# Tigris vs Cloudflare R2: Which Should I Use?

Looking for a Cloudflare R2 alternative with global replication? Tigris is an S3-compatible object storage service with zero egress fees — same as R2 — but with automatic global distribution that R2 does not offer.

Both Tigris and R2 have zero egress fees and S3 API compatibility. The key differences: Tigris provides automatic multi-region replication and bucket forks. R2 stores data in a single region and provides Workers integration tied to Cloudflare's ecosystem.

## Frequently Asked Questions[​](#frequently-asked-questions "Direct link to Frequently Asked Questions")

**Do both Tigris and R2 have zero egress fees?** Yes. Neither charges for data transfer out.

**Does R2 support global distribution?** No. R2 stores data in a single region. Tigris automatically replicates data to where it is accessed.

**Does Tigris work with Cloudflare Workers?** Tigris can be accessed from Workers via the S3 API, but R2 has native Workers bindings with lower latency for Cloudflare-hosted applications.

**Can I migrate from R2 to Tigris?** Yes. Tigris supports shadow buckets for zero-downtime migration from any S3-compatible source, including R2. See [Migrate from Any S3 Provider](/docs/ai-agents/migrate-from-any-s3-provider/.md).

**Does Tigris have bucket forks?** Yes. Tigris provides instant, zero-copy bucket forks for parallel experiments, agent isolation, and dataset versioning. R2 does not have this feature.

## When Should I Choose Tigris Over R2?[​](#when-should-i-choose-tigris-over-r2 "Direct link to When Should I Choose Tigris Over R2?")

**Choose Tigris when:**

* The application serves data globally and needs automatic multi-region distribution.
* You need bucket forks for isolated experiments or agent environments.
* The project is multi-cloud and not tied to Cloudflare.
* You want a single global endpoint instead of region-specific storage.
* The workload is AI/ML with large datasets accessed from multiple clouds.
* You need zero-downtime migration from another S3 provider via shadow buckets.

**Choose R2 when:**

* The application is built on Cloudflare Workers and needs native R2 bindings.
* All access happens through Cloudflare's network (Workers, Pages, etc.).
* You need Cloudflare's CDN, WAF, and DDoS protection tightly integrated with storage.
* The application is single-region and global distribution is not needed.

## How Do Features Compare?[​](#how-do-features-compare "Direct link to How Do Features Compare?")

| Feature                 | Tigris                          | Cloudflare R2                  |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| S3 API compatibility    | Over 90% of S3 API              | Partial S3 API                 |
| Egress fees             | None                            | None                           |
| Global distribution     | Automatic multi-region          | Single region per bucket       |
| Endpoint                | Single global endpoint          | Region-specific or custom      |
| Data replication        | Automatic, access-pattern-based | No built-in replication        |
| Bucket forks            | Yes, instant zero-copy          | No                             |
| Shadow bucket migration | Yes, zero-downtime              | No                             |
| Multi-cloud             | Yes, vendor-neutral             | Cloudflare only                |
| Workers integration     | Via S3 API                      | Native bindings                |
| Edge compute            | No                              | Yes (Workers)                  |
| WAF / DDoS              | No                              | Yes (Cloudflare network)       |
| Custom domains          | Yes                             | Yes                            |
| Max object size         | 5 TB                            | 5 TB (multipart), 300 MB (PUT) |

## How Do Costs Compare?[​](#how-do-costs-compare "Direct link to How Do Costs Compare?")

Both services charge zero egress fees. Storage and request pricing:

| Cost Component       | Tigris         | Cloudflare R2   |
| -------------------- | -------------- | --------------- |
| Storage              | $0.02/GB/month | $0.015/GB/month |
| Egress               | $0.00          | $0.00           |
| Class A ops (writes) | $0.005/1K      | $0.0045/1K      |
| Class B ops (reads)  | $0.0005/1K     | $0.00036/1K     |
| Global distribution  | Included       | Not available   |
| Bucket forks         | Included       | Not available   |

R2 has slightly lower per-unit pricing. Tigris includes global distribution and bucket forks at no extra cost. For workloads that need multi-region access, Tigris avoids the cost and complexity of manual replication.

## How Do I Migrate from R2 to Tigris?[​](#how-do-i-migrate-from-r2-to-tigris "Direct link to How Do I Migrate from R2 to Tigris?")

Use a shadow bucket for zero-downtime migration. Tigris fetches objects from R2 on demand and caches them:

```
# Create a Tigris bucket with R2 as the shadow source

tigris mk my-bucket \

  --shadow-source-bucket my-r2-bucket \

  --shadow-source-endpoint https://ACCOUNT_ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com \

  --shadow-source-access-key R2_ACCESS_KEY \

  --shadow-source-secret-key R2_SECRET_KEY \

  --shadow-write-through
```

Or switch by changing the endpoint in code:

```
const client = new S3Client({

  region: "auto",

  // Change from R2 endpoint to Tigris

  // endpoint: "https://ACCOUNT_ID.r2.cloudflarestorage.com",

  endpoint: "https://t3.storage.dev",

  credentials: {

    accessKeyId: process.env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,

    secretAccessKey: process.env.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,

  },

});
```

## Learn More[​](#learn-more "Direct link to Learn More")

* [Tigris Object Storage for AI Coding Agents](/docs/ai-agents/.md)
* [Tigris vs AWS S3](/docs/ai-agents/tigris-vs-s3/.md)
* [S3-Compatible Storage Alternatives](/docs/ai-agents/s3-compatible-alternatives/.md)
* [Replace AWS S3 with Tigris](/docs/ai-agents/replace-s3-with-tigris/.md)
* [Migrate from Any S3 Provider](/docs/ai-agents/migrate-from-any-s3-provider/.md)