Meter
Which free tiers are permanent, which are trials, and what they exclude
A sourced 18-vendor map that keeps permanent monthly allowances, trials, paid-plan bundles, and policy-shaped egress in separate fields so a free storage headline cannot hide the restore bill.
Put your own numbers through the calculator to see what this meter does to a normal month and to the day you restore.
Permanent allowances, trials, and paid bundles are different offers
A permanent monthly allowance repeats while the account remains eligible. Cloudflare R2 Standard, Google Cloud Storage Always Free, Backblaze B2, Tigris, Filebase, Oracle OCI, and Telnyx US publish storage allowances of this kind, with different operation and egress rules. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
A time-limited trial expires, and capacity included with a paid base subscription is not free. AWS also requires account-date handling: its S3 FAQ still describes a 12-month service allowance, while accounts created on or after July 15, 2025 use the newer credit-based Free Tier. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
| Offer shape | What repeats | Example | Comparison treatment | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent monthly free tier | A meter allowance resets monthly while eligibility continues [1] | R2 Standard: 10 GB-month storage, 1 million Class A, and 10 million Class B operations monthly [1] | Subtract only from the matching meter and class | [1] |
| Time-limited trial | The allowance ends after a stated period [10] [11] | Wasabi: up to 1 TB for 30 days; Scaleway: 750 GB across eligible Standard classes for 90 days [10] [11] | Show in a separate trial field and never subtract from an ongoing monthly ranking | [10] [11] |
| Paid-plan included capacity | The bundle exists only while its base fee is paid [13] [14] | DigitalOcean Spaces includes 250 GiB storage and 1 TiB outbound transfer in its $5 monthly subscription [13] | Include the base fee and call the meters bundled, not free | [13] |
| Policy-shaped no-charge meter | No per-unit rate applies inside a published usage boundary [15] | Wasabi charges no egress fee while monthly egress is at or below active storage, but publishes no per-GB overage rate [15] | Use conditional inside the boundary and not published beyond it | [15] |
The 18 vendors do not give away the same meters
Storage, operations, egress, and trial status stay in separate columns. An allowance applies only to its named product, class, region, account, and billing period. A paid bundle is labeled as a bundle, and the absence of a published allowance is not published rather than zero. [1] [2] [13]
Egress remains the decision variable for a restore. A small storage allowance cannot offset paid transfer, while no-charge egress can coexist with paid operations, retrieval, a base fee, or a policy boundary. [3] [1] [15]
The 18 vendors do not give away the same meters18 rows
| Provider | Permanent storage | Permanent operations | Ongoing egress rule | Time-limited offer | Scope and source ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3 | does not apply as a current universal storage allowance; the 5 GB amount belongs to the legacy 12-month offer [8] [9] | does not apply as a current universal allowance; legacy offer includes 2,000 PUT and 20,000 GET requests monthly [8] | 100 GB internet transfer monthly, shared across AWS services and Regions except China and GovCloud [16] | conditional: legacy accounts created before July 15, 2025 retain 12-month offers; newer accounts use up to $200 in credits and a free plan lasting at most 6 months [9] | Do not subtract 5 GB unless account creation date and legacy eligibility are known [9] |
| Azure Blob Storage | not published on the checked Blob pay-as-you-go price records [17] | does not apply; no monthly free transaction allowance in the captured pay-as-you-go offer [17] | 100 GB internet egress monthly, with later rates depending on source geography and route [18] | not published for an object-storage-specific trial on the checked pages [19] | The egress allowance is separate from Blob storage and transaction prices [18] [19] |
| Google Cloud Storage | 5 GB-months of Standard storage monthly [2] | 5,000 Class A and 50,000 Class B operations monthly [2] | 100 GB monthly from North America to each eligible destination; Australia and China are excluded [2] | does not apply; Always Free remains available during and after the general trial [2] | Only us-west1, us-central1, and us-east1 qualify; Rapid is excluded [2] |
| Cloudflare R2 | 10 GB-months monthly on Standard [1] | 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations monthly on Standard [1] | not charged for direct internet egress [1] | does not apply; the listed allowances are permanent monthly amounts [1] | Infrequent Access receives none of the Standard free tier and still charges retrieval [1] |
| Backblaze B2 | First 10 GB in the account [3] | Class A and Class B are not charged in the captured comparison; Backblaze also publishes separate Class C and Class D rules [3] | Free up to 3 times average monthly storage, then $0.01 per GB [3] | does not apply; the 10 GB storage allowance is ongoing [3] | Partner paths can provide conditional unlimited egress, but the general internet rule remains 3 times storage [20] |
| Wasabi | not published as an ongoing storage free tier [15] | conditional: no API request fee, subject to Wasabi usage policies [15] | conditional up to active storage; excess per-GB rate is not published and repeated excess can lead to limitation or suspension [15] | Up to 1 TB for 30 days [10] | Trial capacity is not a permanent monthly allowance [10] |
