# S3 Compatible Object Storage
How to export results from Materialize to S3 compatible object storage
This guide walks you through the steps required to export results from
Materialize to an S3 compatible object storage service, such as Google
Cloud Storage, or Cloudflare R2.

## Before you begin:
- Make sure that you have setup your bucket.
- Obtain the following for your bucket. Instructions to obtain these vary by provider.
  - The S3 compatible URI (`S3_BUCKET_URI`)
    - GCS compatible URIs (beginning with `gs://`) are also valid.
  - The S3 compatible access tokens (`ACCESS_KEY_ID` and `SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`)

## Step 1. Create a connection

1. In the [SQL Shell](/console/), or your preferred SQL
   client connected to Materialize, create an [AWS connection](/sql/create-connection/#aws),
   replacing `<ACCESS_KEY_ID>` and  `<SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>` with the credentials for your bucket. The AWS
   connection can be used to connect to any S3 compatible object storage service, by specifying the endpoint and the region.

   For example, to connect to Google Cloud Storage, you can run the following:

    ```mzsql
    CREATE SECRET secret_access_key AS '<SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>';
    CREATE CONNECTION bucket_connection TO AWS (
        ACCESS KEY ID = '<ACCESS_KEY_ID>',
        SECRET ACCESS KEY = SECRET secret_access_key,
        ENDPOINT = 'https://storage.googleapis.com',
        REGION = 'us'
    );
    ```

> **Warning:** `VALIDATE CONNECTION` only works for AWS S3 connections. Using `VALIDATE CONNECTION` to test a connection to S3 compatible object storage service will result in an error. However, you can still use the connection to copy data.


## Step 2. Run a bulk export

To export data to your target bucket, use the [`COPY TO`](/sql/copy-to/#copy-to-s3)
command and the AWS connection you created in the previous step. Replace the `<S3_BUCKET_URI>`
with the S3 compatible URI for your target bucket.


**Parquet:**

```mzsql
COPY some_object TO '<S3_BUCKET_URI>'
WITH (
    AWS CONNECTION = bucket_connection,
    FORMAT = 'parquet'
  );
```

For details on the Parquet writer settings Materialize uses, as well as data
type support and conversion, check the [reference documentation](/sql/copy-to/#copy-to-s3-parquet).



**CSV:**

```mzsql
COPY some_object TO '<S3_BUCKET_URI>'
WITH (
    AWS CONNECTION = bucket_connection,
    FORMAT = 'csv'
  );
```





## Step 3. (Optional) Add scheduling

Bulk exports to object storage using the `COPY TO` command are _one-shot_: every time
you want to export results, you must run the command. To automate running bulk
exports on a regular basis, you can set up scheduling, for example using a
simple `cron`-like service or an orchestration platform like Airflow or
Dagster.