What is S3 Browser?
S3 Browser is a freeware Windows client for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), part of the broader Amazon Web Services ecosystem. Amazon S3 remains one of the most reliable and scalable object storage services available — but navigating it efficiently, especially across multiple accounts, can be genuinely frustrating. The AWS web console is functional, but it was never designed for power users who need to move files quickly, verify data integrity, or manage permissions across dozens of buckets. S3 Browser fills that gap cleanly. Now at version 13.3.5 (released May 2026), it continues to evolve with support for the latest AWS infrastructure, including the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, and runs comfortably on everything from Windows 10 and 11 through to Windows Server 2025.
Main features
- Access Key ID and AWS SSO profile-based login
- Upload and download with built-in data integrity checking
- Publish files and generate shareable web URLs
- Browse, create, and delete S3 buckets
- Share S3 buckets and access shared buckets from others
- Set access controls on buckets and individual files
- Create encrypted backups
- Folder Sync Tool with exclusion rules and CLI automation
- Manage Amazon CloudFront distributions
TL;DR: If you work on Windows and regularly touch Amazon S3, this tool is worth having installed today. The freeware version is genuinely useful, and upgrading to Pro is an easy expense to justify. If you're not on Windows, look elsewhere.
Contents
Killer features
Data integrity checking in file uploads and downloads
Data integrity checking works by calculating a hash of a file to confirm that the source and destination are identical — that nothing was corrupted or silently altered in transit. In any professional context, this should be non-negotiable.
When you upload a file through S3 Browser with this feature enabled, it writes the hash into the file's metadata. On download, S3 Browser recalculates the hash and compares it against the stored value. If they match, you know the file is exactly what it should be. If they don't, you know immediately.
- To enable it, go to Options > Data Integrity and check the relevant boxes.
- Then try an upload: Files > Upload or Ctrl+U.
Finding the SHA-256 hash of your file
- Select a file you have uploaded and open the Headers tab.
- Look for
x-amz-meta-sha256— this contains the SHA-256 hash of the file. It will always be identical for identical file content.
This gives you cryptographic proof that a file downloaded from S3 is byte-for-byte identical to what was originally uploaded. For regulated industries, audit trails, or simply keeping data pipelines honest, that matters.
Files uploaded before you enabled data integrity won't carry the x-amz-meta-sha256 header — it only gets written at upload time. Whether that's a problem depends on your workflow, but going forward, keeping this on costs nothing and adds meaningful assurance.
Folder Sync Tool
The Folder Sync Tool has become one of S3 Browser's most capable features for teams managing large or frequently updated datasets. The 13.2.5 release significantly improved analysis performance by introducing parallel processing, which makes a noticeable difference when scanning large buckets before a sync operation. The 13.3.5 release added Sync Exclusion Rules, so you can now define patterns for files or folders to skip entirely — useful for keeping build artefacts, temporary files, or local-only config out of your buckets without having to manage that manually each time.
For teams running automated or scheduled syncs, two new CLI commands — /file list-sync-jobs and /file run-sync-job — make it straightforward to integrate S3 Browser's sync functionality into scripts and pipelines without opening the GUI. Combined with the option to disable the metadata cache file (added in 13.2.5), the Folder Sync Tool is now a credible choice for lightweight automation scenarios that don't warrant a full infrastructure tool.
AWS SSO and credential management
Managing AWS credentials has always been one of the rougher edges of working with S3 tooling. S3 Browser 13.3.5 addresses this directly by adding support for AWS CLI SSO session profiles and AWS SSO token caching. If your organisation uses AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO) to manage access, you can now authenticate through S3 Browser using the same SSO profiles you use in the CLI — no need to generate and rotate static access keys just to use a desktop client. This is a meaningful improvement for security-conscious teams and anyone working in an enterprise environment where long-lived credentials are actively discouraged.
AWS European Sovereign Cloud support
Version 13.3.5 adds support for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, AWS's dedicated infrastructure designed to meet European data sovereignty requirements. For organisations operating under strict EU data residency obligations — particularly those in financial services, healthcare, or the public sector — this means S3 Browser can now connect to and manage buckets hosted in that environment directly, without workarounds. If your organisation moved workloads to the European Sovereign Cloud since its launch, this update makes S3 Browser a viable desktop client for those buckets.
Web URL Generator
The Web URL Generator has been updated in 13.3.5 with two notable improvements: Signature Version 4 is now used by default (V4 has been the AWS standard for some time, so this aligns S3 Browser with current best practice), and TinyURL API integration has been added for generating shorter, shareable links. If you regularly share pre-signed URLs with colleagues or clients, the shorter format is a minor but welcome quality-of-life improvement.
