Best file storage for app uploads (buyer asking for advice)

We asked 10 models: Users of my web app need to upload profile photos and files. Which storage service would you recommend? Each named its own top 10.

Asked 4 ways: List request · Buyer asking for advice · Search query · Worth paying for?. Share of voice pools every wording.

Agreement between models: 73%
Same model, run twice: 83%
Different picks: 19

When agreement between models is well below a model's agreement with itself, the split reflects real differences in taste rather than randomness.

The consensus

Each cell is the position that model gave the pick; blank means it left the pick off. Click a row for each model's reasoning.

#	Pick	Listed by	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
1	Amazon S3	10/10	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#1) Mature, cheap, scalable object storage with presigned uploads ideal for user files. GPT-6 Luna (#1) Mature, scalable object storage with strong durability, access controls, and broad ecosystem support. Gemini 4 Argon (#1) Industry standard for reliability, scalability, and ecosystem integration for all file types. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#1) Industry standard, cheap, durable, huge ecosystem of tooling. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#1) Industry standard object storage, infinitely scalable, great SDK support GLM-5.3 (#1) Industry standard for user uploads; scalable, durable, mature SDKs. Kimi K3 (#1) Industry-standard object storage, unmatched durability, scalability, and ecosystem for web apps. MiniMax M3 (#1) Industry-standard object storage, highly scalable and reliable Mistral Large 4 (#1) Industry standard, virtually unlimited scale, dirt-cheap storage, 99.999999999% durability. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#1) Industry standard, infinite scale, global CDN
2	Cloudflare R2	10/10	2	2	2	2	7	3	2	2	2	4
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#2) S3-compatible with zero egress fees, great for serving profile photos. GPT-6 Luna (#2) S3-compatible object storage with no egress fees, attractive for serving user-uploaded files. Gemini 4 Argon (#2) S3-compatible storage with zero egress fees, making it extremely cost-effective for serving user uploads. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#2) Zero egress fees make user downloads far cheaper. Kimi K3 (#2) Zero egress fees and S3-compatible API make it ideal for serving user uploads cheaply. MiniMax M3 (#2) S3-compatible storage with zero egress fees Mistral Large 4 (#2) Zero egress fees make it unbeatable for user-uploaded content delivery costs. GLM-5.3 (#3) Zero egress fees, S3-compatible; great for user media. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#4) Zero egress fees, S3-compatible API, global edge DeepSeek V4 Pro (#7) Zero egress fees, S3-compatible API, ideal for bandwidth-heavy profile images
3	Google Cloud Storage	10/10	3	3	7	4	3	2	3	4	3	2
GLM-5.3 (#2) Strong performance, simple pricing, excellent signed URLs. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#2) Low latency, strong consistency, multi-region Claude Haiku 5.5 (#3) Reliable object storage with strong CDN integration and signed URL uploads. GPT-6 Luna (#3) Reliable managed object storage with fine-grained IAM and straightforward signed-URL uploads. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#3) Strong IAM integration, multi-regional buckets, good CDN pairing Kimi K3 (#3) Excellent performance, global CDN integration, and strong IAM for profile photos and files. Mistral Large 4 (#3) Excellent performance, strong global network, competitive pricing, great ML integrations. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#4) Reliable object store with strong IAM and analytics integration. MiniMax M3 (#4) Reliable object storage with strong global infrastructure
4	Azure Blob Storage	10/10	4	4	10	7	4	5	4	5	4	3
Nemotron 3 Ultra (#3) Enterprise integration, tiered pricing, compliance Claude Haiku 5.5 (#4) Solid choice with robust access controls and tiered pricing. GPT-6 Luna (#4) Scalable object storage with mature security controls and direct-upload support. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#4) Deep Azure ecosystem integration, tiered access for cost control Kimi K3 (#4) Best-in-class for Microsoft-stack apps with seamless Azure integration and redundancy options. Mistral Large 4 (#4) Best choice if already in Microsoft ecosystem, seamless Azure service integration. GLM-5.3 (#5) Solid choice if app already on Azure. MiniMax M3 (#5) Scalable storage integrated with Azure ecosystem Qwen 3.8 Flash (#7) Best choice if your stack is already Azure. Gemini 4 Argon (#10) Enterprise-grade scalability and security, ideal for applications built on the Microsoft stack.
5	Backblaze B2	10/10	5	6	8	3	5	4	9	3	5	5
