Cloud Storage Egress Fees Explained — How to Avoid Surprise Download Charges
You uploaded 5 TB to S3. Now you need to download it. That's $450 in egress fees. Yes, really. Here's how egress pricing works and how to avoid the trap.
Cloud storage pricing has two parts: storage (per GB/month) and egress (per GB downloaded). Most people focus on storage costs and get blindsided by egress — the fee charged every time you download data from the cloud. Understanding egress fees before choosing a provider can save thousands of dollars.
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- Works with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, S3, WebDAV, SFTP and more
Free core features. Plus automations available.
Egress Fee Comparison
| Provider | Storage (per TB/mo) | Egress (per GB) |
|---|---|---|
| AWS S3 | $23 | $0.09 |
| Google Cloud Storage | $20 | $0.12 |
| Azure Blob | $18 | $0.087 |
| Backblaze B2 | $6 | $0.01 |
| Wasabi | $7 | Free (with conditions) |
| Cloudflare R2 | $15 | Free |
| Google Drive | Included | Included |
| OneDrive | Included | Included |
| Dropbox | Included | Included |
The difference is massive. Downloading 1 TB from S3 costs $90. From Cloudflare R2: $0.
Strategies to Minimize Egress
Choose egress-friendly providers for frequently accessed data
Store data you'll download often on Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, or consumer clouds (Google Drive, Dropbox) where egress is free or cheap.
Use S3/GCS/Azure for write-heavy, read-light workloads
Object storage providers with high egress fees are cost-effective for backups and archives you rarely need to restore.
Transfer between clouds strategically
Use RcloneView to place data on the right provider from the start:
Avoid cross-region transfers
Transferring data between regions on the same provider incurs internal egress charges. Keep related data in the same region.
Monitor your transfer volume
Track how much data your jobs transfer to estimate costs:
Smart Multi-Cloud Strategy
| Use Case | Best Provider | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Archival backup (rarely accessed) | S3 Glacier | Cheapest storage, egress rare |
| Active backup (occasional restore) | Backblaze B2 | Low storage, low egress |
| CDN / frequently served content | Cloudflare R2 | Zero egress |
| Team collaboration | Google Drive / OneDrive | Egress included |
| Large dataset sharing | Wasabi | Free egress (with fair use) |
Getting Started
- Download RcloneView from rcloneview.com.
- Evaluate your access patterns — how often do you download?
- Place data on the right provider using the two-pane explorer.
- Monitor transfers to track costs.
The cheapest storage isn't always the cheapest total cost.
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Supported Cloud Providers
