# Backblaze B2 vs Cloudflare R2: which do AI models recommend for object storage, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Object storage. Five of fourteen models named Backblaze B2 first on the direct prompt; two named Cloudflare R2. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/cloud/object-storage/backblaze-b2-vs-cloudflare-r2/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backblaze B2 | 46% | #1 of 9 | 5% | 62 | 14 of 14 |
| Cloudflare R2 | 19% | #2 of 9 | 17% | 47 | 14 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Grok 4.20: backblaze b2 first (first choices: Backblaze B2) (alternatives: Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage)
- Mistral Small: backblaze b2 first (first choices: Backblaze B2) (alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudian HyperStore)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: backblaze b2 first (first choices: Backblaze B2) (alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: backblaze b2 first (first choices: Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: backblaze b2 first (first choices: Backblaze B2) (alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, MinIO AIStor, Wasabi Object Storage)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: cloudflare r2 first (first choices: Cloudflare R2) (alternatives: Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage)
- Kimi K2: cloudflare r2 first (first choices: Cloudflare R2) (alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: Google Cloud Storage) (alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage) (alternatives: Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi Object Storage)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither first, one named (first choices: Amazon S3) (alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: neither first, one named (alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither named
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: Amazon S3) (alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named

## What the models said about Backblaze B2

- "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 Cloudflare R2

- "No versioning, no object lock, and no WORM compliance, so it is not suitable for immutable or regulatory backups." (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Multiple outages in 2026 (13 incidents in 8 days in Aug), including R2 failures, 503 errors, and unrepaired data" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "13 separate incidents in just 8 days... the frequent outages raise concerns about production reliability" (Kimi K2, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Heavy Egress / Global Apps | Cloudflare R2 | Best for serving media, web assets, or SaaS app files directly to users globally with zero egress fees." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt, first choice)
- "Best for Active SaaS Applications & Global Read-Heavy Workloads: Cloudflare R2 ... is the premier choice." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt, first choice)
- "The best overall option in this category is Cloudflare R2, especially for read-heavy workloads" (Muse Glimmer 30B, comparative prompt, first choice)

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. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.