What Is AIOZ Storage? S3-Compatible Decentralized Storage

AIOZ Storage is S3-compatible object storage that runs on AIOZ DePIN, a network of independently operated nodes, instead of one company's data centers. Your existing S3 tools work after you change the endpoint. Storage costs $17 per TB a month, and delivery costs $5 per TB.

TL;DR:

• AIOZ Storage is an S3-compatible object store built on AIOZ DePIN. The AWS CLI and the standard S3 SDKs work against https://s3.aiozstorage.network.
• Storage costs $17 per TB a month and delivery $5 per TB, billed hourly from a pre-paid balance. There is no free plan.
• AIOZ does not store your bucket passphrases. Server-side encryption is the default. End-to-end encryption needs a self-hosted gateway that isn't downloadable yet.
• The same account now includes a Vector Database, an MCP server for super intelligence assistants, and Super Intelligence Memory. Vector usage has its own billing lines.

Updated Oct 19, 2026: added the Vector Database, MCP server, and Super Intelligence Memory from the current docs, plus the vector billing lines; described the Reed-Solomon erasure coding that protects every object; noted that the self-hosted gateway isn't downloadable yet; and shortened the answer up top.

Updated Oct 29, 2026: merged our 2023 launch post and our 2025 DePIN backbone post into this guide, adding what became of the launch roadmap, the workloads the docs name, and the network-wide node count next to the Storage figure.

What is AIOZ Storage?

AIOZ Storage is an object storage service that implements the Amazon S3 API. Code and tools that already talk to S3 can point at AIOZ Storage once you change the endpoint and credentials.

The difference from a typical S3-compatible provider is where your data lives. AIOZ Storage runs on AIOZ DePIN, AIOZ's decentralized physical infrastructure network, instead of a fixed set of company-owned data centers. The docs list S3 compatibility, no single point of failure, a built-in CDN, and payment in AIOZ tokens among its key features. That design shapes the rest of this article: how erasure coding protects your objects, how billing works, and why encryption is built around a passphrase AIOZ does not keep.

How AIOZ DePIN powers AIOZ Storage

AIOZ's docs define AIOZ DePIN as a network that rewards the computing, storage, transcoding, and streaming resources its nodes contribute. AIOZ Storage uses that shared network instead of a dedicated server fleet. Because the capacity comes from independently operated nodes, the pricing looks different from a conventional cloud bill. The AIOZ Storage homepage counts 191,285 edge nodes and a 15 MB/s average download speed. That edge-node figure is the Storage one; the network-wide counter on the AIOZ DePIN page, which also covers delivery, transcoding and super intelligence compute, read 329,940 total DePINs on Oct 29, 2026.

Protection is automatic. AIOZ Storage encrypts every object, then splits it with Reed-Solomon erasure coding into data and parity pieces stored on different nodes, per AIOZ Storage engineering (2026). Any k of the n pieces rebuild the object, so it survives the loss of several pieces, and no single node holds a complete copy. The k and n values and a durability figure aren't published, so if you need a specific durability number, plan around that gap.

How S3-compatible is AIOZ Storage?

For most code it's a drop-in, with one tradeoff. The docs cover five ways in: SDKs for JavaScript, Go, and Python, a Postman collection with AWS Signature authentication, and the AWS CLI pointed at https://s3.aiozstorage.network. None of them needs a custom AIOZ client. If your code already uses boto3, aws-sdk-go-v2, or @aws-sdk/client-s3, you swap the endpoint, region, and credentials.

The tradeoff is encryption. Server-side encryption is on by default and needs no setup. End-to-end encryption alongside S3 compatibility needs a self-hosted gateway, which the docs describe but you can't install yet. The GitHub repository the docs link to, AIOZNetwork/w3s-gateway, holds only a README saying the gateway CLI and tutorials "will be available soon," with no releases (checked Oct 19, 2026). How AIOZ Storage encryption works covers the key derivation chain and which mode keeps your plaintext off AIOZ's servers.

