Object Storage is a globally-available, S3-compatible method for storing and accessing data. Object Storage differs from traditional hierarchical data storage, such as a traditional filesystem on a physical/virtual disk and Block Storage volumes. Under Object Storage, files (also called objects) are stored in flat data structures (referred to as buckets) alongside their own rich metadata.

Due to the nature of Object Storage, it does not require the use of a Compute Instance. Instead, Object Storage gives each object a unique URL with which you can access the data. An object can be publicly accessible, or you can set it to be private and only visible to you. This makes Object Storage great for sharing and storing unstructured data like images, documents, archives, streaming media assets, and file backups, and the amount of data you store can range from small collections of files up to massive libraries of information.

Features

S3-compatible

Object Storage is a globally-available, S3-compatible storage solution, maintaining the same performance as your data grows.

No Compute Instance required

Object storage does not require the use of a Compute Instance. Instead, Object Storage gives each object a unique URL which you can use to access your data.

Host static sites

Using Object Storage to host your static site files means you do not have to worry about maintaining your site’s infrastructure. It is no longer necessary to perform typical server maintenance tasks, like software upgrades, web server configuration, and security upkeep. See Deploy a Static Site using Hugo and Object Storage.

Availability

Object Storage is available within the following data centers. For a full list of specifications for each region, review the Technical Specifications.

*Higher capacity regions. These data centers offer increased capacity and are ideal for large enterprise workloads.

Object Storage deployments in each data center are assigned a cluster ID. These are used when formatting URLs and integrating Object Storage with tools such as the Linode CLI, s3cmd, s4cmd, and Cyberduck.

Pricing

Object Storage costs a flat rate of $5 a month, and includes 250 gigabytes of storage. This flat rate is prorated, so if you use Object Storage for a fraction of the month you are charged a fraction of the cost. For example, if you have Object Storage enabled for half of the month and use up to 250 gigabytes of storage you are billed $2.50 at the end of the month. The default cost of storage per gigabyte over the first 250 gigabytes is $0.02, and this usage is also prorated based on usage time.

Storage and network transfer overages for Object Storage vary by data center due to regional infrastructure costs. The below table includes overage costs for different data centers where Object Storage is available:

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Object Storage is similar to a subscription service. Once enabled, you will be billed at the flat rate regardless of whether or not there are active buckets on your account. You must Cancel Object Storage to stop billing for this service.

Technical specifications and considerations

The table below outlines default Object Storage limits. Limits apply per region, per account, unless otherwise specified.

*Limit varies by region. Data centers with exceptions to the default bucket limits are listed in the table below:

If your workloads require additional storage or need to accommodate more objects, contact the Support team with your request. Be sure to include any details related to your application and requirements. Among other factors, the total capacity of the region is considered when processing a limit increase request. For larger enterprise workloads, consider using one of the data centers designated as higher capacity (see Availability).

Network transfer

• 40 Gbps inbound network bandwidth
• Free inbound network transfer
• Metered outbound network transfer, including traffic to other Linode services within the same data center (over both public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses)
• When enabling Object Storage on your account, 1 TB (prorated) of transfer allowance per month is added to your global network transfer pool

See the Network transfer usage and costs guide for additional details, including costs for network transfer overages.

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If creating a bucket in our Jakarta or São Paulo data centers, note that no additional transfer is added to their region-specific transfer pools.

Optimize applications to avoid rate limiting

The rate limit for the number of Requests Per Second (RPS) applies to a bucket and is evaluated against each bucket once per second. If the duration of any request is greater than one second, any open requests will count against the rate limit in the next one second window.

For example, assume there are 750 requests for a single bucket with a duration of two seconds each. All of the requests that do not complete within the first second will count against the rate limit in the next second. With a rate limit of 750 requests per second for the bucket, no additional requests can be processed within the two second window until the first 750 requests complete. Any requests that are rate limited will receive a 503 response.

To help avoid rate limiting you can structure your data across multiple buckets, each of which will have its own rate limit.

Additional limits and specifications

• Upload file size limit: 5 GB. The maximum upload size of a single object is 5 GB, though this can easily be overcome by using multi-part uploads. Both s3cmd and Cyberduck will do this for you automatically if a file exceeds this limit as part of the uploading process.
• Restricted characters: Objects uploaded to Object Storage cannot contain the following special characters when using Cloud Manager or the Linode CLI: " ' < > & + =.

Developer resources

• Linode API provides the ability to programmatically manage the full range of Akamai cloud computing products and services.
  • Object Storage Endpoint Collection
• Linode CLI is a wrapper around the Linode API that lets you manage your account and resources from the command line. Learn how to use the Linode CLI.