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#3) Lowest per-GB cost with S3-compatible API. MiniMax M3 (#3) Very affordable S3-compatible storage option GLM-5.3 (#4) Very cheap storage, S3-compatible for uploads. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#5) Very low storage cost with S3-compatible API for simple file uploads. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#5) Affordable S3-compatible storage with generous free tier Mistral Large 4 (#5) Cheapest S3-compatible storage, simple pricing, perfect for cost-conscious apps. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#5) Ultra-low cost, simple pricing, S3 compatible GPT-6 Luna (#6) Cost-effective object storage with S3-compatible APIs and dependable file handling. Gemini 4 Argon (#8) Ultra-low-cost object storage with S3 compatibility and generous free bandwidth partnerships. Kimi K3 (#9) Extremely cost-effective storage with S3-compatible API for budget-conscious projects.
6	Cloudinary	7/10	7	7	5		2	9	5		7
Gemini 4 Argon (#5) Unmatched dynamic image and video transformation capabilities, perfect for optimizing user profile photos. Kimi K3 (#5) Best for automatic image optimization, resizing, and transformations on profile photos. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#7) Excellent for profile photos with automatic resizing and transformations. GPT-6 Luna (#7) Excellent image transformations and delivery, especially useful for profile photos. Mistral Large 4 (#7) Purpose-built for images, automatic optimization, resizing, and transformations on upload.
7	Supabase Storage	7/10	10	5	3	8		6	7	7
Gemini 4 Argon (#3) Built-in authentication policies and automatic image transformations tailored for modern web apps. GPT-6 Luna (#5) Simple developer experience, integrated authentication and policies, and easy image/file handling. GLM-5.3 (#6) Convenient if already using Supabase auth and DB. Kimi K3 (#7) Tightly integrated with Supabase auth and Postgres, perfect for existing Supabase users. MiniMax M3 (#7) Open-source S3-compatible storage with simple APIs Qwen 3.8 Flash (#8) Open-source Postgres backend with built-in file buckets. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#10) Open-source option with Postgres-linked access policies and simple APIs.
8	DigitalOcean Spaces	9/10	8	10		6	9	8	10	6	10	6
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#6) Easy setup, CDN included, predictable small-project pricing. MiniMax M3 (#6) Simple, affordable S3-compatible object storage Nemotron 3 Ultra (#6) Simple pricing, CDN included, developer friendly Claude Haiku 5.5 (#8) Simple S3-compatible storage with predictable pricing for smaller teams. GLM-5.3 (#8) Simple, predictable pricing, easy setup for small apps. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#9) Simple S3-compatible object storage with predictable pricing Kimi K3 (#10) Simple, predictable pricing with built-in CDN for straightforward object storage needs. Mistral Large 4 (#10) Simple S3-compatible API, built-in CDN, predictable pricing, great for startups.
9	Wasabi	6/10	9	8		5				9	6	7
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#5) Flat simple pricing, no egress charges for frequent access. Mistral Large 4 (#6) No egress or API fees, flat predictable pricing, S3-compatible, hot storage speed. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#7) No egress fees, predictable pricing, high performance GPT-6 Luna (#8) Affordable object storage suited to persistent files when its retention terms fit. MiniMax M3 (#9) Predictable pricing with no egress fees
10	Uploadcare	5/10	6		9			7	6		8
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#6) Purpose-built upload widget and processing for images and files. Kimi K3 (#6) Handles uploads, image transformations, and CDN delivery with minimal backend code. GLM-5.3 (#7) Handles uploads, image processing, and CDNs out of box. Mistral Large 4 (#8) Developer-friendly file handling, built-in CDN, malware scanning, and image processing. Gemini 4 Argon (#9) End-to-end file handling with an instant upload UI widget and on-the-fly image optimization.
11	Firebase Storage	6/10		9	6	9			8	8	9
Gemini 4 Argon (#6) Seamless client-side SDKs and security rules for apps already using the Google ecosystem. Kimi K3 (#8) Great for mobile-first apps already using Firebase, with easy SDKs and security rules. MiniMax M3 (#8) Easy integration with Firebase and Google Cloud GPT-6 Luna (#9) Convenient uploads and security rules for apps already using Firebase. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#9) Auth-integrated uploads straight from the client app. Mistral Large 4 (#9) Dead-simple integration for web/mobile apps already using Firebase, secure rules built-in.
12	UploadThing	2/10			4		10
Gemini 4 Argon (#4) Best-in-class developer experience with type-safe file uploads specifically built for modern TypeScript apps.
13	Imgix	1/10					6
No reasons recorded.
14	Linode Object Storage	2/10								10		8
Nemotron 3 Ultra (#8) Flat pricing, S3 compatible, global clusters
15	Wistia	1/10					8
No reasons recorded.

