Cloudflare R2 vs AWS S3: Can Zero-Egress Storage Actually Replace S3?

✍️ 云存储栏目🕒 March 19, 2026📖 5 min read

Cloudflare R2 charges zero egress fees with similar storage pricing to S3. We compare compatibility, performance, ecosystem, and real-world cost to help you decide whether to migrate.

Pricing (Key Differences)

Storage: R2 $0.015/GB/mo vs S3 $0.023/GB (R2 35% cheaper)
Egress: R2 free (!) vs S3 $0.09/GB (huge difference)
Class A operations (write): R2 $4.5/million vs S3 $5/million
Class B (read): R2 $0.36/million vs S3 $0.4/million
Free tier: R2 10GB storage + 1 million ops/month

Real‑World Savings

Example: 500GB storage + 500GB egress/month. AWS S3: 500×$0.023 (storage) + 500×$0.09 (egress) = $11.5 + $45 = $56.5/mo. Cloudflare R2: 500×$0.015 = $7.5/mo. Save ~$49/mo, $588/yr. The more egress, the bigger R2’s advantage.

R2 Limitations

No S3 Select (SQL on objects)
No Intelligent‑Tiering
Single‑object upload limit 5GB (S3 supports 5TB)
No S3 Event Notifications yet
Fewer global edge locations than S3

If your workload is mainly storage + reads with high egress, R2 can cut costs by 70‑80%. If you rely on S3 advanced features or AWS ecosystem, migration might not be worth it.

💡

R2 is S3‑compatible—just change endpoint and credentials. Migrate static assets first, then decide on full migration.