# Object storage: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "object storage service" and as "S3-compatible cloud storage", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage/index.md

**Standing:** Backblaze B2 leads with 46% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 39 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Backblaze B2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/backblaze-b2/index.md) | 46% | 4% | 52 |
| 2 | [Cloudflare R2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-r2/index.md) | 21% | 7% | 43 |
| 3 | [Amazon S3](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-s3/index.md) | 15% | 23% | 60 |
| 4 | [Azure Blob Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-blob-storage/index.md) | 8% | 22% | 46 |
| 5 | [Wasabi Object Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/wasabi-object-storage/index.md) | 5% | 38% | 50 |
| 6 | [IDrive e2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/idrive-e2/index.md) | 3% | 17% | 12 |
| 7 | [Storj](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/storj/index.md) | 3% | 27% | 11 |
| 8 | [Google Cloud Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-storage/index.md) | 0% | 24% | 45 |
| 9 | [MinIO AIStor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/minio-aistor/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 27 |
| 10 | [Cloudian HyperStore](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudian-hyperstore/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 18 | [DigitalOcean Spaces](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/digitalocean-spaces/index.md) | 0% | 38% | 24 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 39 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi Object Storage
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Backblaze B2; alternatives Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage
- Perplexity Sonar: Amazon S3; alternatives Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces, IBM Cloud Object Storage
- Grok 4.20: Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2
- Mistral Small: Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage; alternatives Google Cloud Storage, IBM Cloud Object Storage, Scality RING
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2; alternatives Wasabi Object Storage
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Wasabi Object Storage; alternatives Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, MinIO AIStor, Wasabi Object Storage
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage
- MiniMax M2.5: Amazon S3, Wasabi Object Storage; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage

## Sources the answers cite

60 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- mixpeek.com: 32 answers, 47 citations
- digitalocean.com: 20 answers, 25 citations
- gartner.com: 19 answers, 21 citations
- cloudian.com: 18 answers, 32 citations
- backblaze.com: 17 answers, 28 citations
- lowcloud.io: 17 answers, 17 citations
- github.com: 16 answers, 17 citations
- aimultiple.com: 16 answers, 16 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://mixpeek.com/blog/object-storage-comparison-2026 (27 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/file-and-object-storage-platforms (19 answers)
- https://mixpeek.com/curated-lists/best-s3-compatible-object-storage (19 answers)
- https://digitalocean.com/resources/articles/object-storage-solutions-cloud-data (17 answers)
- https://lowcloud.io/en/blog/s3-compatible-object-storage (17 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/cloud-object-storage (16 answers)
- https://backblaze.com/cloud-storage (14 answers)
- https://github.com/mixpeek/awesome-object-storage (14 answers)
- https://enterprisestorageforum.com/cloud/best-object-storage-solutions (13 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/service/object-storage (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Wasabi Object Storage: 19 of 50 labels negative. "Data corruption incidents ... 90-day minimum retention (charged for deleted data), slow support" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- DigitalOcean Spaces: 9 of 24 labels negative. "5 GB max object size limit... These are non-starters for many modern workloads" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)
- Azure Blob Storage: 10 of 46 labels negative. "~$18/TB/month plus ~$87/TB egress" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Google Cloud Storage: 11 of 45 labels negative. "not budget-friendly for most use cases ... ~$20/TB/month plus ~$120/TB egress" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.