# Cloudflare R2 vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage

> Cloudflare R2 scores 77.1 (BB) to Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage's 61.2 (C) for object storage. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Cloudflare R2 scores 77.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage's 61.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage leads on payments & pricing. Both do object storage.

- Cloudflare R2: grade BB, 77.1/100, rank #23 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-r2.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-r2.json
- Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage: grade C, 61.2/100, rank #478 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.json
- Best file storage and sharing APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/file-storage/index.md
- All 75 storage comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/file-storage/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cloudflare R2 (BB)

Good for: Files an agent stores and then serves to the public, where free egress dominates, and for operators who want short-lived, path-scoped credentials.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 82 against 65
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 90 against 68
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 46
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 69

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: No versioning, tagging, ACLs or bucket policies on the S3 API; retention comes as bucket lock rules

### Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage (C)

Good for: Backup, archive and media libraries of a terabyte or more that are written once and read moderately, where flat pricing and Object Lock matter.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Watch for: No numeric request limits for the S3 API. The fair use policy adjusts concurrent requests per account by stored volume


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloudflare R2 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 65 | Cloudflare R2 +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 59 | Cloudflare R2 +33 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 68 | Cloudflare R2 +22 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 83 | 83 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 46 | Cloudflare R2 +41 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 69 | Cloudflare R2 +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **77.1 · BB** | **61.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloudflare R2 | Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare | Wasabi Technologies LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com` | `https://s3.wasabisys.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 or MIT (wrangler) | Proprietary service under the Wasabi Customer Agreement |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-08-28 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 4.5k stars, 27M npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (8) | none |

## Verdicts

**Cloudflare R2.** Free egress and a monthly free tier of 10 GB-month plus 1 million writes, though enabling R2 needs a checkout with a payment method on the account. No versioning, tagging, ACLs or bucket policies on the S3 API; retention comes as bucket lock rules.

**Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage.** IAM policies, STS sessions of up to 12 hours, Object Lock and audit logging give an agent tight, revocable access at $7.99 a TB-month with no egress or request fees. No request limits are published with numbers for the S3 API, there is no OpenAPI file, and billing assumes 1 TB and 90 days of storage as minimums.

## Before you call either

### Cloudflare R2

1. Set region to `auto` and the endpoint to https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com. `us-east-1` also works, other region names fail
2. Ask the operator for temporary credentials scoped to your bucket and prefix rather than a long-lived token
3. For public reads put a custom domain or an r2.dev subdomain on the bucket; presigned URLs only sign the S3 hostname
4. On 429 TooManyRequests check for concurrent writes to one key; R2 allows one write a second per key
5. Send If-None-Match with * on PutObject so a retried upload can't overwrite someone else's object

### Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage

1. Use the bucket's own regional endpoint, such as `s3.eu-central-2.wasabisys.com`. The docs say a wrong endpoint allows GET but not PUT or DELETE
2. Ask for a sub-user key with a policy limited to one bucket, or an STS session. A root key has full access, billing included
3. Avoid short-lived objects. Each object deleted before 90 days is billed for the remaining days, and objects under 4 KB bill as 4 KB
4. Keep monthly downloads at or below the stored volume, the limit of the free egress policy
5. Call `https://` endpoints explicitly. The S3 API also accepts plain HTTP
6. For the MCP beta, type `https://mcp.wasabisys.dev/s3` from the page text. The links in the docs table point at a different host

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare R2 or Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage?

Cloudflare R2 scores 77.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage's 61.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Cloudflare R2 and Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Cloudflare R2 and Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage without installing anything?

Yes. Cloudflare R2 has a hosted endpoint at https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com and Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage at https://s3.wasabisys.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cloudflare-r2", "b": "wasabi-hot-cloud-storage"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cloudflare-r2 wasabi-hot-cloud-storage`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-r2.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.json

## Other comparisons with Cloudflare R2 or Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage

- [Box API + MCP vs Cloudflare R2](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/box-api-vs-cloudflare-r2.md)
- [Cloudflare R2 vs Dropbox API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-dropbox-api.md)
- [Cloudflare R2 vs Fastio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-fast-io.md)
- [Cloudflare R2 vs Google Drive API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-google-drive-api.md)
- [Cloudflare R2 vs OneDrive and SharePoint files (Microsoft Graph)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-onedrive-sharepoint.md)
- [Amazon S3 vs Cloudflare R2](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-s3-vs-cloudflare-r2.md)
- [Amazon S3 vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-s3-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md)
- [Azure Blob Storage vs Cloudflare R2](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-blob-storage-vs-cloudflare-r2.md)
- [Azure Blob Storage vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-blob-storage-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md)
- [Backblaze B2 vs Cloudflare R2](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/backblaze-b2-vs-cloudflare-r2.md)
- [Backblaze B2 vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/backblaze-b2-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md)
- [Bunny Storage vs Cloudflare R2](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bunny-storage-vs-cloudflare-r2.md)
- [Bunny Storage vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bunny-storage-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md)
- [Cloudflare R2 vs DigitalOcean Spaces](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-digitalocean-spaces.md)
- [Cloudflare R2 vs Tigris](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-r2-vs-tigris.md)
- [DigitalOcean Spaces vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/digitalocean-spaces-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md)
- [Tigris vs Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tigris-vs-wasabi-hot-cloud-storage.md)