Setting up Cloudflare R2

Step 1 — Create a Cloudflare account

R2 sits inside the normal Cloudflare dashboard, so the first step is just account setup. You do not need to move your website to Cloudflare or change any Twitch settings.

• Go to Cloudflare sign up.
• Use an email address you can access, because Cloudflare will ask you to verify it.
• After verification, sign in to the Cloudflare dashboard.
• Look for R2 in the same dashboard sidebar. That is where buckets, API tokens, and the S3 endpoint live.

Step 2 — Enable R2 and create a bucket

A bucket is the storage container VOD Manager writes into. Give it a boring, recognizable name now so you can spot it later on invoices, token screens, and connection forms.

1. From the Cloudflare dashboard sidebar, open R2, then Overview.
2. Click Purchase R2. The free tier is provisioned automatically; payment information is mainly there to gate paid usage if you grow past the free limits.
3. Click Create bucket.
4. Name the bucket something clear, such as vod-manager-archives.
5. Leave the location hint set to Automatic, then click Create.

Step 3 — Generate an R2 API token

An API token is a private key pair that lets VOD Manager write files to your bucket without using your Cloudflare password. Scope the token to this one bucket so it only has the access it needs.

1. In the R2 sidebar, open Manage R2 API Tokens.
2. Click Create API token.
3. Set permission to Object Read & Write.
4. Set bucket scope to the bucket you just made, not every bucket in the account.
5. Leave TTL blank for a long-lived token.
6. Click Create.

Step 4 — Find your account-specific S3 endpoint

R2 uses an S3-compatible endpoint, which is the account-specific address VOD Manager connects to. In the R2 dashboard, Cloudflare shows it in the S3 API area as https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com. Copy that account host only. Do not add the bucket name to the endpoint field.

Step 5 — Connect VOD Manager

Now move the Cloudflare details into VOD Manager. The important part is the region: for R2, the region is always auto. Do not use us-east-1 or another AWS-style region.

• Open VOD Manager, then Storage, then Add storage profile.
• Choose Cloudflare R2 as the provider.
• Use any friendly name you will recognize later.
• Paste the endpoint from step 4.
• Set Region to auto.
• Enter the bucket name, Access Key ID, and Secret Access Key.
• Click Test connection and watch for the green check.

Common issues

Costs to know

Cloudflare lists R2 storage around $0.015 per GB each month after the first 10 GB free. R2 does not charge download fees, which helps when you pull VODs down later for editing or uploads. Writes, lists, and reads are counted as Class A and Class B operations, but their free tiers are generous enough that many small streamer archives stay free or close to free.