Backblaze B2

Learning Objectives

• Understand what Backblaze B2 is and how it differs from Amazon S3 and consumer storage
• Identify B2's key features: S3-compatible API, no-egress partnerships, and pricing advantage
• Evaluate when B2 is the right storage choice vs. S3, Dropbox, or Google Drive

What Is Backblaze B2?

Backblaze B2 is a cloud object storage service from Backblaze, a company founded in 2007 that originally focused on consumer and business backup software before launching B2 as a developer-facing object storage service in 2015. Backblaze's strategy has always been to offer enterprise-equivalent storage at a fraction of the price charged by AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.

B2 is S3-compatible — meaning software written against Amazon S3's API can often be redirected to B2 with minimal code changes — at $6 per TB/month for storage, compared to roughly $23/TB on AWS S3 Standard. The most significant cost advantage is B2's partnership with Cloudflare through the Bandwidth Alliance, which eliminates egress (data transfer out) fees when B2 storage is used with Cloudflare CDN — a potentially enormous cost saving for high-traffic media applications.

Pricing

The math is significant: storing 1TB of media files for a year costs roughly $72 on B2 vs. $276 on S3 Standard. For a high-traffic site serving 10TB/month through Cloudflare, egress on S3 would cost $900/month vs. $0 on B2 through the Bandwidth Alliance.

Core Features

S3-Compatible API

B2 implements the Amazon S3 API, which means:

• Drop-in replacement for S3 in many applications — change endpoint URL and credentials
• Works with popular S3-compatible tools: rclone, Cyberduck, Transmit, AWS CLI (with config), S3cmd
• Compatible with popular backup tools: Duplicati, Veeam, CloudBerry, and many others
• Works with media management platforms: Backblaze is a preferred storage backend for many video hosting platforms

Bandwidth Alliance — Zero Egress with Cloudflare

The Bandwidth Alliance is an agreement between Backblaze and Cloudflare (plus other CDN providers including Fastly) to waive data transfer fees between their networks:

• Store media files in B2; serve them through Cloudflare CDN → zero egress fees
• Cloudflare caches files at 300+ edge locations globally; B2 stores the origin files
• This combination provides a high-performance, low-cost media delivery stack
• Works with Cloudflare R2 as an alternative (same CDN, but R2 has no egress fees on its own)

Lifecycle Rules

B2 supports file lifecycle management:

• Automatically delete files after a specified number of days (useful for temporary processing outputs)
• Keep last N versions of a file (for versioned backups)
• Hide or delete files older than a set duration

Event Notifications (B2 Event Notifications)

B2 can trigger webhooks when files are uploaded, overwritten, or deleted:

• Notify a webhook URL when a new file lands in a bucket
• Trigger downstream processing (resize images, run inference, index into a vector store)
• Integrate with n8n, Zapier, or custom backend services

Backblaze Personal Backup

Separate from B2 (but from the same company): Backblaze Personal Backup is a consumer backup service at $99/year for unlimited computer backup — widely regarded as the best value in personal backup software. B2 is for developer/application storage; Personal Backup is for end-user device backup.

AI-Relevant Applications of B2

While B2 has no native AI features, it is commonly used in AI workflows:

• Generated content storage: Store AI-generated images, videos, and audio files at low cost with Cloudflare serving
• Training dataset archives: Store large datasets at B2's low rate; pull to compute when needed
• Model artifact archival: Back up model weights and checkpoints cheaply
• Media processing pipeline: Upload → B2 → trigger → process → store output → serve via Cloudflare CDN

Strengths

• Price: Roughly 75% cheaper storage than AWS S3 Standard; often 100% cheaper egress via Bandwidth Alliance
• S3 compatibility: Works with a large ecosystem of tools without custom SDK integration
• Cloudflare synergy: The B2 + Cloudflare combination is one of the best price/performance media delivery stacks available
• Simplicity: B2's console and pricing are simpler than AWS S3 — fewer storage classes, more transparent pricing
• Reliable operator: Backblaze has been in operation since 2007 and publishes transparent hard drive reliability data — an unusually trustworthy company in cloud storage

Limitations & Considerations

• Fewer features than S3: B2 lacks S3's advanced features — no S3 Select, limited lifecycle rule complexity, fewer regional availability zones
• Single-region storage: B2 is not geo-redundant within a region by default (AWS S3 Standard stores data across multiple AZs)
• Smaller partner ecosystem: Fewer native AWS-style integrations — not as deeply connected to compute, AI/ML, and analytics services
• Not for complex enterprise workflows: Large AWS-heavy organizations will find more friction migrating to B2
• Egress still costs outside Alliance: Serving data directly to users without a CDN partner costs $0.01/GB

Best Use Cases

When to choose alternatives:

• Deep AWS ecosystem integration → Amazon S3
• Zero egress fees without CDN setup → Cloudflare R2
• Enterprise compliance and governance → Box or Amazon S3
• Consumer cloud storage → Google Drive or Dropbox

Getting Started

1. Create a free B2 account at backblaze.com — first 10GB free
2. Create a bucket and application keys in the B2 console
3. Configure rclone or Cyberduck to connect with your B2 bucket
4. Set up Cloudflare with your B2 bucket as the origin to enable zero-egress delivery
5. Use the S3-compatible endpoint (s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com) to connect existing S3-based code

Key Takeaways

• Backblaze B2 is S3-compatible object storage at $6/TB/month — roughly 75% cheaper than Amazon S3 Standard
• Zero egress fees when served through Cloudflare (Bandwidth Alliance) make B2 one of the most cost-effective media delivery stacks available
• B2 is developer-focused — it lacks AI features but is widely used in AI workflows for storing generated content, training datasets, and model artifacts cheaply
• The S3-compatible API means many existing AWS S3 applications can be redirected to B2 with minimal code changes
• Best fit for budget-conscious developers, startups, and media platforms where storage and transfer costs are a significant line item