Vultr Object Storage Review 2026: Is the Price Hike Worth It?

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Vultr quietly tripled the price of its Object Storage in March 2025. The legacy plan cost $6/month per terabyte. The new Standard tier costs $18/month. That’s not a rounding error — it’s a 3x price increase, and the community noticed. If you were already using it, you got migrated automatically. If you’re evaluating it now, you deserve a clear picture of what you’re actually paying for and where it falls short.

This review covers what changed, what the multi-tier pricing model actually means, the S3 compatibility gaps nobody talks about, and one undisclosed limitation that could break your workflow entirely.

What Is Vultr Object Storage and Who It’s Aimed At

Vultr Object Storage is an S3-compatible cloud storage service built to pair with Vultr’s compute platform. The pitch is simple: if you’re already running VPS instances on Vultr, you can co-locate your storage in the same datacenter for minimal latency and skip cross-provider egress costs.

It’s not trying to be AWS S3 with all the enterprise bells and whistles. It’s aimed at developers who need a reliable object store for static assets, application backups, media files, and database dumps — and who’d rather not add another provider to their stack when they’re already on Vultr.

The S3-compatible API is the key feature here. Any app that already talks to AWS S3 can point at Vultr’s endpoint instead. No code changes beyond swapping the endpoint URL and credentials. That compatibility covers AWS CLI, rclone, s3cmd, Cyberduck, and even WordPress backup tools like UpdraftPlus. our full Vultr review has more context on where Object Storage fits into their overall product lineup.

Vultr Object Storage Pricing: The 3x Price Hike Explained

Let’s address this directly. The March 2025 relaunch replaced one legacy plan ($6/TB) with five tiers. Here’s the current pricing structure:

Prices last verified: June 2026

A few things worth noting. Inbound data transfer is free on all tiers — no charge for uploads. API requests aren’t billed separately either, which matters if you’re doing high-frequency operations. There’s no free tier at all; you’re paying for a monthly subscription from day one.

The $18/month Standard plan is the direct successor to the old $6/TB plan. The Archival tier at $6/month exists now, but it’s cold storage — not the same use case. If you were using the old plan for active workloads and got migrated, you’re paying 3x more for the same tier of service. That’s the honest math.

One quirk in pricing documentation: Vultr’s product page mentions “250 GB free egress” in some places, while the billing docs clearly state 1 TB included egress across all tiers. The billing documentation is the more authoritative source. Assume 1 TB included egress; treat anything else as a legacy figure.

For a sense of real-world costs: if you’re storing 10 TB and transferring 5 TB monthly on the Standard plan, you’re looking at roughly $228/month ($18 base + $162 storage overage + $40 egress overage + some rounding). Compare that to Cloudflare R2 at about $158/month for the same workload, or Backblaze B2 at around $110/month. Vultr is not the budget option here — it never will be on storage price alone. our full Vultr pricing breakdown covers how Object Storage fits into the wider cost picture if you’re running compute alongside it.

The NVMe Performance Tiers: Vultr’s Real Differentiator

Here’s something most competing services don’t offer at this price range: NVMe-backed storage tiers. The Performance tier ($50/month) uses NVMe-backed storage designed for high-speed in-datacenter reads. The Accelerated tier ($100/month) is optimized for write-heavy, low-latency workloads.

No other budget-tier provider — not Backblaze B2, not Cloudflare R2, not DigitalOcean Spaces — offers an NVMe-backed object storage option. If you’re running an application that needs fast, frequent reads from object storage within the same datacenter (think ML inference pipelines reading model files, or high-throughput app data), this is a meaningful differentiator.

Even the Standard tier benefits from some caching: frequently accessed objects get cached on NVMe storage automatically, even if you’re on the cheaper plan. There’s a rate limit of 400 requests per second per IP address — hitting that returns an HTTP 429 — which is relevant if you’re building anything with parallel workers hammering the API.

The stated durability is 99.999999999% (11 nines), which is standard for enterprise object storage. Vultr doesn’t publish specific latency or throughput benchmarks publicly, so hard numbers aren’t available here. For a backup workload against the Standard tier from a co-located VPS, upload speeds are reported to be on par with DigitalOcean Spaces in the same region — adequate for most non-latency-sensitive use cases.

