Cloudflare R2
Traditional cloud storage providers (AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob) charge per gigabyte of data transferred out of their network. For a video editor with 1 TB of footage, downloading the originals once can cost roughly 90 USD on top of the storage bill. This egress economics is what historically made cloud-first video editing impractical.
Cloudflare R2, launched in 2022, broke that model by removing egress fees entirely. Storage costs around 15 USD per TB per month, and downloading is free regardless of how often or how much. Combined with R2's S3 API compatibility, this makes it possible to stream original-quality video files from cloud storage directly into a video editor, reload them on every revision, and never pay an unexpected bandwidth invoice.
Examples
- •Storing 5 TB of documentary rushes on R2 costs about 75 USD per month, with no extra cost no matter how often the editor pulls clips
- •A wedding videographer storing 200 GB per wedding pays roughly 3 USD per month per project, including unlimited streaming for revisions
- •A studio with three editors all streaming 4K originals from R2 sees no usage-based bandwidth invoice
In Sanbila
Sanbila uses Cloudflare R2 as its primary storage backend. Originals are uploaded once (multipart for files over 100 MB) and remain available for streaming or download forever, without per-egress billing.
Frequently asked questions
How is Sanbila different from the proxy generator built into my NLE?+
Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and Avid all generate proxies locally, but they keep the original full-resolution files on the same SSD — so the disk fills up twice. Sanbila stores the originals in the cloud (Cloudflare R2) and keeps only the lightweight proxies on your machine. At export, Smart Relink streams the originals back via a local WebDAV mount, so you finish at full quality without ever downloading the source files.
Does Sanbila work offline?+
Yes for editing — once a proxy is cached on your SSD, you can cut, trim, color and arrange your timeline without an internet connection. You only need network access for the initial import (uploading originals to the cloud) and for the final export (streaming originals back via WebDAV).
How much cloud storage does the free plan include?+
The free plan includes 5 GB of cloud storage and one project, with no credit card required. Paid plans start at $49 per month for 2 TB and 50 projects, going up to 25 TB on the Enterprise plan with overage billing for teams that need more.
What upload speed do I need to use Sanbila?+
Any broadband connection works for the initial upload — Sanbila chunks files into 50 MB parts and uploads in parallel, so a typical 100 Mbps fiber line uploads 1 hour of 4K H.264 footage in about 6 minutes. After upload, day-to-day editing happens on local proxies, so your connection speed only matters again at export time when originals are streamed.
Which video formats does Sanbila support?+
Sanbila handles 22+ formats out of the box: MP4, MOV, MXF, R3D (RED RAW), BRAW (Blackmagic RAW), ARRI proxies, ProRes, DNxHR, DNxHD, H.264, H.265, plus WAV and AAC for audio. Both 4K and 8K sources are supported up to 200 GB per single file (URL imports have no size limit).
Related terms
Sources
- Cloudflare R2 announcement (zero egress) · Cloudflare
- R2 documentation · Cloudflare
- Amazon S3 API reference (R2 implements) · AWS