https://www.idrive.com/e2/pricing))

### 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. ([source](https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/pricing/))
- IDrive e2: None. IDrive e2 states no additional charges for API transactions across class A, B and C. ([source](https://www.idrive.com/e2/pricing))

### 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. ([source](https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/pricing/))
- IDrive e2: None. IDrive e2 states no minimum data retention restriction, unlike Wasabi's 90 days and the S3 infrequent-access classes' 30 to 180. ([source](https://www.idrive.com/e2/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

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 IDrive e2 if Bulk storage where the per-GB rate dominates — $6 per TB is roughly a quarter of S3's and well under Wasabi's, with no API fees and no minimum retention period.

Consider something else: 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.

Consider something else: IDrive e2 — The minimum charge is billed per whole terabyte, so a 100 GB workload pays for 1 TB, and egress is only free up to three times what you store.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Cloudflare R2: Yes
- Encryption at rest: Cloudflare R2: All objects and metadata encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM automatically, no configuration required.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Egress over allowance: Cloudflare R2 or IDrive e2?**

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.
IDrive e2: Free up to three times your active storage volume each month — the same shape as Backblaze B2's allowance rather than the unconditional free egress R2 and Wasabi advertise.

**Storage (entry plan): Cloudflare R2 or IDrive e2?**

Cloudflare R2: 10 GB-month free each month, plus 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations
IDrive e2: None on a paid account. IDrive e2 bills a minimum of $6 per TB charged per whole terabyte, so storing under 1 TB still costs a full terabyte — a floor on the bill rather than storage you are given. A 10 GB free trial is offered separately.

**Should I choose Cloudflare R2 or IDrive e2?**

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 IDrive e2 if Bulk storage where the per-GB rate dominates — $6 per TB is roughly a quarter of S3's and well under Wasabi's, with no API fees and no minimum retention period.