A team picks a storage tier based on how much raw and finished video it holds, then hands a folder of large files to a client and moves on. A few weeks later the invoice is higher than the storage tier alone explains. Nothing was added to the account. What changed is that the client, or several clients, started downloading. Storage pricing and download pricing are not always the same meter, and on several major providers they are billed completely separately.
Two meters, one invoice
Cloud storage bills run on two different mechanics. One is a per-GB-per-month storage charge, for data sitting in the account whether anyone touches it or not. The other is a per-GB data-transfer-out charge, commonly called egress, for data leaving the account when someone downloads it. The two lines do not move together.
Two accounts holding an identical video library, same gigabytes, same file count, can post very different bills once one starts serving repeated client downloads. The storage line stays flat because the archive has not grown. The egress line moves because people are pulling files out of it.
What actually counts as egress
On a provider that meters data transfer out, the event that triggers the charge is data leaving the account toward the internet. A client downloading a shared file or link counts, and so does a third party pulling a file through an API call. Internal moves, like copying a file between buckets in the same account and region, typically do not, per how these providers describe their own transfer pricing.
The count is per download, not per file. On a provider that meters egress by the gigabyte transferred out, the same finished video downloaded by ten different clients is ten separate transfer events, not one. A file downloaded fifty times in a month costs more than the same file downloaded once, because the meter counts gigabytes out, not files stored.
What five storage and file services say about downloading out
| Service | What its own pricing page states about egress | Free allowance or exception stated on the page |
|---|---|---|
| AWS S3 | “You pay for all bandwidth into and out of Amazon S3,” and data out to the internet is billed per GB across volume tiers. | First 100 GB out to the internet per month is free, aggregated across AWS services and regions except China and GovCloud. Per-GB tier rates render dynamically rather than as static text, so the dollar figure is [EVIDENCE NEEDED: current per-GB rate for each tier]. |
| Backblaze B2 | B2 Cloud Storage lists “Free egress up to 3x storage,” and states downloads through integrated CDN and compute partners, naming Fastly and Vultr, are free. | Free up to 3x stored data, plus free via named partner networks. Beyond that, the page states the rate plainly: “Egress beyond 3x is just $0.01/GB, no surprise fees, no penalties.” B2 Reserve has no egress charges at all. |
| Cloudflare R2 | “There are no charges for egress bandwidth for any storage class.” The pricing table lists Egress as “Free” for both Standard and Infrequent Access storage (a separate data retrieval fee applies to Infrequent Access, distinct from egress). | No allowance to track, since the page states egress is free without a cap or tier. |
| Wasabi | “No charge for egress or API requests.” The same statement repeats across the plan cards on the pricing page, alongside a flat capacity rate starting at $7.99 per TB per month. | No allowance to track, since both egress and request fees are stated as not charged at all. |
| Dropbox (file sync, not object storage) | The plans page does not use the words egress, bandwidth, or data transfer anywhere. It states per-file transfer size caps instead, for example “Transfer files up to 50 GB” on the Plus plan. | Not applicable. There is no metered download charge to allow against, because the page does not bill downloads separately from the flat plan price. |
Prices verified against each vendor’s own pricing page on 2026-09-23. This is not Watchdog data and is not on a re-verification schedule; vendors change pricing pages without notice, so confirm current terms on the vendor’s own page before committing to a plan.
Why a file-sync plan reads differently from an object-storage bill
Dropbox’s plans page bundles storage and file delivery into one flat number. Its plans list storage capacity and a per-file transfer size cap, such as files up to 50 GB on the Plus plan, but nowhere does the page bill a client’s download of a shared file as a separate, metered event. The number a team pays is the plan price, regardless of how many times a client opens the share link, as far as the page’s own language goes.
Object storage is built the opposite way. AWS S3’s page prices storage and data transfer out as two distinct line items, and even providers that offer free egress, Cloudflare R2 and Wasabi, still call it out as its own labeled category rather than folding it into the storage rate. That structural difference is why the same client download feels different depending on where the file lives: a team on Dropbox spends against a flat monthly number that does not move with download activity, while a team on S3 spends against a number that can move every time the link is clicked, once free allowances are used up.
Where the handoff runs up the bill
Picture a small production shop holding a season’s worth of raw footage and finished cuts for three ongoing clients. The archive itself is the boring part of the bill, a flat per-GB-per-month rate that does not change unless the shop adds or deletes files.
What moves the number is how the provider treats repeated downloads. Backblaze B2’s page states free egress up to three times the amount stored, then $0.01 per GB beyond that, so the shop pays only the storage rate as long as combined downloads stay under that multiple. The month a client requests every raw file again for a re-edit and volume crosses that line, the excess bills at that per-GB rate on top of an unchanged storage bill. AWS S3’s page states the first 100 GB out per month is free, then bills per GB in tiers beyond that, so repeated large downloads can clear that allowance before the month ends. On Cloudflare R2 or Wasabi, neither applies, since both state egress is not charged at all.
The pattern across all of it is the same. The archive was never the expensive part. The number of times the files left the account is what moved the bill, and that number is set by client behavior, not by how much video the shop is holding.
What to check before handing a client the download link
- Does the pricing page list a data-transfer-out or bandwidth line item separate from storage, the way AWS S3’s page does, or fold delivery into a flat plan price, the way Dropbox’s does?
- Is there a stated free egress allowance sized to stored volume, such as B2’s “up to 3x storage,” and is that multiple wide enough for how often this library actually gets re-downloaded?
- Does the page bill a public share link, a CDN-fronted download, and a direct API pull the same way, or call out an exception, the way B2’s page names Fastly and Vultr as free partner routes?
- Is downloading the same file repeatedly billed every time, or is there a cap, a flat rate, or a stated “no charge for egress” like Cloudflare R2 and Wasabi both state?
Before you commit to a plan
The comparison worth running before onboarding a client with a large video library is not just gigabytes against dollars per month, but what the vendor’s own pricing page says happens once a client starts clicking download, repeatedly. For the handoff itself, the breakdown of large file transfer tools covers the free-plan limits on sending a finished file. For storage pricing itself, how storage plans price by seat, terabyte, or asset is worth reading alongside this one, since the two meters land on the same invoice.
FAQ
What is egress in cloud storage?
Egress is the fee some storage providers charge for data leaving the account, separate from the fee for data held in the account. AWS S3 bills it per GB in tiers after a monthly free allowance, while Cloudflare R2 and Wasabi both state they do not charge for it at all. Terms differ by vendor, so confirm on that provider’s own current pricing page.
Does Dropbox charge extra when someone downloads a shared file?
Based on Dropbox’s own plans page, fetched on 2026-09-23, no. The page does not use the words egress, bandwidth, or data transfer anywhere, and does not list a per-GB download charge. It instead bundles storage and a per-file transfer size limit, such as “Transfer files up to 50 GB” on the Plus plan, into the flat monthly plan price.
Do object storage providers all charge for egress the same way?
No, based on each provider’s own pricing page fetched on 2026-09-23. AWS S3 charges per GB in tiers after a 100 GB monthly free allowance. Backblaze B2 charges $0.01 per GB after a free allowance of three times stored data. Cloudflare R2 and Wasabi both state on their pricing pages that egress is not charged at all. This describes what each page states, not a ranking of vendors.
Sources
- AWS S3 pricing page, fetched 2026-09-23
- Backblaze B2 pricing page, fetched 2026-09-23
- Cloudflare R2 pricing page, fetched 2026-09-23
- Wasabi pricing page, fetched 2026-09-23
- Dropbox plans page, fetched 2026-09-23