Access control and account limits

Every account starts as a root account that can create sub-users. The docs call this a "sophisticated multi-role-based user system," and it lets a team share one account without sharing one set of credentials. Access runs through access grants, which carry read, write, list, and delete permissions plus an expiry you pick, from 24 hours to 1 year.

The default limits are 100 buckets, 100 sub-users, and 100 requests per second per account.

How much does AIOZ Storage cost?

The billing docs list storage at 0.017 USD per GB per month, charged hourly, and bandwidth at 0.005 USD per GB downloaded. That works out to $17 per TB a month stored and $5 per TB delivered. Billing is pre-paid: you deposit AIOZ tokens, and AIOZ converts them to a USD balance at the current market rate. The getting-started docs say there is no free plan.

Your balance must stay above the last cycle's storage charge. If it drops below, the account locks: your data stays, but uploads and downloads stop. Leave it unpaid for 3 days and AIOZ deletes the account's data.

Vector Database usage comes out of the same balance on its own lines: 0.04 USD per GB uploaded, 0.05 USD per GB-month stored, and 0.000002 USD per query plus fees for the data each query searches and returns. Object storage has no per-request fee, but vector queries do. How AIOZ Storage pricing works walks through a worked example.

Against Amazon S3 Standard, at roughly $23 per TB stored and $92 per TB for the first tier of internet egress, the delivery gap is large. Cloudflare R2 charges $15 per TB stored and nothing for egress, which beats AIOZ Storage's rate card on both counts. So the case for AIOZ Storage against newer providers rests on decentralization, S3 compatibility, and its access model more than on price.

Vector Database, MCP server, and Super Intelligence Memory

The docs now cover three features for super intelligence (SI) workloads. All three use the same account and access keys as your buckets.

• Vector Database: you store and query vector embeddings through the AWS S3 Vectors SDKs, with guides for Python, JavaScript, and Go. You create a vector bucket and an index, set the dimension to match your embedding model, then put and query vectors. Vectors get the same protection on AIOZ DePIN as any other object.
• MCP server: an MCP-compatible assistant can work with your S3 buckets, objects, vector buckets, indexes, and vectors through 22 documented tools. It connects over HTTP SSE at https://mcp.aiozstorage.network/sse, and every tool call carries your access key ID and secret.
• Super Intelligence Memory: an agent saves plain-language statements with Record and asks questions with Recall. The docs say "You do not create embeddings, vector indexes, or vectors yourself." SDKs exist for Go, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Python, and each call costs 0.00005 USD on top of the vector charges.

If you're unsure which one fits, Vector Database vs Agent Memory on AIOZ Storage compares them side by side.

For where the Vector Database sits among other kinds of vector stores, and when a dedicated one fits better, see our guide to the object storage vector database.

From the 2023 Launch to Today

AIOZ announced AIOZ Storage on Dec 18, 2023 as S3-compatible object storage for Web3 dApps. The launch post listed three features still in development. Here is where each one stands in the docs on Oct 29, 2026:

• Static web hosting: shipped. The Static Website Hosting page lets you serve HTML, CSS and JS from a bucket through a CDN, with custom index and error documents and a per-bucket on/off switch. Our static hosting setup guide walks through it.
• Migration integrations: shipped as tutorials. The docs now carry rclone guides for moving buckets from Amazon S3 and from Backblaze B2, which our S3 migration guide and B2 migration guide follow step by step.
• Permanent archive storage: not in the docs. There is no archive tier or permanent-storage option today, and every object bills at the same storage rate, whatever its age.

The docs' Overview names the workloads the service was built for: media companies storing libraries of digital content, e-commerce sites that need fast media delivery, and dApps that need storage that grows with them. AIOZ also runs its own products on it. Its May 2025 post on the V1 release of its SI platform says models and datasets uploaded there are hosted on AIOZ Storage. For third-party projects, our roundup of dApps built on AIOZ Storage links every customer story.

