 <p>You are using the aws-sdk, good, I'll hit you with the se.file.read equivalent then: <a href="http://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdkforruby/api/Aws/S3/Object.html#get-instance_method" rel="nofollow"><code>Aws::S3::Object#get</code></a>.</p> <pre><code># create your bucket first s3_file = bucket.object['myfile.txt'].get({response_target: '/tmp/myfile.txt'}) </code></pre> <p>I think you can then do <code>s3_file.body</code>.</p> <p>Lastly, you are re-inventing the wheel and should check-out <a href="https://github.com/sorentwo/carrierwave-aws" rel="nofollow">carrierwave with aws-sdk</a>.</p>