S3 Compatibility: What Works and What Doesn’t

The S3-compatible API covers the core operations well. Here’s the full picture from the official compatibility matrix:

Supported:

• Bucket create, delete, list
• Bucket ACLs and policies
• Object get, put, delete, copy
• Multipart uploads
• Object versioning
• Object tagging
• Pre-signed URLs
• CORS configuration
• Object metadata

Not supported:

• Lifecycle policies (no auto-transition or expiry rules)
• Bucket replication
• Bucket access logging
• Bucket inventory
• Bucket notifications
• Static website hosting

For most backup and asset storage use cases, the missing features won’t matter. But if your workflow depends on lifecycle policies — automatically moving objects to a cheaper tier after 30 days, or deleting expired logs — you’re out of luck. You’d need to handle that logic yourself, probably via a cron job or Lambda equivalent.

Bucket notifications are another gap that catches developers off guard. If you’re building a pipeline where uploading a file triggers a downstream process (like AWS’s S3 Event Notifications feeding a Lambda function), there’s no native equivalent here. You’d need to poll or implement another trigger mechanism.

One technical quirk worth mentioning: Vultr automatically applies gzip compression to stored objects. This means the Content-Length header in download responses may not match the actual file size. If your application validates content integrity by checking Content-Length, it will break. You can disable compression, but you have to know this is happening first — it’s not prominently documented.

The Hidden Gotcha: 5 GB Maximum Object Size

This is the limitation nobody discloses prominently, and it matters.

Vultr Object Storage caps individual object size at 5 GB. There is no documented workaround for storing objects larger than this limit.

Vultr’s official documentation doesn’t highlight this. It surfaced in third-party research comparing S3 providers in 2026. For comparison, AWS S3 supports objects up to 5 TB. Backblaze B2 supports up to 10 GB. Wasabi goes up to 5 TB.

What does a 5 GB cap rule out? VM disk images. Large database dumps. Video files over 5 GB. Machine learning model checkpoints for large models. Raw video footage. Any workflow involving large single files is a hard no.

If you’re using Vultr Object Storage for WordPress media, static assets, application logs, or smaller database backups — files that typically stay well under a few hundred MB — you’ll never hit this limit. But if your use case involves large files, know this before you start migrating.

Available Regions: 14 Hubs, Not 33

Vultr’s compute network covers 33 regions globally. Object Storage is available in 14 storage hub endpoints across 13 locations — a meaningful distinction if you’re working in a region that’s compute-only.

Available Object Storage regions:

• Americas: Atlanta (atl1, atl2), Chicago (chi3), Los Angeles (lax1), New Jersey (ewr1, ewr2), Seattle (sea1), Silicon Valley (sjc1)
• Europe: Amsterdam (ams1, ams2), London (lhr1)
• Asia-Pacific: Bangalore (blr1, blr2), New Delhi (del1), Singapore (sgp1, sgp2), Sydney (syd1), Tokyo (nrt1)

The practical advice here: deploy your compute and storage in the same region. Cross-region data transfer introduces latency and adds egress costs. If your VPS is in New Jersey and your Object Storage is in Los Angeles, you’re paying for egress twice and getting worse performance.

Getting Started: Setup Is Straightforward

The provisioning process is one of Vultr’s stronger points — it’s simpler than AWS’s IAM maze. From the Vultr console:

1. Go to Products > Object Storage and click Create Bucket
2. Name your bucket and select a region
3. Grab your Access Key and Secret Key from the credentials panel
4. Configure your S3 client with the region endpoint: [region].vultrobjects.com
5. Set your default ACL — private for application data, public-read for public assets

For rclone specifically, the config looks like standard S3 with the provider set to Other and the endpoint pointed at your Vultr region. s3cmd works similarly and is explicitly called out in Vultr’s docs. AWS CLI works as-is with the --endpoint-url flag.

WordPress users can integrate via UpdraftPlus for automated backups. Vultr has an official guide for offloading WordPress media assets to Object Storage, which pairs well with their CDN Pull Zones for global delivery. If you’re already following our Vultr WordPress deployment guide, adding Object Storage for media offload is a natural next step.

Vultr Object Storage vs Competitors

Here’s where things get honest. Vultr Object Storage isn’t the right answer for every workload.

Prices last verified: June 2026

Cloudflare R2 is the clear winner if egress cost is your primary concern. Zero egress fees is a legitimate competitive advantage for delivery-heavy workloads — media sites, CDN origins, anything serving lots of data to end users. R2 doesn’t support versioning or object lock, which are features Vultr does have. If you need versioning with no egress fees, Vultr wins that specific comparison.

Backblaze B2 is the cheapest on storage cost at $0.006/GB — roughly a third of Vultr’s Standard rate. Combined with Cloudflare’s free egress via the Bandwidth Alliance, it’s the most cost-effective setup for static media hosting if you’re already using Cloudflare. The trade-off is you’re managing a two-provider setup instead of one.

