IBM Cloud Object Storage

Free storage / trial: Free Tier on the Standard plan: 5 GB of monthly usage for up to 12 months from sign-up.
Separate limits: After 12 months, or above the Free Tier limits, usage is billed at standard pay-as-you-go rates. The One-Rate plan bundles storage, egress, retrieval and API operations into a per-TB monthly price.
Billing trigger: Standard is pay-as-you-go with no minimum fee; One-Rate is a single monthly rate per TB.
Best fit: S3 workloads that need a specific IBM location, including cross-region and single data center endpoints.

Cost hygiene:Keep a test bucket under 5 GB during the first year and watch the usage page before the Free Tier ends.

Checked 2026-09-24: IBM Cloud Object Storage docs (Free Tier)

IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS) is IBM's S3-compatible object storage. AeroFTP includes a dedicated IBM Cloud Object Storage preset that builds the endpoint from the location you pick, so you only enter your keys, the bucket and its location.

Availability

The IBM Cloud Object Storage preset ships in the release after AeroFTP v4.2.0. On v4.2.0, use the generic S3 Compatible form with the endpoint https://s3.<location>.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud, the bucket location as region, and path-style access enabled.

What You Need

an IBM Cloud account with a Cloud Object Storage instance
HMAC credentials for that instance: in the IBM Cloud console open the instance, Service credentials, New credential, and enable Include HMAC Credential. The cos_hmac_keys block of the new credential holds the access_key_id and the secret_access_key
your bucket name
the bucket's location (shown in the bucket's configuration)

API keys and IAM tokens are not S3 credentials: the preset needs the HMAC pair.

How to Connect

Open AeroFTP.
Select IBM Cloud Object Storage from the S3 providers.
Paste the HMAC Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.
Choose the Region that matches the bucket's location.
Enter the bucket name, or use Fetch to list the buckets the key can see.
Connect and save the profile.

Connection Settings

Field	Value	Notes
Protocol	S3	Built-in preset
Endpoint	`https://s3.<location>.cloud-object-storage.appdomain.cloud`	Built from the selected region
Default region	`eu-de` (Frankfurt)	Change it to your bucket's location
Addressing	Virtual-hosted	IBM also accepts path-style
Port	443	HTTPS

Locations

The region select lists every public endpoint IBM documents:

Regional: us-south (Dallas), us-east (Washington DC), eu-gb (London), eu-de (Frankfurt), eu-es (Madrid), ca-tor (Toronto), ca-mon (Montreal), br-sao (São Paulo), au-syd (Sydney), jp-tok (Tokyo), jp-osa (Osaka), in-che (Chennai), in-mum (Mumbai)
Cross-Region: us, eu, ap
Single Data Center: ams03 (Amsterdam), par01 (Paris), mon01 (Montreal), sjc04 (San Jose), che01 (Chennai), sng01 (Singapore)

A bucket answers only on the endpoint of its own location. The region is also the one AeroFTP signs requests with, so it must match the bucket.

Features

File operations: upload, download, rename, move and delete, including multipart uploads for large files
Share links: presigned URLs, valid for a limited time
AeroSync: supported
Profiles from other tools: a bucket imported from Cyberduck, rclone, restic or an AWS config keeps its endpoint, and the signing region is read back from it when the profile stores none

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
Bucket not found	The bucket lives in another location	Pick the bucket's own location in Region
Signature does not match	Wrong secret key, or a region that differs from the bucket's location	Recheck the HMAC pair and the region
Access denied	The credential has no role on the bucket	Create the service credential with the Writer or Manager role
Invalid access key	An API key was used instead of HMAC keys	Create a credential with Include HMAC Credential enabled

IBM Cloud Object Storage ​