Cloudflare R2 vs IDrive e2
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Cloudflare R2 and IDrive e2 built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
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 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.
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.
- 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.
5 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Cloudflare R2 0
IDrive e2 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Cloudflare R2 | IDrive e2 |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| 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. |
| Limits | ||
| 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 | ||
| 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- R2 pricing — Cloudflare Docs ↗
“For the Infrequent Access storage class, data retrieval fees apply. There are no charges for egress bandwidth for any storage class. [...] Egress (data transfer to Internet) Free Free”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — IDrive e2 ↗
“Free egress policy Download less than or equal to 3X your active storage volume for free!”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- R2 pricing — Cloudflare Docs ↗
“You can use the following amount of storage and operations each month for free. [...] Storage 10 GB-month / month Class A Operations 1 million requests / month Class B Operations 10 million requests / month”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — IDrive e2 ↗
“IDrive e2 charges a minimum storage fee of $6/TB. The minimum charge is per TB; even if your total storage is less than 1 TB, you will be charged for a full TB”
Read 2026-09-06 · official 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- R2 pricing — Cloudflare Docs ↗
“Storage $0.015 / GB-month $0.01 / GB-month [...] If you have used 1.1 GB-month, you will be billed for 2 GB-month.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — IDrive e2 ↗
“Straight-forward and tierless pricing $0.006/GB per month ($6/TB per month) [...] $0.01/GB per month (SSD Storage)”
Read 2026-09-06 · official 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.
- IDrive e2
- None. IDrive e2 states no additional charges for API transactions across class A, B and C.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Pricing — IDrive e2 ↗
“Free API Calls IDrive e2 does not impose any additional charges [...] No Fees for API transactions class A, B, C”
Read 2026-09-06 · official 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Cloudflare R2 docs ↗
“Storage class Minimum storage duration Standard storage None Infrequent Access storage 30 days [...] you will be charged for the object for the minimum storage duration even if the object was deleted or moved before the duration specified”
Read 2026-09-07 · official docs
- Pricing — IDrive e2 ↗
“No restrictions of minimum data retention Free ingress and egress No additional charges”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
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.
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.