| IDrive e2 | not published as a permanent storage allowance; the page labels 10 GB as a trial [21] | not charged for API calls [21] | Free up to 3 times active storage, then $0.01 per GB beyond the free limit [21] | 10 GB trial; duration is not published on the checked pricing page [21] | The paid pay-as-you-go offer has a 1 TB minimum fee, so the trial cannot be treated as a recurring deduction [21] |
| DigitalOcean Spaces | not published as a free tier; 250 GiB is bundled into the paid Standard subscription [13] | not published as separate Class A or Class B monthly allowances [13] | 1 TiB outbound is bundled into Standard; $0.01 per GiB beyond [13] | not published for an object-storage-specific trial on the checked page [13] | The $5 monthly base fee is part of the receipt, so included capacity is not free [13] |
| Scaleway Object Storage | not published as an ongoing free storage tier [22] | not charged for object-storage requests in the captured offer [22] | 75 GB monthly, then EUR 0.01 per GB; a USD overage rate is not published [22] | 750 GB across Standard Multi-AZ and Standard One Zone for 90 days, subject to eligibility [11] | The trial is total capacity across eligible classes and regions, not 750 GB per class [11] |
| OVHcloud Object Storage | not published as an ongoing free storage tier [23] | not charged for the captured operation classes [23] | not charged for public outgoing traffic in the selected worldwide price list [23] | not published for an object-storage-specific trial on the checked page [23] | Archive and infrequent classes can still charge retrieval even when public transfer is included [23] |
| Hetzner Object Storage | not published as a free tier; storage quota accrues only with the paid base plan [14] | not charged for S3 operations such as PUT, GET, and DELETE [14] | conditional paid bundle: outgoing quota accrues hourly and reaches about 1 TB for a full month [14] | not published for an object-storage-specific trial on the checked page [14] | An active bucket triggers the base fee, and unused included quota expires monthly [14] |
| Akamai Cloud Object Storage | not published as a free tier; 250 GB is included with the paid base plan [24] | not charged as of 2026-07-26; future request charges are scheduled no earlier than 2026-10-01 with 1 million Class A and 12.5 million Class B free monthly [24] | 1 TB is bundled into the monthly global transfer pool and prorated for active time [24] | not published for an object-storage-specific trial on the checked page [24] | Future operation allowances are not active free-tier capacity today [24] |
| Vultr Object Storage | not published as a free tier; 1,000 GB is bundled into the paid subscription [25] | not published as separate Class A or Class B monthly allowances [25] | 1,000 GB outbound is bundled into the listed subscription, then $0.01 per GB [25] | not published for an object-storage-specific trial on the checked page [25] | The bundle has a base fee and is not a permanent free tier [25] |
| Storj | not published as an ongoing storage free tier [12] | not charged as separate API request meters on the current Standard offer [12] | No ongoing allowance on Standard; egress is billed from the first unit [12] | 25 GB free storage for 30 days on the current Object Storage trial [12] | The trial ends before the paid plan's minimum invoice floor applies [12] |
| Oracle OCI Object Storage | 10 GB of object storage in Always Free [6] | 50,000 Object Storage requests monthly; Oracle publishes one request allowance rather than separate A and B allowances [26] | 10 TB outbound data transfer monthly [6] | $300 in general OCI credits for 30 days, separate from Always Free [6] | The request taxonomy is not comparable to providers with distinct Class A and Class B allowances [26] |
| Tigris | 5 GB monthly on Standard [4] | 10,000 Class A and 100,000 Class B operations monthly [4] | not charged for regional, cross-region, and internet egress; extraordinary bandwidth is conditional on contacting Tigris [4] | does not apply; the listed storage and operation allowances are ongoing [4] | Cold classes can still add retrieval and minimum-duration meters [4] |
| Filebase | 5 GB on the Free plan [5] | stale: the current plan page says 100,000 Class A and 1 million Class B, while the current pricing docs and dataset say 1 million and 10 million [5] [27] | conditional by plan: pricing docs cap Free-plan object egress at 5 GB monthly and make paid-plan egress not charged [27] | does not apply; Free is a continuing plan rather than a trial [5] | Do not apply a request allowance until the official source conflict is reconciled [5] [27] |
| Telnyx Cloud Storage | 10 GiB monthly in the US; EU storage has no free tier [7] [28] | US: 1 million state-change and 10 million state-read operations monthly; EU has no published free allowance [7] [28] | not charged for internet egress [7] | does not apply; the US allowance is ongoing [7] | US and EU rows are separate offers and must not share allowances [28] |
Free storage does not make a restore free
A restore is read-only. Its possible bill lines are retrieval, requests, temporary-copy storage, and egress. Reading or restoring does not trigger an early-deletion charge; that charge requires a delete, overwrite, move, or transition before the class minimum. [16] [1]
Apply allowances meter by meter before paid tiers. Never convert a policy boundary or an unpublished overage into $0. [3] [15]
| Provider path | Storage allowance | Request or retrieval effect | Egress effect | Restore conclusion | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare R2 Standard | First 10 GB-months monthly [1] | First 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B monthly; later operations are paid [1] | not charged for direct internet egress [1] | A request-heavy restore can still cost money after the operation allowance; Infrequent Access is a separate offer with retrieval and no Standard free tier [1] | [1] |
