Object storage · October 2026 Edition
Backblaze B2 vs Amazon S3
Five of fourteen models named Backblaze B2 first on the direct prompt; three named Amazon S3. Both were named by all fourteen models and Backblaze B2 carries 62 labels and Amazon S3 67, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in four categories this edition.
First-choice share46%12%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate5%34%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#3A position in a field of 9; printed, not drawn.
Labels6267A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Backblaze B2 reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Backblaze B2 vs Cloudflare R2 · Backblaze B2 vs Wasabi Object Storage · Backblaze B2 vs Azure Blob Storage
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the object storage page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Backblaze B2First choices, of fourteen modelsAmazon S3
Direct534 against Amazon S3
Paraphrase815 against Amazon S3
Comparative011
Budget-constrained1105 against Amazon S3
Scale-constrained02
Negative213 against Backblaze B2 · 9 against Amazon S3
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Backblaze B2 and Amazon S3 were named in the same answer 149 times, of the 195 answers naming Backblaze B2 and the 215 naming Amazon S3. In those answers Amazon S3 took the first choice thirty-six times and Backblaze B2 fifty-five.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Backblaze B2 and Amazon S3 stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | ||||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | ||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | ||
| Grok 4.20 | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | | ||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | | |||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | | ||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | | | |
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | | |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | | |
Backblaze B2 Amazon S3 first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Backblaze B2 on the left and Amazon S3 on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Backblaze B2 and Amazon S3 stood in it.
Backblaze B2 first, Amazon S3 an alternative
5 of 14 modelsAmazon S3 was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Grok 4.20Backblaze B2 alternatives: Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage
Mistral SmallBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudian HyperStore
DeepSeek V4 FlashBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2
Qwen 3.7 FlashBackblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage
GLM 4.7 FlashXBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, MinIO AIStor, Wasabi Object Storage
Amazon S3 first, Backblaze B2 an alternative
3 of 14 modelsBackblaze B2 was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.GPT-5.4 miniAmazon S3 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
MiniMax M2.5Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage alternatives: Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi Object Storage
GPT-6 LunaAmazon S3 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
Neither was the first choice, one was named
4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare R2 alternatives: Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage
Perplexity SonarGoogle Cloud Storage alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage
Kimi K2Cloudflare R2 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage
Muse Glimmer 30Bno first choice alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage
Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Backblaze B2 leads by forty-two points.
Backblaze B247%#1 of 9Amazon S35%#5 of 9Mid-marketThe figures above
Backblaze B2 leads by thirty-five points.
Backblaze B246%#1 of 9Amazon S312%#3 of 9Enterprise
The order flips: Amazon S3 leads at enterprise.
Amazon S344%#1 of 12Backblaze B22%#6 of 12What the models said about Backblaze B2
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Your downloads are much larger than your stored volume... model the excess before committing.” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“Some users mention limited regional redundancy (only US‑based by default).” MiniMax M2.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“they may lack integration with other services and can become more expensive” Mistral Small · negative prompt · soft negative
“Backblaze B2 gives the best balance of transparent low storage pricing, broad S3 compatibility, free egress allowance and no minimum retention” Muse Glimmer 30B · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“In practice most budget-limited companies start with Backblaze B2 for storage cost, and pair it with Cloudflare for free unlimited egress.” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice
“The Best All-Rounder: Backblaze B2 ... widely considered the best balance between rock-bottom pricing and enterprise-grade stability.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Amazon S3
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Avoid hyperscalers (AWS/GCP/Azure) on tight budgets due to egress/API add-ons.” Grok 4.20 · budget prompt · hard negative
“Traditional hyperscalers like AWS S3 are incredibly powerful but often punish growing mid-sized companies with unpredictable API transaction fees and steep "egress taxes"” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“Be cautious if… You're comparing only the per-GB storage price. Requests, retrievals, transfers, replication, and archive-tier rules can also affect the bill” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“Best for: Enterprise workloads, S3-native applications... AWS S3, Azure Blob, and GCS offer the most comprehensive feature sets” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice
“If you want one answer without more context: choose Amazon S3 unless your company is already standardized on Azure or GCP.” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · first choice
“The industry standard. Most third-party tools default to S3 compatibility because it has the largest ecosystem” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
Also compared
Backblaze B2 vs Cloudflare R2Backblaze B2 vs Wasabi Object StorageBackblaze B2 vs Azure Blob StorageBackblaze B2 vs DigitalOcean SpacesBackblaze B2 vs Google Cloud StorageBackblaze B2 vs Cloudian HyperStoreCloudflare R2 vs Amazon S3Amazon S3 vs Wasabi Object StorageAmazon S3 vs Azure Blob StorageAmazon S3 vs DigitalOcean SpacesAmazon S3 vs Google Cloud StorageAmazon S3 vs Cloudian HyperStoreAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full object storage standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.