diff --git a/api/src/controllers/images.ts b/api/src/controllers/images.ts
index 170f4e2b..df04e794 100644
--- a/api/src/controllers/images.ts
+++ b/api/src/controllers/images.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-import { stat } from "node:fs/promises";
-import type { BunFile } from "bun";
+import type { Stats } from "node:fs";
+import type { BunFile, S3File, S3Stats } from "bun";
 import { type SQL, and, eq, sql } from "drizzle-orm";
 import Elysia, { type Context, t } from "elysia";
 import { prefix } from "~/base";
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import { sqlarr } from "~/db/utils";
 import { KError } from "~/models/error";
 import { bubble } from "~/models/examples";
 import { AcceptLanguage, isUuid, processLanguages } from "~/models/utils";
+import { getFile } from "~/utils";
 import { imageDir } from "./seed/images";
 
 function getRedirectToImageHandler({
@@ -98,7 +99,7 @@ export const imagesH = new Elysia({ tags: ["images"] })
 		"/images/:id",
 		async ({ params: { id }, query: { quality }, headers: reqHeaders }) => {
 			const path = `${imageDir}/${id}.${quality}.jpg`;
-			const file = Bun.file(path);
+			const file = getFile(path);
 
 			const etag = await generateETag(file);
 			if (await isCached(reqHeaders, etag, path))
@@ -366,8 +367,13 @@ export async function isCached(
 	if (headers["if-modified-since"]) {
 		const ifModifiedSince = headers["if-modified-since"];
 		let lastModified: Date | undefined;
+		const stat = await getFile(filePath).stat();
 		try {
-			lastModified = (await stat(filePath)).mtime;
+			if ((stat as S3Stats).lastModified) {
+				lastModified = (stat as S3Stats).lastModified;
+			} else if ((stat as Stats).mtime) {
+				lastModified = (stat as Stats).mtime;
+			}
 		} catch {
 			/* empty */
 		}
@@ -382,7 +388,7 @@ export async function isCached(
 	return false;
 }
 
-export async function generateETag(file: BunFile) {
+export async function generateETag(file: BunFile | S3File) {
 	const hash = new Bun.CryptoHasher("md5");
 	hash.update(await file.arrayBuffer());
 
diff --git a/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts b/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts
index 0896836b..d61ee9f1 100644
--- a/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts
+++ b/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-import { mkdir, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
 import path from "node:path";
 import { encode } from "blurhash";
 import { type SQL, and, eq, is, lt, sql } from "drizzle-orm";
@@ -9,10 +8,9 @@ import sharp from "sharp";
 import { type Transaction, db } from "~/db";
 import { mqueue } from "~/db/schema/mqueue";
 import type { Image } from "~/models/utils";
+import { getFile } from "~/utils";
 
 export const imageDir = process.env.IMAGES_PATH ?? "./images";
-await mkdir(imageDir, { recursive: true });
-
 export const defaultBlurhash = "000000";
 
 type ImageTask = {
@@ -164,7 +162,9 @@ async function downloadImage(id: string, url: string): Promise<string> {
 	await Promise.all(
 		Object.entries(resolutions).map(async ([resolution, dimensions]) => {
 			const buffer = await image.clone().resize(dimensions.width).toBuffer();
-			await writeFile(path.join(imageDir, `${id}.${resolution}.jpg`), buffer);
+			const file = getFile(path.join(imageDir, `${id}.${resolution}.jpg`));
+
+			await Bun.write(file, buffer, { mode: 0o660 });
 		}),
 	);
 
diff --git a/api/src/utils.ts b/api/src/utils.ts
index 72d76e2e..5c251e67 100644
--- a/api/src/utils.ts
+++ b/api/src/utils.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import type { BunFile, S3File } from "bun";
+
 // remove indent in multi-line comments
 export const comment = (str: TemplateStringsArray, ...values: any[]) =>
 	str
@@ -14,3 +16,15 @@ export function getYear(date: string) {
 export type Prettify<T> = {
 	[K in keyof T]: Prettify<T[K]>;
 } & {};
+
+// Returns either a filesystem-backed file, or a S3-backed file,
+// depending on whether or not S3 environment variables are set.
+export function getFile(path: string): BunFile | S3File {
+	if ("S3_BUCKET" in process.env || "AWS_BUCKET" in process.env) {
+		// This will use a S3 client configured via environment variables.
+		// See https://bun.sh/docs/api/s3#credentials for more details.
+		return Bun.s3.file(path);
+	}
+
+	return Bun.file(path);
+}