| Backblaze B2 | First 10 GB in the account [3] | Class A and B are not charged in the captured comparison [3] | Free up to 3 times average monthly storage, then $0.01 per GB [3] | A restore above the proportional allowance has a published egress price [3] | [3] |
| Wasabi paid account | not published as an ongoing free storage tier [15] | No API request fee, subject to policy [15] | conditional at or below active storage; beyond the boundary the rate is not published [15] | Stop at not published for excess egress; do not turn the policy boundary into unlimited $0 transfer [15] | [15] |
| Amazon S3 | Legacy trial allowance is conditional on account date and eligibility [8] [9] | Requests and archive retrieval remain separate meters after any eligible allowance [16] | 100 GB shared monthly internet-transfer allowance before paid tiers [16] | A read-only restore can add retrieval, requests, temporary-copy storage, and egress, but never early deletion [16] | [16] [8] [9] |
Conflicts stay visible instead of becoming optimistic allowances
The provider dataset is a dated snapshot, not permission to ignore a newer official page. When two official pages disagree, the disputed meter stays stale or conditional until it can be reconciled. [8] [9] [5] [27]
A trial with an unpublished duration is not permanent, and an unpublished allowance is not zero. Those states prevent a temporary promotion or missing detail from entering a recurring self-serve total. [21]
| Conflict or gap | Dataset or older statement | Current official evidence | Treatment | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS account eligibility | The dataset records 5 GB and says eligibility is account and offer dependent [8] | The S3 FAQ still says 5 GB for one year, while AWS says accounts created on or after July 15, 2025 use credits and a free plan lasting at most 6 months [8] [9] | conditional; require account creation date and never subtract 5 GB universally | [8] [9] |
| Filebase Free-plan operations | The dataset and pricing docs record 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations monthly [27] | The current plan page lists 100,000 Class A and 1 million Class B on Free [5] | stale; no automatic request allowance until the official pages agree | [27] [5] |
| Filebase Free-plan egress | The provider row records internet egress as unlimited, using paid-plan pricing docs [27] | The same docs limit Free-plan object egress to 5 GB monthly and reserve unlimited egress for paid plans [27] | not comparable across plans; scope the allowance to the selected plan | [27] |
| Storj trial capacity | The dataset records the 30-day trial size as not published [29] | The current pricing page now publishes 25 GB free storage for 30 days [12] | stale dataset field; use the current sourced trial value outside recurring rankings | [29] [12] |
| IDrive e2 trial duration | The checked page advertises 10 GB as a trial [21] | A duration is not published on that pricing page [21] | unknown duration; never classify it as a permanent monthly allowance | [21] |
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these pages, on the date shown. Each numbered reference in the text links to its entry here. Vendors change prices; if a date looks old, check the source. Three vendors publish a machine-readable feed and the rest are re-checked by hand, which is why the dates are not uniform.
The source ledger29 sources
- 1Cloudflare developer docs: R2 pricingdevelopers.cloudflare.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 2Google Cloud: Storage pricingcloud.google.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 3Backblaze: Transaction pricingwww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 4Tigris: Pricingwww.tigrisdata.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 5Filebase: Pricingfilebase.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 6Oracle: Universal creditswww.oracle.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 7Telnyx: Storagetelnyx.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 8Amazon Web Services: Faqsaws.amazon.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 9Amazon Web Servicesaws.amazon.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 10Wasabi documentation: Trial data limitdocs.wasabi.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 11Scaleway: Object storage faqwww.scaleway.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 12Storj: Pricingwww.storj.io · checked 2026-07-26
- 13DigitalOcean: Spaces object storagewww.digitalocean.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 14Hetzner documentation: Object storage overviewdocs.hetzner.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 15Wasabi: Faqwasabi.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 16Amazon Web Services: S3 pricingaws.amazon.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 17Azure Retail Prices API: Retail pricesprices.azure.com · checked 2026-07-25
- 18Microsoft Azure: Bandwidthazure.microsoft.com · checked 2026-07-25
- 19Microsoft Azure: Blobsazure.microsoft.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 20Backblaze: Cloud storagewww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 21IDrive: S3 storage e2 pricingwww.idrive.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 22Scaleway: Storagewww.scaleway.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 23OVHcloud: Public cloud priceswww.ovhcloud.com · checked 2026-07-25
- 24Akamai techdocs: Object storage pricingtechdocs.akamai.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 25Vultr documentation: How is object storage billeddocs.vultr.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 26Oraclewww.oracle.com · checked 2026-07-25
- 27Filebase: Account pricingfilebase.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 28Telnyx developer docs: Billingdevelopers.telnyx.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 29Storj: Pricingwww.storj.io · checked 2026-07-25