4 lower-scoring picks are not shown; every ballot below lists them in full.

Most divisive

Picks most models listed, at very different positions

Azure Blob Storage#3 for Nemotron 3 Ultra #10 for Gemini 4 Argon
Cloudinary#2 for DeepSeek V4 Pro #9 for GLM-5.3
Supabase Storage#3 for Gemini 4 Argon #10 for Claude Haiku 5.5

Hot takes

Picks that appear on only one ballot

Imgix at #6, only DeepSeek V4 Pro
Wistia at #8, only DeepSeek V4 Pro
Vultr Object Storage at #9, only Nemotron 3 Ultra
Hetzner Object Storage at #10, only Qwen 3.8 Flash
AWS S3-compatible services at #10, only GLM-5.3
Scaleway Object Storage at #10, only Nemotron 3 Ultra

Every ballot

Hover a pick to find it on the other ballots. Marked picks appear on no other ballot.

Claude Haiku 5.5

Amazon S3
Cloudflare R2
Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Backblaze B2
Uploadcare
Cloudinary
DigitalOcean Spaces
Wasabi
Supabase Storage

96% with consensus · 94% self-consistent

GPT-6 Luna

Amazon S3
Cloudflare R2
Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Supabase Storage
Backblaze B2
Cloudinary
Wasabi
Firebase Storage
DigitalOcean Spaces

94% with consensus · 85% self-consistent

Gemini 4 Argon

Amazon S3
Cloudflare R2
Supabase Storage
UploadThing
Cloudinary
Firebase Storage
Google Cloud Storage
Backblaze B2
Uploadcare
Azure Blob Storage

72% with consensus · 90% self-consistent

Qwen 3.8 Flash

Amazon S3
Cloudflare R2
Backblaze B2
Google Cloud Storage
Wasabi
DigitalOcean Spaces
Azure Blob Storage
Supabase Storage
Firebase Storage
Hetzner Object Storage

83% with consensus · 95% self-consistent

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Amazon S3
Cloudinary
Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Backblaze B2
Imgix
Cloudflare R2
Wistia
DigitalOcean Spaces
UploadThing

76% with consensus · 28% self-consistent

GLM-5.3

Amazon S3
Google Cloud Storage
Cloudflare R2
Backblaze B2
Azure Blob Storage
Supabase Storage
Uploadcare
DigitalOcean Spaces
Cloudinary
AWS S3-compatible services

85% with consensus · 73% self-consistent

Kimi K3

Amazon S3
Cloudflare R2
Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Cloudinary
Uploadcare
Supabase Storage
Firebase Storage
Backblaze B2
DigitalOcean Spaces

91% with consensus · 86% self-consistent

MiniMax M3

Amazon S3
Cloudflare R2
Backblaze B2
Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage
DigitalOcean Spaces
Supabase Storage
Firebase Storage
Wasabi
Linode Object Storage

88% with consensus · 92% self-consistent

Mistral Large 4

Amazon S3
Cloudflare R2
Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Backblaze B2
Wasabi
Cloudinary
Uploadcare
Firebase Storage
DigitalOcean Spaces

93% with consensus · 91% self-consistent

Nemotron 3 Ultra

Amazon S3
Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Cloudflare R2
Backblaze B2
DigitalOcean Spaces
Wasabi
Linode Object Storage
Vultr Object Storage
Scaleway Object Storage

80% with consensus · 97% self-consistent

Who agrees with whom

Overlap between two models' lists, weighted toward the top · 100 means identical · Color runs from 52 (lightest) to 95 (darkest)

	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
Claude Haiku 5.5		91	69	81	75	85	91	85	95	80
GPT-6 Luna	91		75	81	72	83	91	85	93	77
Gemini 4 Argon	69	75		67	53	64	76	69	69	52
Qwen 3.8 Flash	81	81	67		61	77	76	94	84	74
DeepSeek V4 Pro	75	72	53	61		70	72	65	74	71
GLM-5.3	85	83	64	77	70		81	82	82	83
Kimi K3	91	91	76	76	72	81		81	90	71
MiniMax M3	85	85	69	94	65	82	81		84	76
Mistral Large 4	95	93	69	84	74	82	90	84		80
Nemotron 3 Ultra	80	77	52	74	71	83	71	76	80