A recent article about using Cloudflare R2 for video delivery has sparked important discussions in the tech community, particularly regarding the interpretation of costs and storage metrics. While the original piece highlighted an impressive cost-saving case study, community members have stepped forward to provide crucial clarifications about the actual metrics involved.
Storage vs. Bandwidth: The Important Distinction
The community has pointed out a significant distinction in the headline figures. The 15 terabytes mentioned refers to bandwidth consumption (data transferred) rather than storage space. According to calculations shared in the comments, the actual storage footprint is approximately 145GB, as evidenced by the monthly storage cost of $2.18 (at $0.015 per GB per month). This clarification is vital for organizations considering similar implementations.
This price is solely to deliver 15tb of video. Don't get confused like other commenter.
Cost Breakdown:
- Monthly Storage Cost: $2.18
- Storage Size: ~145GB
- Monthly Bandwidth Usage: 15TB
- Storage Cost Rate: $0.015/GB/month
- Bandwidth Cost: $0 (free egress)
Real-World Implementation Success
The discussion has revealed broader applications of Cloudflare R2's cost-effective model. One notable example comes from an open-source project that reportedly distributes over 10TB of model weights monthly at zero cost, remaining on the free tier. This real-world implementation demonstrates R2's potential impact on projects with significant bandwidth requirements but limited revenue streams.
Performance Optimization Insights
Technical experts in the community have suggested potential improvements to the original implementation. Specifically, they note that switching from the -preset veryfast encoding setting to veryslow could potentially reduce bitrate by 20-30% while maintaining visual quality. This optimization could further enhance the user experience and reduce bandwidth consumption.
Provider Cost Comparison:
- Cloudflare R2: $2.18/mo
- Vimeo: $1,500/mo
- Wistia: $5,019/mo
- Mux: $1,271.88/mo
Conclusion
The community discussion has helped clarify the true value proposition of Cloudflare R2 while highlighting important technical considerations for implementation. While the cost savings are indeed impressive, understanding the distinction between storage and bandwidth usage is crucial for organizations planning similar deployments. The success stories and optimization suggestions from the community provide valuable insights for those considering R2 for their content delivery needs.
Source Citations: Delivering 15TB of 4K video with Cloudflare R2 for $2.18