Overview
Object storage is usually the first stop for app uploads, static assets, and anything your app reads back over HTTP. Cloudflare R2 gives 10 GB of storage a month with free egress to the internet, which removes the biggest cost surprise in this whole category: bandwidth. Backblaze B2 matches the 10 GB storage allowance and adds free egress up to three times your average monthly storage, plus API calls with no daily cap. Tigris offers a smaller 5 GB allowance but the same zero-egress policy, and Pinata is built specifically for pinning files to IPFS rather than serving as a generic bucket, with 1 GB of storage and 500 files on its free plan. If you are shopping for a cloud storage free tier and your workload is API uploads and downloads, these four cover most of it.
What to look for in cloud storage free tier options
Media asset storage is a different job: the value is in transformations and delivery, not raw capacity. Cloudinary's free plan runs on 25 monthly credits rather than a flat storage number, covering uploads, image and video transformations, and CDN delivery for three users. ImageKit.io gives 3 GB of storage and 20 GB of bandwidth a month, plus a monthly allowance of video and AI-powered processing units. Uploadcare's free plan includes 1,000 operations a month, 1 GB of storage, and 5 GB of monthly traffic, alongside basic transformations and webhook support. These online storage free tier options only make sense if you actually need the processing; if you just need to keep a file, a plain bucket is simpler and cheaper to reason about.
Backup, file sharing, and small structured data have their own shapes again. Internxt gives 1 GB of encrypted storage for life with no identity verification to start, aimed at personal backup rather than an app's upload pipeline. Keybase is free for everyone with no published storage cap, built around encrypted messaging and file sharing rather than bulk capacity. MantleDB is a small JSON store: up to 100 entries per namespace, 64 KB per entry, and a 30-day purge for unclaimed namespaces that stretches to 90 days once you claim one. None of these free storage tools compete with object storage on volume, and none are meant to.
Gotchas in online storage free tier offers
The catch across this whole category is the difference between a sustained free tier and a one-time offer. A storage free tier that reads generous on the pricing page sometimes turns out to be a credit that expires after a few months, or a trial that ends after 30 days and starts billing from there. Check whether the free allowance renews every month or only applies once, and check what happens to your data if you go over: some vendors throttle, some bill overage automatically, and a few just stop accepting new uploads until the next cycle.
10 free storage tiers compared
| Product | Type | Free tier includes | Est. value | Card required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare R2FTV 38 | Free tier | 10 GB-month of Standard storage per month. | <$1 / month | Not stated |
| Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageFTV 48 | Free tier | First 10GB of storage is always free. | $6.95 / month | Not stated |
| TigrisFTV 36 | Free tier | 5 GB of standard storage per month. | <$1 / month | Not stated |
| PinataFTV 45 | Free tier | 1GB storage limit for files. | $4.00 / month | Not stated |
| CloudinaryFTV 75 | Free tier | 25 monthly credits. | $99 / month | No |
| ImageKit.ioFTV 49 | Free tier | 3 GB DAM storage, with new uploads stopping at the limit. | $9.00 / month | Not stated |
| UploadcareFTV 72 | Free tier | 1,000 operations per month. | $66 / month | No |
| InternxtFTV 50 | Free tier | 1GB of encrypted cloud storage for free, with a free Internxt membership. | $1.00 / month | No |
| KeybaseFTV 89 | Always free | Free access to Keybase for everyone. | Unbounded | Not stated |
| MantleDBFTV 50 | Free tier | Up to 100 entries per namespace on the free tier. | $2.00 / month | No |
Best free storage picks by use case
Best for: You need an S3-compatible bucket for app uploads without an egress bill
R2's free 10 GB comes with no egress charge to the internet, which is the cost that usually breaks a storage budget once real traffic hits the bucket.
Best for: You store and resize a lot of user-uploaded images or video
Cloudinary bundles transformations and CDN delivery into its free credits, so you are not gluing a separate image-processing service onto a plain bucket.
Best for: You want an encrypted personal backup with no setup friction
1 GB of encrypted storage with no identity check to start is enough for a personal backup, not an application's upload pipeline.
Best for: You need a tiny hosted JSON store for a prototype
100 entries at 64 KB each is small, but it is enough to back a prototype or a config endpoint without standing up a database.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of storage tools are included here?
This category covers object storage, media asset storage, backup storage, file sharing, and JSON-oriented storage. The right free tier fit depends on whether you need a generic bucket, a media pipeline, or a small structured store.
Is there a truly free cloud storage free tier for production use?
Some of these renew every month with no time limit, like Cloudflare R2 and Backblaze B2. Others are one-time credits or time-limited trials dressed up to look like a sustained plan, so check the renewal terms before you rely on one.
Why isn't Amazon S3 or Amazon EBS in the table?
Amazon S3's free allowance on this list is a time-limited AWS credit rather than a plan that renews every month, and Amazon Elastic Block Store is a block volume attached to a compute instance, not an object store you reach over HTTP.
How do object storage and media asset storage differ?
Object storage like Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2 gives you a bucket and an API; what you do with the files is up to you. Media asset tools like Cloudinary and ImageKit.io add transformations, optimization, and CDN delivery on top of storage.
What is the biggest catch with free storage plans?
The allowance often looks generous until you start moving data, making frequent requests, or storing more files than the free plan's file-count cap allows. Read the request and file limits, not just the storage number.
Is Keybase actually a storage product?
Keybase is built around encrypted messaging and file sharing rather than bulk storage, and it does not publish a storage cap. It fits here because file sharing is one of this category's five jobs, not because it competes with object storage on capacity.
