# Object storage: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "object storage service" and as "S3-compatible cloud storage", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage/2026-11

**Standing:** Backblaze B2 leads with 55% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 49 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) | 55% | 3% | 65 |
| 2 | [Cloudflare R2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-r2/index.md) | 20% | 12% | 64 |
| 3 | [Amazon S3](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-s3/index.md) | 16% | 35% | 68 |
| 4 | [Wasabi Object Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/wasabi-object-storage/index.md) | 4% | 19% | 57 |
| 5 | [Google Cloud Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-storage/index.md) | 2% | 30% | 50 |
| 7 | [Azure Blob Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-blob-storage/index.md) | 0% | 23% | 47 |
| 8 | [MinIO AIStor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/minio-aistor/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 30 |
| 32 | [DigitalOcean Spaces](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/digitalocean-spaces/index.md) | 0% | 43% | 14 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 53 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; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon S3; alternatives Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, MinIO AIStor
- Perplexity Sonar: Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Amazon S3, Backblaze B2
- Mistral Small: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, MEGA S4
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Backblaze B2; alternatives Cloudflare R2
- Llama 4 Maverick: Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2; alternatives Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
- MiniMax M2.5: Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2
- GPT-6 Luna: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Backblaze B2; alternatives Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage

## Sources the answers cite

67 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- github.com: 31 answers, 38 citations
- backblaze.com: 26 answers, 44 citations
- cloudflare.com: 19 answers, 37 citations
- cloudian.com: 16 answers, 24 citations
- gane.ai/index: 14 answers, 21 citations
- wasabi.com: 14 answers, 21 citations
- g2.com: 14 answers, 15 citations
- aws.amazon.com: 12 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://github.com/mixpeek/awesome-object-storage (29 answers)
- https://backblaze.com/cloud-storage (12 answers)
- https://backblaze.com/cloud-storage/pricing (12 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/products/r2 (11 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage/2026-09 (11 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/object-storage-solutions (11 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/developer-platform/use-cases/s3-compatible-object-storage (10 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/en-gb/developer-platform/products/r2 (10 answers)
- https://vpsranking.com/object-storage (10 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage (8 answers)

## Warned against

- Amazon S3: 24 of 68 labels negative. "Avoid using their Standard S3 tiers if you are on a budget—their egress fees ($90+ per TB downloaded) will catch you off guard." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Google Cloud Storage: 15 of 50 labels negative. "Avoid These Budget Killers ... Google Cloud Storage standard: Similar high egress fees" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Wasabi Object Storage: 11 of 57 labels negative. "Verdict: Avoid unless you're certain your use case fits their model (long-term cold storage)." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Azure Blob Storage: 11 of 47 labels negative. "Avoid for tight budgets: AWS S3, Azure Blob, or Google Cloud Storage" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Backblaze B2 at 55%.

- Backblaze B2: 46% to 55%, +9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 1 of 53, unchanged.
- Wasabi Object Storage: 10% to 4%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 4 of 53, unchanged.
- Azure Blob Storage: 6% to 0%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 5 → 7 of 53.
- Amazon S3: 12% to 16%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 3 of 53, unchanged.
- Cloudian HyperStore: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 9 of 53.
- DigitalOcean Spaces: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 32 of 53.
- Cloudflare R2: 19% to 20%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 2 of 53, unchanged.
- Google Cloud Storage: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 5 of 53.
- MinIO AIStor: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 8 of 53.

## Record

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