What changes with decentralized storage

Compared with a centralized S3-compatible provider, three things differ. Capacity comes from independently operated nodes, which drives both the cost structure and the "no single point of failure" claim. AIOZ never keeps your bucket passphrase in either encryption mode, and end-to-end mode keeps plaintext off AIOZ's servers once its self-hosted gateway is released. Billing has no free tier and no card subscription, only a token-funded balance metered hourly.

The API stays the same. Your S3 tooling, SDKs, and migration scripts work against AIOZ Storage with few or no changes.

How AIOZ Storage handles a first upload

After you create an account, deposit funds, and generate S3 credentials from an access grant, the AWS CLI is the quickest test. The aws s3 commands come from the docs' CLI page, with one bucket name used throughout:

export AWS_REQUEST_CHECKSUM_CALCULATION=when_required
aws configure set default.s3.addressing_style path
aws s3 --endpoint-url https://s3.aiozstorage.network mb s3://my-bucket
aws s3 --endpoint-url https://s3.aiozstorage.network cp /path/to/file s3://my-bucket
aws s3 --endpoint-url https://s3.aiozstorage.network ls s3://my-bucket

The first two lines turn off the aws-chunked uploads and bucket subdomains that current AWS CLI versions default to, because AIOZ Storage needs a Content-Length on uploads and path-style URLs (checked Oct 19, 2026).

What the docs don't cover yet: the erasure code's k and n values, a durability figure, or where in the world the pieces sit.

If you'd rather use the dashboard, our guide to creating a bucket and uploading a file covers the same first upload in five steps, including the bucket passphrase that AIOZ doesn't keep.

Next step: follow Create An Account in the AIOZ Storage docs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AIOZ Storage?
S3-compatible object storage that runs on AIOZ DePIN, a decentralized network of independently operated nodes. It costs $17 per TB a month to store data and $5 per TB to deliver it.

Is AIOZ Storage compatible with existing S3 tools and SDKs?
Yes. The docs cover JavaScript, Go, and Python SDKs, a Postman workflow with AWS Signature authentication, and the standard AWS CLI pointed at a custom endpoint, with no custom AIOZ client.

Does AIOZ Storage have a free tier?
No. The docs state there is no free plan. The service is pre-paid, with storage and bandwidth billed hourly against your balance.

How much does AIOZ Storage cost?
$17 per TB per month for storage and $5 per TB for delivery. Object storage has no per-request fee. Vector Database usage is billed separately, including a small fee per query.

What happens if my AIOZ Storage account runs out of balance?
The account locks and your data is kept, but you can't upload or download. If you don't settle the balance within 3 days, AIOZ deletes the account's data.

Is AIOZ Storage cheaper than AWS S3?
For delivery, by a wide margin: about $5 per TB versus roughly $92 per TB for AWS's first tier of internet egress. For raw storage the gap is smaller, and Cloudflare R2 undercuts AIOZ Storage on storage and egress combined.

What are AIOZ Storage's account limits?
100 buckets, 100 sub-users, and 100 requests per second per account, per the docs' usage limit page.

Does AIOZ Storage encrypt my data by default?
Yes, with server-side encryption. AIOZ doesn't keep your passphrase in either mode, but in the default mode AIOZ's servers decrypt data to serve it back to you. Only end-to-end mode keeps your plaintext off AIOZ's servers, and the self-hosted gateway it needs isn't downloadable yet.

Does AIOZ Storage have a vector database?
Yes. The Vector Database works with the AWS S3 Vectors SDKs in Python, JavaScript, and Go, and it bills upload, storage, and queries from the same pre-paid balance.

Does AIOZ Storage have an MCP server?
Yes. It connects over HTTP SSE at https://mcp.aiozstorage.network/sse and documents 22 tools for S3 buckets, objects, vector buckets, indexes, and vectors.

