The real monthly cost of video on R2.
Delivery is $0, which changes the shape of the bill. Storage, operations and encoding are what remain. Here is how to estimate each.
Short answer
Storage dominates; delivery does not.
R2 charges $0.015 per GB-month of storage and $0 for standard internet egress. For a video library that means the bill tracks how much you keep, not how much it is watched. That is the opposite of per-minute-delivered pricing, and it is why a growing archive with steady viewing is cheap here and a small archive with enormous viewing is very cheap here.
The cost people miss is renditions: storing a 1080p ladder alongside the master multiplies stored GB by roughly 2.2x.
Estimate this workload in the calculator See how BYO storage works
Estimating
Three numbers you need.
With these three you can predict the bill within a reasonable margin.
Stored hours
Total library duration, multiplied by about 1.5 GB per hour at 1080p, multiplied by about 2.2 for the rendition ladder.
Monthly upload hours
New footage per month. This drives encoding, which is the part R2 does not cover.
Request volume
Segment requests are Class B operations at $0.36 per million. Heavy short-form viewing generates far more requests per stored GB than long-form.
Worked example
A 500-hour library, 2,000 viewing hours a month.
| Line | Basis | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| R2 storage | 500h x 1.5 GB x 2.2 = 1,650 GB | about $24.75 |
| R2 delivery | 2,000 viewing hours | $0 |
| NULX platform | Flat fee, 60 encoding hours included | $19.00 |
| Encoding overage | Only above 40 hours/month | $0.60 per hour |
| Captions (optional) | Per transcribed minute | $0.02 per minute |
| Total (no overage, no captions) | about $43.75 |
Storage uses Cloudflare's published R2 rate; the ladder multiplier is an estimate, not a guarantee. Archiving masters to a colder tier or trimming unused renditions typically cuts the storage line by 30-40%.
Common questions
Cost questions.
Does a viral video raise my bill?
Not through delivery, because R2 internet egress is $0. It raises Class B operation counts, which are billed per million requests and are small relative to per-GB delivery pricing elsewhere.
What is the biggest avoidable cost?
Storing renditions you never serve. A four-rung ladder for a library that is watched almost entirely at 720p is paid-for storage nobody requests.
Is there a minimum?
R2 bills usage. The NULX platform fee is flat at $19/mo and includes 60 encoding hours.
When is a managed service cheaper?
Small libraries with low viewing. If your bill would be a few dollars either way, a bundled plan is simpler and we would rather you take it.
Sources
Rates checked September 10, 2026 · Page updated September 10, 2026
Next step
Run your own numbers.
The calculator uses these same published rates and compares the assembled cost with managed alternatives.