---
title: "What is Edge Storage?"
description: "Edge storage keeps data on servers close to end users. Learn how edge object storage works, what it costs, and why zero egress fees change the economics."
url: https://edge.network/academy/what-is-edge-storage/
---

# What is Edge Storage?

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Information
7 min read

# What is Edge Storage?

Storing data centrally and serving it globally means every download pays a
distance tax. Edge storage removes it — and, done right, removes the egress
bill too.

## Edge storage, defined

Edge storage is data storage distributed across servers close to end users —
the edge of the network — rather than held in a single central data centre.
When a user requests a file, it is served from a nearby location instead of
crossing continents, which means faster downloads, lower latency, and less
load on core infrastructure.

In practice, edge storage usually means **object storage** — the
model popularised by Amazon S3, where files are stored as objects in buckets
and accessed over HTTP — combined with edge delivery, so reads are answered
from the location nearest the requester.

## How edge storage works

You upload objects through an API — with Edge, an S3-compatible one — and
the platform handles placement and replication across the
[edge network](https://edge.network/academy/what-is-an-edge-network).
When the data is requested, it's cached and served from the
[edge server](https://edge.network/academy/what-is-an-edge-server) nearest
to the user, so a photo uploaded in London is served to a user in Singapore
from Singapore's side of the world, not from London.

This pairs naturally with a [CDN](https://edge.network/cdn):
the storage layer is the durable source of truth, and the delivery layer
keeps hot content at the edge. On Edge the two are part of the same
platform, so buckets work as CDN origins without extra configuration or
transfer fees between services.

## Edge object storage solutions

[Edge Storage](https://edge.network/storage) is
scalable object storage built for edge deployments: S3-compatible, backed
entirely by NVMe, and delivered from the network's edge locations with
99.99% durability. It's designed for the workloads object storage does best
— static assets, media files, user uploads, backups, CDN origins, data
lakes, and logs.

### S3-Compatible API

Works with existing S3 tooling and SDKs, so migrating is a config change rather than a rewrite.

### All NVMe

Every object lives on NVMe storage. No cold tiers, no retrieval delays — data is instantly accessible.

### Encrypted at Rest

AES-256 encryption for all stored data, with signed URLs and fine-grained access control.

### Versioning Built In

Automatic version history for all objects, so previous versions can be restored at any time.

## What does edge storage cost?

Edge Storage is free for the first 5 GB, then **$0.015 per GB-month** — with no egress fees and no per-request charges at any
volume. Storage is the only line item. Paid usage is opt-in: you set a
monthly budget, and usage is billed hourly from a prepaid balance, so a
surprise bill is impossible by design.

Here's how the published standard rates compare:

Provider
Storage
Egress
Requests

Edge Storage
$0.015/GB-month
Free
Free

AWS S3
$0.023/GB-month
$0.09/GB
$0.40/M reads, $5.00/M writes

Google Cloud Storage
$0.020/GB-month
$0.12/GB
$0.40/M reads, $5.00/M writes

Cloudflare R2
$0.015/GB-month
Free
$0.36/M reads, $4.50/M writes

Published standard on-demand rates. See [storage pricing](https://edge.network/storage/pricing) for
a calculator that models your exact workload.

## Why zero egress fees matter

With traditional cloud storage, keeping data is cheap — serving it is
expensive. At $0.09–0.12 per GB of egress, a product that stores 250 GB
but serves 500 GB a month pays far more for downloads than for storage
itself. The more successful your product, the worse the bill.

Edge charges nothing for egress or requests, at any volume. The economics
flip: costs track how much you store, not how popular you are. For
media-heavy products, user-generated content, and anything that pairs
storage with a CDN, this is usually the single biggest line-item saving of
moving to edge storage.

## Store at the edge

5 GB free, S3-compatible, zero egress fees. No card required to start.

[Start Free](https://edge.network/account) [See Storage Pricing](https://edge.network/storage/pricing)

## Related articles

[What is the Edge Cloud? 7 min](https://edge.network/academy/what-is-the-edge-cloud) [What is an Edge Server? 7 min](https://edge.network/academy/what-is-an-edge-server) [CDN vs Edge Computing: What's the Difference? 7 min](https://edge.network/academy/cdn-vs-edge-computing)

Coming soon

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platform, with a verifiable certificate at the end. Sign up now for updates.

[Learn more about accreditation](https://edge.network/accreditation)