Related Reading

• How AIOZ Storage Encryption Works - the key derivation chain and the two encryption modes.
• AIOZ Storage Access Control: Macaroons and Access Grants - how permissions, access grants, and sub-users work on top of the S3-compatible layer described here.
• Migrate from Amazon S3 to AIOZ Storage with rclone - the config change for moving an existing S3 bucket over.
• How AIOZ Storage Pricing Works - the full billing mechanics, a worked cost example, and how the rate card compares to AWS and modern alt-cloud providers.
• AIOZ Storage Glossary: Bucket, Passphrase, Macaroon - quick definitions for every term used across this series, and where AIOZ's own docs disagree on naming.
• What Is Amazon S3? Object Storage Explained - the general bucket/object/key model this article's S3-compatibility claim builds on, and what "S3-compatible" means industry-wide.
• Static Website Hosting on AIOZ Storage: Full Setup Guide - a real, documented feature that turns the bucket model described here into a live website.
• How to Use AIOZ Storage Effectively: A Practical Checklist - a 7-item checklist synthesizing the setup, encryption, and access-control decisions covered across this hub into one actionable list.
• Data Durability vs Availability: What 11 Nines Means - what AWS and Google Cloud publish for both guarantees, and what AIOZ Storage's own documentation does and doesn't confirm about either.
• Hot vs Cold Storage: Storage Tiers and When They Matter - why AWS and Azure price storage differently by access frequency, and why AIOZ Storage's flat rate skips that decision entirely.
• What Is a CDN and How Does It Relate to Object Storage? - what AIOZ Storage's $5/TB delivery fee pays for, and what its documentation does and doesn't confirm about the mechanism.
• RBAC vs ABAC vs Capability-Based Access Control Explained - the theoretical model behind AIOZ Storage's macaroon-based access grants, with NIST's own definitions for the two alternatives.
• The 3-2-1 Backup Rule: A Practical Framework Explained - where AIOZ Storage fits in a real backup strategy, and the one modern extension its documentation doesn't confirm.
• Managing AIOZ Storage Buckets with Terraform, Step by Step - bringing AIOZ Storage into an existing infrastructure-as-code workflow alongside real AWS resources.
• Multi-Cloud Storage Disaster Recovery with AIOZ and S3 - using AIOZ Storage as an independent second provider alongside AWS S3.
• Vector Database vs Agent Memory on AIOZ Storage: A Guide - when to use the Vector Database and when to use Super Intelligence Memory.
• AIOZ Storage Super Intelligence Memory: Record and Recall - how agents save and recall plain-language statements.
• AIOZ Storage developer platform hub - every SDK, CLI and tool guide for AIOZ Storage in one place.
• Build a file API with FastAPI and boto3 on AIOZ Storage - a Python service that uploads and serves files from a bucket.
• Migrate from Backblaze B2 to AIOZ Storage with rclone - the same move for B2 buckets.
• What Web3 object storage is - the decentralized storage model AIOZ Storage belongs to.
• dApps built on AIOZ Storage - projects that store their data on AIOZ Storage, with every customer story.
• AIOZ Network in 2024: the year in review - the year AIOZ Storage, then called W3S, rolled out alongside its first dApps.

References

• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Overview
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: S3 Compatibility
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Decentralized Storage
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Billing
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Penalty
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Usage Limit
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Vector Database
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: MCP Server
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Super Intelligence Memory
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: CLI
• AWS S3 Pricing 2026 Guide
• AWS Documentation: What Is Amazon S3?
• AIOZ Network Blog: Introducing AIOZ Storage (Dec 18, 2023)
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Static Website Hosting
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Migrate From Amazon S3
• AIOZ Storage Documentation: Migrate From Backblaze B2
• AIOZ Network Blog: Inside AIOZ AI V1 (May 28, 2025)
• AIOZ DePIN: Powered by People