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Amazon S3 alternatives: Azure, Google Cloud and open source

S3 stores objects, and almost every AWS service can read from it.

The default answer to where a file lives. It is also where the weights of my own model sit.

  • From my own projects
  • Sources linked
  • Updated September 2026

The same job on four platforms

The same task, a different bill and a different console. The layer does not change.

AWS

Amazon S3[1]

S3 stores objects, and almost every AWS service can read from it.

AWS documentation →[2]

Microsoft Azure

Azure Blob Storage[3]

Official documentation →

Google Cloud

Cloud Storage[4]

Official documentation →

Open source / run it yourself

Ceph with the RADOS Gateway[5]

Open-source storage with an S3-compatible API, LGPL. More to run, and very widely deployed.

MinIO[6]

The classic S3-compatible server on your own disks. Note: the open-source repository was archived in April 2026 after entering maintenance mode, so check support before you start something new on it.

What Amazon S3 does

You sendAn object, a bucket and a key. Not a file system
Amazon S3

S3 stores objects, and almost every AWS service can read from it.

You get backThe object back, at whatever scale you ask for it
What it costsPer gigabyte stored, per request, and per gigabyte leaving the Region.
Who operates itAWS. Durability, replication and scaling are theirs. Encryption, access policy and lifecycle are yours.
When it is the wrong choiceWhen an application expects a real file system with locking. Then a file service such as Amazon FSx, not S3.

AWS calls it: “Object storage built to retrieve any amount of data from anywhere”[1]

How I use it

Raw media, documents, model weights and pipeline state. In my event assistant the model I trained is a file in a bucket.

AI use cases on AWS →All AWS services in my projects →
Linda Mohamed

Linda Mohamed, AI and cloud consultant and AWS Community Hero in Vienna. I build these pipelines for clients and teach them at FH Burgenland.

Read more on ai-solutions.wiki

My open knowledge base, with longer comparisons and more sources.

Questions

What is the Azure equivalent of Amazon S3?

Azure Blob Storage.

What is the Google Cloud equivalent of Amazon S3?

Cloud Storage.

What is the open-source alternative to Amazon S3?

Ceph with the RADOS Gateway: Open-source storage with an S3-compatible API, LGPL. More to run, and very widely deployed. MinIO: The classic S3-compatible server on your own disks. Note: the open-source repository was archived in April 2026 after entering maintenance mode, so check support before you start something new on it.

How is Amazon S3 billed?

Per gigabyte stored, per request, and per gigabyte leaving the Region.

When should you not use Amazon S3?

When an application expects a real file system with locking. Then a file service such as Amazon FSx, not S3.

Sources

  1. Amazon S3 product page. https://aws.amazon.com/s3/
  2. Amazon S3 documentation. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/Welcome.html
  3. Azure Blob Storage documentation. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blobs-introduction
  4. Cloud Storage documentation. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs
  5. Ceph with the RADOS Gateway. https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/radosgw/
  6. MinIO. https://github.com/minio/minio
  7. Amazon S3: Object Storage for AI Pipelines, ai-solutions.wiki. https://ai-solutions.wiki/tools/aws-s3/
  8. Azure Blob Storage: Scalable Object Storage for AI Workloads, ai-solutions.wiki. https://ai-solutions.wiki/tools/azure-blob-storage/
  9. MinIO: S3-Compatible Object Storage, ai-solutions.wiki. https://ai-solutions.wiki/tools/minio/
  10. S3 vs EFS for AI Workloads, ai-solutions.wiki. https://ai-solutions.wiki/comparisons/s3-vs-efs-ai-workloads/
  11. MinIO maintenance mode notice, GitHub issue 21714. https://github.com/minio/minio/issues/21714
  12. Linda Mohamed, course slides “The projects”, MASE-3, FH Burgenland, September 2026.

Links checked September 2026. Product names and availability change: check the linked pages before you decide.

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