Cloudflare's Zero Egress Strategy
Cloudflare is systematically dismantling cloud egress pricing. R2 storage charges zero egress fees. The CDN has no bandwidth caps on any plan, including free. Workers and Pages have generous included bandwidth. Cloudflare has turned the cloud pricing model upside down by making data transfer free and competing on everything else. This page explains how Cloudflare's pricing works, when to use it instead of native cloud services, and how much you can save.
Cloudflare R2 vs AWS S3: Side-by-Side
R2 is a drop-in S3 replacement that eliminates egress fees entirely. The comparison below shows standard US-region pricing for both services.
| Metric | Cloudflare R2 | AWS S3 | R2 Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage cost | $0.015/GB/mo | $0.023/GB/mo | 35% cheaper |
| Egress cost | $0.00/GB | $0.09/GB | 100% cheaper |
| Class A operations | $4.50/million | $5.00/million | 10% cheaper |
| Class B operations | $0.36/million | $0.40/million | 10% cheaper |
| Free storage | 10 GB | 5 GB (12 months) | 2x more, permanent |
| S3 API compatibility | Yes | Native | Drop-in replacement |
Sources: Cloudflare R2 Pricing, AWS S3 Pricing
Real-World Savings: 10TB Storage, 50TB Egress
This is not a theoretical example. Any workload where the majority of cost comes from serving objects to the internet (media, static assets, public datasets, CDN origins) sees this level of savings. The migration takes 20-30 minutes per bucket using rclone or the AWS CLI with an R2 endpoint.
Cloudflare Products with Zero or Low Egress
R2 Object Storage
S3-compatible object storage with zero egress fees. Storage costs $0.015/GB/month. 10 GB free forever. Class A operations $4.50/million, Class B $0.36/million. Supports Workers binding for serverless access.
CDN / Proxy
No bandwidth caps on any plan, including the free tier. No overage fees. 300+ edge locations globally. Includes DDoS protection, WAF (paid plans), and bot management. This alone makes Cloudflare unique among CDN providers.
Workers
Serverless compute at the edge. Free plan includes 100k requests/day. Paid plan is $5/month plus $0.50/million requests. No egress fees on responses. Runs in 300+ locations worldwide.
Pages
Static site hosting with unlimited bandwidth on all plans, including free. Automatic deployments from GitHub/GitLab. Includes custom domains, SSL, and preview deployments. No egress fees.
When to Use Cloudflare vs Native Cloud
Use Cloudflare R2 When:
- Egress is your largest storage cost (serving public content)
- You need CDN origin storage (R2 + Cloudflare CDN is a natural pairing)
- You serve static assets, media, or downloads to users
- You want S3 compatibility without S3 egress pricing
- You host public datasets that are read frequently
- You need a backup storage target with cheap retrieval
Stay on S3/Native Cloud When:
- You need deep AWS integration (Lambda triggers, Athena, Lake Formation)
- S3 Object Lock compliance is required for regulatory reasons
- Your data rarely leaves AWS (most processing happens in-cloud)
- You need S3 Glacier storage classes for long-term archival
- You have existing AWS PrivateLink/VPC Endpoint dependencies
- Your team has heavy investment in AWS-native tooling
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Cloudflare R2 really have zero egress fees?
Yes. Cloudflare R2 charges zero egress fees for data read from storage. You pay only for storage ($0.015/GB/month) and operations (class A: $4.50/million, class B: $0.36/million). There is no per-GB data transfer charge for reading objects.
How much can I save switching from S3 to Cloudflare R2?
A workload storing 10TB and transferring 50TB/month would cost approximately $4,580/month on S3 ($230 storage + $4,352 egress). The same workload on R2 costs $150/month ($150 storage + $0 egress). That is a 97% reduction, saving $53,160/year.
Is Cloudflare R2 compatible with S3?
Yes. R2 is fully S3-compatible, supporting the S3 API. You can use existing S3 tools (AWS CLI, boto3, rclone) to interact with R2 buckets. Migration typically involves changing the endpoint URL and credentials, with no code changes required for most applications.
When should I use Cloudflare R2 vs AWS S3?
Use R2 when egress is your primary cost driver: static assets, media files, CDN origins, public datasets, or any workload where data is read frequently. Use S3 when you need deep AWS integration (Lambda triggers, Athena, Lake Formation), S3 Object Lock compliance features, or if your data rarely leaves AWS.
Does Cloudflare charge for CDN bandwidth?
Cloudflare does not charge for CDN bandwidth on any plan, including the free tier. There are no bandwidth caps or overage fees. This is unique among CDN providers and makes Cloudflare particularly attractive for high-traffic websites and applications.
Related Resources
Prices verified from Cloudflare R2 documentation. Last updated March 2026.