Object storage · September 2026 Edition
Cloudflare R2 vs Amazon S3
Two of twelve models named Cloudflare R2 first on the direct prompt; five named Amazon S3. Both were named by all twelve models and Cloudflare R2 carries 43 labels and Amazon S3 60, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
First-choice share21%15%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate7%23%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#3A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels4360A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Cloudflare R2 reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Backblaze B2 was named alongside these two in seven of the twelve direct answers. Backblaze B2 vs Cloudflare R2 · Backblaze B2 vs Amazon S3
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve 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 twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Cloudflare R2First choices, of twelve modelsAmazon S3
Direct252 against Amazon S3
Paraphrase213 against Amazon S3
Comparative39
Budget-constrained405 against Amazon S3
Scale-constrained00
Negative213 against Cloudflare R2 · 3 against Amazon S3
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Cloudflare R2 and Amazon S3 stood in it.
Cloudflare R2 first, Amazon S3 an alternative
2 of 12 modelsAmazon S3 was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.DeepSeek V4 FlashBackblaze B2, Cloudflare R2 alternatives: Wasabi
Kimi K2Cloudflare R2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, MinIO, Wasabi
Amazon S3 first, Cloudflare R2 an alternative
5 of 12 modelsCloudflare R2 was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Claude Haiku 4.5Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage
GPT-5.4 miniAmazon S3 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi
Perplexity SonarAmazon S3 alternatives: Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces, IBM Cloud Object Storage
Mistral SmallAmazon S3, Azure Blob Storage alternatives: Google Cloud Storage, IBM Cloud Object Storage, Scality
MiniMax M2.5Amazon S3, Wasabi alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage
Neither was the first choice, one was named
4 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Gemini 3.5 FlashBackblaze B2 alternatives: Cloudflare R2, Wasabi
Grok 4.1 FastBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2
Qwen 3.7 FlashWasabi alternatives: Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage
GLM 4.7 FlashXAzure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage
Neither was named
1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.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
Cloudflare R2 leads by nineteen points.
Cloudflare R221%#2 of 9Amazon S32%#6 of 9Mid-marketThe figures above
Cloudflare R2 leads by five points.
Cloudflare R221%#2 of 10Amazon S315%#3 of 10Enterprise
The order flips: Amazon S3 leads at enterprise.
Amazon S330%#1 of 11Cloudflare R212%#3 of 11What the models said about Cloudflare R2
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“avoid if you need versioning, object lock/WORM, S3 Select, or batch operations” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · hard negative
“Excellent economics for serving assets, but many engineers treat it as a CDN/cache layer rather than a primary, durable system of record” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cloudflare R2 (newer ecosystem and evolving tooling)” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cloudflare R2 if you're serving data to customers or apps (zero egress, great for read-heavy workloads).” DeepSeek V4 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“For most new projects, alternatives like Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2 offer compelling cost savings” Kimi K2 · comparative prompt · first choice
“The Best Overall Value: Cloudflare R2 ... Cloudflare R2 is often considered the best choice.” 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 seven in this category shown.
“avoid for frequently changing data because they have 90-day and 180-day minimums, respectively” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · hard negative
“What to avoid on a budget ... ~$23/TB/month plus ~$90/TB in egress fees” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“4-10x more expensive | Avoid unless locked in” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Choose AWS S3 if you need the broadest compatibility, have an existing AWS footprint, or require very granular control over storage tiers” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure Blob Storage are the top choices due to their scalability, security, and ecosystem integration.” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“Choose Amazon S3 if you want the most mature platform, widest feature set, and strongest enterprise ecosystem.” GPT-5.4 mini · comparative prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.