How much does a CDN cost?

Are there free CDN options?

• Free CDNs are real and strong, led by Cloudflare’s free plan at $0.
• The free tier includes Cloudflare’s global CDN network across 330+ cities, free SSL and DDoS protection, with no per-GB bandwidth billing for normal website CDN use.
• Cloudflare does not bill normal website CDN traffic per GB on its Free, Pro or Business website plans, subject to Cloudflare’s content-delivery policies.
• Many web hosts also bundle a free Cloudflare CDN with their hosting plans.
• Free, Pro and Business CDN plans can restrict video streaming or disproportionate large-file delivery unless you use an appropriate Cloudflare paid product such as Stream, Images, R2 or an Enterprise video-delivery option.

For most personal and small-business sites, a free CDN is genuinely enough. It speeds up delivery, adds SSL and DDoS protection and costs nothing, which is why free is the default starting point for most websites.

How much does a CDN cost by provider (Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly)?

• Cloudflare uses flat-rate, per-domain pricing: Free at $0, Pro at $20 and Business at $200 per month on annual billing ($25 and $250 monthly), with Enterprise custom.
• AWS CloudFront offers pay-as-you-go pricing, with a permanent 1 TB monthly free tier and North America/Europe data transfer at about $0.085 per GB after that; AWS also now offers flat-rate CloudFront plans with no overage charges.
• Fastly bills usage-based CDN traffic by region, with the first 100 GB free and North America/Europe bandwidth at about $0.12 per GB after that; request fees can also apply after the free request tier.
• Akamai does not publish standard CDN pricing; pricing is negotiated by contract and depends on traffic volume, geography, product bundle, support level and security add-ons.
• Bunny.net’s Standard Network starts at $0.01 per GB in Europe and North America, while its high-volume network starts at $0.005 per GB for the first 500 TB.

The providers split by billing model. Cloudflare focuses on flat per-domain plans, CloudFront now offers both pay-as-you-go and flat-rate plans, while Fastly and many enterprise CDNs primarily bill by usage or negotiated contract. Which is cheaper depends entirely on your traffic, region, features and what you serve.

Note: CDN prices have fallen for years, but 2026 hardware and energy costs pushed some providers higher. Akamai added a 3% surcharge from April 2026 and up to 10% on contract renewals.

How do CDN bandwidth-based pricing models work?

• Most CDNs bill on bandwidth, charging per GB of data delivered out to visitors.
• Rates are usually tiered, so the price per GB falls as monthly volume rises.
• Regional pricing applies, with Asia, South America and Africa costing more than North America and Europe.
• Some providers add per-request fees on top, which matter for high-request workloads like video.
• Committed-use and enterprise agreements can lower rates, but discounts vary by provider, region, term and traffic volume; AWS publicly advertises savings up to 30% through its CloudFront Security Savings Bundle.

The key with usage-based pricing is that the headline rate is only part of the bill. Regional multipliers, request fees and add-ons like logging or image optimization can lift the effective cost well above the per-GB number.

How much does a CDN cost per GB of bandwidth?

Note: per-GB rates vary widely by provider, volume and region, so treat these as representative.

• Pay-as-you-go rates span a wide range, from about $0.002 to $0.12 per GB.
• AWS CloudFront starts near $0.085 per GB in North America and falls with volume.
• Bunny.net runs $0.01 per GB on its Standard Network in Europe and North America, while Bunny’s Volume Network starts at $0.005 per GB and falls to $0.002 per GB at very high volume.
• Cloudflare does not bill normal website CDN traffic per GB on Free, Pro or Business plans; instead, the cost is bundled into the flat plan price, subject to Cloudflare’s content-delivery policies.
• Asia-Pacific and South America cost more, from about $0.06 per GB on budget networks up to $0.11 to $0.17 on CloudFront.

Per-GB pricing only matters once you deliver real volume. A flat-rate plan wins for typical websites, while a low per-GB network wins for bandwidth-heavy delivery like video, downloads and software updates.

How much does a CDN cost for a small website?

• For a small website, a CDN usually costs $0, since Cloudflare’s free plan covers it.
• A low-traffic site moving a few GB a month costs pennies on usage-based pricing, often inside a free tier.
• CloudFront’s 1 TB monthly free tier alone covers most small-site traffic at no charge.
• The $20 Pro plan is only worth it if you need image optimization or an enhanced firewall.
• Many hosts bundle a free CDN, so small sites often get acceleration without choosing a provider.

The practical answer for most small sites is to start free and only pay when a specific feature or traffic level demands it. A CDN is one of the few performance upgrades that genuinely costs nothing to begin. For the hosting side, see our cloud hosting cost research.

Sources & additional resources

• “Cloudflare Plans and Pricing.” Cloudflare.
• “Delivering Videos with Cloudflare.” Cloudflare Docs.
• “Amazon CloudFront Pricing.” AWS.
• “How the CloudFront Security Savings Bundle Saves up to 30%.” AWS re:Post.
• “Fastly Pricing Tiers and Packages.” Fastly.
• “Pay As You Go CDN Pricing.” Bunny.net.
• “CDN Pricing and Volume Tiers.” BlazingCDN.
• “Current Prices for Major CDN Providers.” BlazingCDN.
• “Akamai Details Rising Supply Chain Costs and Price Adjustments.” Dan Rayburn.

Web Hosting Services helps you speed up your site for less, with independent hosting and CDN research, current hosting deals that bundle free CDN and SSL, plus managed WordPress hosting with edge caching built in.