Where Vultr wins: co-location with Vultr compute infrastructure. If you’re already running VPS instances on Vultr, keeping storage in the same datacenter eliminates inter-provider egress fees and reduces latency to near-zero. The NVMe tiers are also a genuine differentiator for performance-sensitive in-datacenter reads. No other provider at this tier offers NVMe-backed object storage.

Pros and Cons

What works well:

• S3-compatible API with solid client support (rclone, AWS CLI, s3cmd all confirmed)
• NVMe performance tiers — no budget competitor offers this
• Clean provisioning experience, simpler than AWS
• Object versioning supported
• 14 region endpoints covering most major markets
• 11-nine durability, API requests not billed separately
• Archival tier at $6/month for cold storage is competitive

What doesn’t:

• 3x price increase from the legacy plan — existing customers got hit hard
• 5 GB maximum object size cap, not prominently disclosed
• No lifecycle policies, bucket replication, or bucket notifications
• No free tier — you’re paying from day one
• gzip compression quirk with Content-Length headers can break some apps
• Not competitive on price for pure storage or egress-heavy workloads vs R2 or B2

Who Should Use Vultr Object Storage

Good fit if:

• You’re already running Vultr compute and want co-located storage with minimal egress costs
• Your files stay under 5 GB (application backups, static assets, media files, logs)
• You need object versioning without paying for AWS S3
• You want NVMe-tier performance for in-datacenter reads on the Performance or Accelerated plans
• You’re offloading WordPress media and want integrated CDN Pull Zone support

Skip it if:

• You need to store files larger than 5 GB — video production, ML models, VM images
• Egress cost is your primary concern (Cloudflare R2 is the better pick)
• Pure storage cost is the priority (Backblaze B2 at $0.006/GB is 3x cheaper on storage)
• Your workflow depends on lifecycle policies, bucket notifications, or cross-region replication
• You’re not on Vultr compute (the co-location advantage disappears, and the pricing justification weakens)

FAQ

Is Vultr Object Storage actually S3-compatible?

Yes, for the core S3 operations. AWS CLI, rclone, s3cmd, and boto3 all work with a simple endpoint URL swap. The gaps are in advanced features: no lifecycle auto-transitions, bucket replication, access logging, or bucket notifications. For most backup and asset storage workloads, you won’t miss what’s missing.

Did Vultr really triple the price of Object Storage?

Yes. The legacy plan cost approximately $6/TB. The new Standard tier — which is the equivalent active storage plan — costs $18/month for 1 TB. Existing customers were migrated automatically in March 2025. There’s now a $6/month Archival tier, but that’s cold storage, not a like-for-like replacement for the old active plan.

Can I use Vultr Object Storage for video files?

Only if your individual video files are under 5 GB. That covers most standard-definition and shorter HD clips, but rules out 4K video, long recordings, and anything else that would commonly exceed 5 GB as a single file. For large video storage, Backblaze B2 (10 GB limit) or AWS S3 (5 TB limit) are better options.

How does Vultr Object Storage compare to Cloudflare R2?

Cloudflare R2 has zero egress fees — the biggest advantage for anything serving high volumes of data. Vultr has object versioning and NVMe performance tiers; R2 doesn’t support versioning. Both share the 5 GB max object size cap. If egress cost is your main concern, R2 wins. If you need versioning or NVMe performance and you’re co-located on Vultr compute, Vultr is the better call.

Is there a free trial for Vultr Object Storage?

No free tier exists. You pay for a monthly subscription from day one. Vultr does offer $100–$250 in free credits for new accounts via referral promotions — check the current promotion before signing up, as it changes. Those credits can cover initial testing costs.

Final Verdict

Vultr Object Storage is a solid choice for one specific scenario: you’re already running workloads on Vultr compute, your files stay under 5 GB, and you want integrated co-location with optional NVMe performance tiers. In that context, the $18/month Standard plan buys you convenience, low-latency storage, and a simpler billing relationship. The 3x price hike stings, but the product that exists today is genuinely better than what launched at $6 — more regions, tiered performance, better tooling.

Outside of that scenario, the value case weakens fast. Pure storage cost? Backblaze B2 beats it by a factor of three. Egress-heavy delivery? Cloudflare R2’s zero egress fees aren’t close to competing with. Large file storage? The 5 GB cap is a hard blocker.

If you’re on the fence and already a Vultr customer, try it. The provisioning is simple, S3 compatibility means zero migration friction, and the co-location benefits are real. If you’re evaluating Vultr specifically because of the Object Storage, read our cheap VPS roundup first — the compute side is what Vultr actually excels at.

Try Vultr Object Storage