CloudFront pricing: estimate bandwidth and request costs (without hardcoding prices)

CloudFront-style CDN bills usually have two primary parts: bandwidth and requests. This guide explains how to estimate both in a way that stays stable as pricing changes: you bring your own $/GB and $ per 10k (or per 1M) assumptions.

Where to get the numbers

  • Bandwidth: CDN analytics and billing reports typically expose bytes delivered. Convert to GB/month for the traffic path you care about.
  • Requests: request count from CDN analytics, logs, or RPS converted to monthly requests.
  • Cache hit rate: use it to estimate origin egress (cache fill) separately from edge bandwidth.

1) Estimate bandwidth (GB/month)

Use CDN analytics if you have them. If you only have throughput charts (Mbps), convert Mbps to GB/month using the Units Converter or follow this bandwidth estimation guide.

Once you have GB/month, price it with CDN Bandwidth Cost Calculator.

2) Estimate request volume (requests/month)

If you have request count from logs/analytics, use it directly. If you have RPS, convert it to monthly requests with RPS to Monthly Requests.

Then price it with CDN Request Cost Calculator. If the pricing page uses per-1M units, convert your rate to per-10k (or vice versa) to match your calculator inputs.

3) Apply your pricing assumptions

  • Bandwidth line item: GB/month x $/GB (use a blended rate if tiers apply).
  • Request line item: (requests/month / 10,000) x $ per 10k (or adjust to per 1M).

The benefit of this approach is that your model still works when prices shift; you update the two assumptions and keep the traffic math.

4) A fast “bandwidth vs requests” sanity check

If you’re not sure which line item matters, compare the two quickly:

  • Bandwidth cost = GB/month × $/GB
  • Request cost = (requests/month ÷ 10,000) × $ per 10k

Workloads with many small objects (thumbnails, JS/CSS chunks, APIs cached at the edge) can have request fees that are non-trivial even when bandwidth looks modest.

4) Common pitfalls

  • GB vs GiB: dashboards and pricing pages may use different units.
  • Tiered pricing: if you ignore tiers, your estimate can be off at higher volumes.
  • Origin egress/cache fill: low cache hit rates can push cost to the origin provider.

For the origin-traffic nuance, read origin egress vs CDN bandwidth.

Include origin costs (when it matters)

  • If the CDN pulls from object storage or a load balancer, you may pay origin egress and sometimes origin requests.
  • Model origin egress as a separate line item (cache fill) and validate with measured cache hit rate.
Origin egress cost Cache hit rate guide

Related calculators

CloudFront cost calculator CDN cost calculator CDN costs explained

Related guides

Cache hit rate and origin egress CloudFront invalidation pricing CloudFront logs cost

Validation checklist

  • Validate the primary driver with measured usage from a representative window.
  • Confirm units and pricing units (per 10k vs per 1M, GB vs GiB) before trusting the estimate.
  • Re-check incident windows: retries/timeouts often multiply cost drivers.

Sources

  • AWS pricing overview: aws.amazon.com/pricing
  • Use official CloudFront pricing for your regions and request classes, then plug those values into the calculators.

Related reading

Cost estimation checklist Network transfer costs Request-based pricing

Related guides

API Gateway vs ALB vs CloudFront cost: what to compare (requests, transfer, add-ons)
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Related calculators

CDN Cost Calculator
Estimate total CDN cost from bandwidth and request pricing.
CDN Bandwidth Cost Calculator
Estimate monthly CDN bandwidth cost from GB transferred and $/GB pricing.
CDN Request Cost Calculator
Estimate CDN request fees from monthly requests and $ per 10k/1M pricing.
Data Egress Cost Calculator
Estimate monthly egress spend from GB transferred and $/GB pricing.
API Response Size Transfer Calculator
Estimate monthly transfer from request volume and average response size.
VPC Data Transfer Cost Calculator
Estimate data transfer spend from GB/month and $/GB assumptions.

FAQ

Is this an official CloudFront quote?
No. It's a planning estimate framework. Always confirm regions, tiers, free allowances, and billable units in the official pricing docs.
What inputs do I need for a CloudFront cost estimate?
Monthly bandwidth delivered (GB/month) and monthly request volume. If you only have Mbps or RPS, convert them using the Units Converter and RPS to Monthly Requests tool.
How do I handle tiered pricing by region?
Use a blended effective rate for your expected traffic mix, or run scenarios for the main regions and sum them. For early estimates, a blended rate is usually sufficient.
Last updated: 2026-01-27