Backblaze’s Q1 2026 cloud storage benchmark compares Backblaze B2, AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, and Wasabi Object Storage in US-East and EU-Central. Its main takeaway is that there is no consistent fastest provider: rankings shift with region, object size, and whether a test measures average transfer time or sustained throughput. The results are useful as directional evidence, not a substitute for testing your own workload.
What Backblaze’s Q1 2026 results show
Backblaze published the second installment of its quarterly Performance Stats series on April 2, 2026. In US-East, average upload and download times improved broadly compared with Q4 2025. Backblaze led average uploads for 256 KiB and 5 MiB objects, while Wasabi led the 2 MiB upload category.
The ordering changed in EU-Central. Cloudflare R2 performed especially well in average upload and download results, and Wasabi led several EU upload-throughput categories. Backblaze cautions that US-East results do not predict EU performance.
The report also found a wide spread between high and low sustained-throughput results, particularly in multi-threaded tests. For multi-threaded downloads, throughput rose sharply between 256 KiB and 5 MiB objects, then flattened for most providers in both regions. That is an early pattern in this dataset, not a rule that applies to every service or workload.
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What the tests measured
Average transfer times
Backblaze reported average upload and download times for 256 KiB, 2 MiB, and 5 MiB files, using a month of data. These averages are lower-is-better and describe a different aspect of performance from sustained throughput.
Five-minute sustained throughput
The throughput tests ran for five minutes with 256 KiB, 5 MiB, 50 MiB, and 100 MiB objects. Backblaze tested both single-threaded and multi-threaded transfers; higher throughput is better. A single-threaded test emphasizes one request at a time and may reveal overhead relevant to sequential or latency-sensitive work. A multi-threaded test exercises parallel transfers, which can expose different architectural behavior.
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These measures should not be collapsed into a single speed ranking. A service that performs well in a sustained parallel transfer may not have the best average time for smaller objects, and the reverse can also be true.
How Backblaze ran the benchmark—and its limits
The tests originated from Vultr-hosted virtual machines in the test regions and were routed through Catchpoint’s monitoring network. The EU test data center was in Amsterdam. Backblaze says the tests ran outside its own infrastructure, providing an external vantage point rather than measuring only traffic within its environment. See the Q1 2026 Performance Stats report and investor release for the published methodology and results.
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A synthetic benchmark cannot recreate every production setup. Routing and peering, transient internet conditions, customer architecture, object patterns, and data locality can all affect observed performance. Backblaze describes this series as an early dataset and recommends reproducing tests in the systems and regions that matter to you.
Rate limits and quarter-over-quarter comparisons
Backblaze says its own bandwidth limits were reached during some large-file, multi-threaded throughput tests. It separated rate-limited results and changed the methodology by raising only the bandwidth cap for affected tests while keeping other account settings at the standard tier. Because of that change, throughput comparisons with the previous quarter are not fully reliable. Backblaze says the change did not affect the average upload and download results.
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API errors need context
In its report discussion, Backblaze identifies 429 errors for the B2 Native API and 503 errors for the S3-compatible API as rate-limit errors. It suggests reviewing logs and workload configuration, using exponential backoff, checking lifecycle or other automated sequential operations, and varying thread count or file size before attributing an error to provider capacity. These are Backblaze’s discussion points, not an independently validated troubleshooting guide.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to use the results when comparing providers
Use the charts to narrow questions and design a representative test, rather than selecting a provider from a single category winner. Compare services along the dimensions that affect your application:
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- Region and proximity: Start with the region your application and users will actually use. The EU-Central and US-East results show why a ranking in one location should not be assumed to hold in another.
- Object size and request pattern: Match the benchmark’s object sizes to your own mix, and consider whether your workload is sequential, parallel, or a combination.
- Metric: Separate average upload and download time from sustained throughput. If time to first byte matters to your application, measure it in your own setup rather than treating throughput as a proxy.
- Concurrency and limits: Test single-threaded and parallel transfers where relevant, and check how account configuration and rate limits interact with your workload.
- Operational and cost constraints: Consider workflow tolerance and cost alongside speed. The performance report alone does not establish which service is the best fit for every buyer.
Gleb Budman, Backblaze CEO, described the aim as “a transparent, replicable look at how cloud storage actually performs.” SVP of Engineering Dan Spraggins characterized the quarter’s results as “early signals about provider strengths and weaknesses,” adding that they make more sense when considered alongside providers’ architectural decisions. Those statements frame the results as evidence to investigate, not a universal verdict.
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