Setting up Wasabi
Wasabi can be a good flat-rate choice when you keep a large archive and want no surprise download fees. It is less friendly for tiny or fast-rotating archives because standard pay-as-you-go has a 1 TB monthly minimum and a 90-day minimum-storage rule.
Before you start: is Wasabi the right fit?
Wasabi makes the most sense when your archive is already big or you expect it to grow past 1 TB. If you are under 100 GB, start by comparing Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2 first because Wasabi’s 1 TB monthly minimum can cost more than the storage you use.
The 90-day minimum-storage rule also matters. If VOD Manager deletes a file after 30 days because of an auto-purge rule, Wasabi can still bill that file until day 90. For a full comparison, read choosing your storage provider.
What you’ll do
- Create a Wasabi account and verify your email address.
- Create one bucket, which is the private folder where your VOD files will live.
- Generate an access key, which is the username-and-password style credential VOD Manager uses to save files.
- Paste the endpoint, region, bucket name, and keys into VOD Manager, then test the connection.
Step 1 — Create a Wasabi account
Sign up at wasabi.com. Wasabi usually offers a free 30-day trial, then converts to a paid account if you keep using it.
- Pick a storage region close to you during signup. You will use this region again when you create the bucket and enter the endpoint.
- Verify your email address before moving on. The console may block some setup actions until your account is confirmed.
Step 2 — Create a bucket
- In the Wasabi console, open “Buckets,” then choose “Create Bucket.”
- Use a globally unique bucket name. A clear pattern is
vod-manager-<your-username>-archives. - Choose the same region you picked during signup. This region must match the endpoint URL you use later.
- Set Object Locking to Disabled. Set Bucket Versioning to Disabled unless you have a specific reason to keep older copies. Set Bucket Logging to Disabled.
- Click Create, then keep the bucket name nearby for the VOD Manager form.
Step 3 — Generate an access key
- In the Wasabi console, open “Access Keys,” then choose “Create Access Key.”
- For a personal account, “Root user” is acceptable. It gives VOD Manager the access it needs, but you should treat the key like a password.
- For a shared account, create a sub-user under “Users” first. Give that sub-user WasabiReadWriteAccess scoped to this bucket, then create keys for the sub-user instead.
- Save the Access Key and Secret Key immediately. Wasabi may not show the secret key again after you close the screen.
Step 4 — Note your region’s endpoint
Wasabi uses S3-style endpoints, and the endpoint changes by region. Common examples include
s3.us-east-1.wasabisys.com,
s3.us-east-2.wasabisys.com,
s3.us-central-1.wasabisys.com,
s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com,
and
s3.eu-central-1.wasabisys.com.
Match the endpoint to the bucket region. If you are unsure, check Wasabi’s region endpoint reference before pasting anything into VOD Manager.
Step 5 — Connect VOD Manager
- Provider: Wasabi.
- Endpoint:
https://s3.<region>.wasabisys.com. - Region: your Wasabi region, such as
us-east-1. - Bucket: the bucket name from Step 2.
- Access Key and Secret Key: the values from Step 3.
- Click “Test connection.” If the test passes, future Twitch VODs can save to this bucket automatically.
Common issues
- “SignatureDoesNotMatch” usually means the endpoint and region do not match. For example, the bucket is in us-east-2 but the endpoint is set to us-east-1.
- “Access denied” usually means the sub-user does not have permission for this bucket.
- “Bucket not found” usually means the bucket name has a typo, or the bucket was created in a different region than your endpoint.
Costs to know
Wasabi pay-as-you-go is about $6.99 per TB each month, with a 1 TB monthly minimum. On the standard plan, there are no download fees and no request fees, which keeps archive bills easier to predict when you need to pull files back down.
The 90-day minimum storage retention is the part to watch. Files deleted before 90 days can still bill until day 90, so VOD Manager’s auto-purge settings may still show on your Wasabi bill if you rotate archives often.
For archives that mostly grow, Wasabi can be a calm long-term choice. For frequent rotation, Cloudflare R2 may be cheaper even if its per-GB storage price looks higher at first.
Related guides
Predictable archive bills. No surprise egress fees.
Connect Wasabi once, test the bucket, and let VOD Manager save future streams after Twitch finishes processing them.