AWS Knowledge
Understanding Amazon CloudFront Pricing and Costs
Piyush Kalra
Dec 23, 2024
Amazon CloudFront is an amazing CDN tool that enhances your website by delivering content faster, with better speed and lower latency. This tool is perfect for CloudOps teams, new developers, or new businesses because it is convenient and works well with other Amazon Web Services tools. But how much will Amazon charge you for this? The answer is simple! With the plethora of factors that include data transfer tariffs, request fees, and other pricing tiers, the answer to how much these tools cost can be quite confusing for new users.
The good news? If you understand how CloudFront pricing operates, it can enable you to optimize your settings and invariably decrease the cost by up to 30%. This article is meant to make it easier for you by explaining the complex structure of CloudFront CDN pricing system and providing advice that is actionable. So, let’s get started on how we can assist you in saving even more money on AWS services!
What is Amazon CloudFront?
Image Source: AWS Cloud
Amazon CloudFront is a global Content Delivery Network that aids AWS in serving its users around the globe by fast-tracking the transfer of web content. Since its global network contains numerous edge locations to store the content, it is able to ensure that the process runs smoothly, irrespective of the user's location.
Key Features and Benefits
Global Edge Network: Fast service is guaranteed by over 600 edge locations across over 100 different locations.
Customizable Caching: Define how long content stays in the cache to reduce origin fetches and save costs.
Security Integration: AWS services integration is done through CloudFront seamlessly such as Web Application Firewall as a service and DDoS protection AWS Shield.
Pay-as-You-Go Model: You only get billed for services that you use, and there are no upfront costs or minimum commitments.
Comparison with Other CDNs
When comparing Cloudflare or Akamai service providers, Cloudfront remains integrated with other AWS services such as S3, Elastic Load Balancer and AWS Lambda. This aspect makes this service highly liked by businesses that have active engagement with the AWS platform.
How Does Amazon CloudFront Work?
Cloudfront works by directing the user request to the closest edge location where cached content is available. In case the content is not cached, then Amazon Cloud Front accesses the origin server for the content and caches it in the local storage for later use.
Key Processes:
Request Routing: Allows users to access the closest edge location by using proximity-based routing to access content faster.
Caching: Saves the stored content at the edge locations that are frequently accessed so latency and requests to the origin server can be reduced.
Regional Edge Caches: This creates an additional layer of caching between edge locations and the origin server for fast data retrieval in large-scale applications.
Deep Dive into Google Compute Engine Pricing Structure
Knowing what to expect gives the buyers an edge with CloudFront’s pricing, but for the new users, it can be quite convoluted due to so many features offered. The pricing components include:
Pricing Model Overview
There are no upfront costs for using Amazon CloudFront, as the requirements will be paid after use through the pay-as-you-go service. The greatest contributors to the expense of using Amazon CloudFront are:
Data Transfer Costs: Charged per GB of data transferred out to the internet.
Request Fees: Based on the number and type of HTTP/HTTPS requests.
Optional Features: Extra costs for the services, such as real-time logs, lambda@edge, and field-level encryption, are required.
Cost Components
Data Transfer Costs
The cost for the transfer of data differs from one region to the other. For example:
North America and Europe: $0.085 per GB for the first 9TB.
South America and Africa are more expensive at $0.110 per GB.
Transfers from AWS origins (like AWS S3 or ELB) to CloudFront are free.
Request Fees
The Cost for the HTTP and HTTPS differs from one region to the other. For Example:
HTTP requests: $0.0075 per 10,000 in North America.
HTTPS requests (recommended): $0.0100 per 10,000 in North America.
Real-time logs generate additional costs at $0.01 per 1 million log lines.
Optional Features
The cost for Lambda@Edge is based on the number of requests you make. For Example:
Lambda@Edge: Useful for running custom logic at edge locations. Costs include $0.60 per 1 million requests and $0.00005001 per GB-second for compute time.
Invalidation Requests: The first 1,000 paths per month are free. Additional requests cost $0.005 per path.
Pricing Classes
CloudFront has pricing classes to balance performance and costs:
Price Class 100: A Limits edge locations to the cheapest regions (North America, Europe, Israel).
Price Class 200: Allows edge locations to include some mid-tier regions apart from South America and Australia.
Price Class All: All types of regions, irrespective of the attached cost,s are allowed.
By choosing a lower price class, costs can be minimized, but it may also lead to increased latency for users in certain regions that are not included.
AWS Free Tier Benefits
Amazon CloudFront has a free tier that is quite useful and includes the following:
1TB of data transfer out per month.
10 million HTTP/HTTPS requests per month.
2 million Lambda@Edge requests per month.
Case Study: MES Revolutionizes Webcasting with AWS
MediaEvent Services was founded in 1999 and has been at the forefront of live webcasting with Conferences 11. In 2016, the company decided to expand its offering by launching a cloud-based webcast platform, SlideSync, on AWS. SlideSync handles live events with over 50,000 attendees, as well as the live streaming of video material and more than 20,000 hours of content on demand.
MES faced multiple challenges:
Planning and executing live events of coordinated scale and quality.
The COVID-19 pandemic penetrated the market, and demand increased massively.
Customers' requirements kept changing, and MES had to develop new features quickly.
MES integrated AWS solutions to tackle such issues, which comprised Amazon CloudFront, Amazon ECS, and Amazon Chime SDK. This solution provided flexibility to MES and transformed their platform effortlessly while bringing about significant improvement.
Results:
Over 2,000% rise in traffic growth annually.
Able to scale instantly to cater events with more than 50,000+ people.
Maximized efficiency cut costs; one team member can now handle up to 30 events daily.
Streamlined the customer onboarding process with more powerful security and compliance tools from AWS.
Tools and Tips to Cut Amazon CloudFront Costs
AWS Pricing Calculator
Evaluate pricing expectations before reservation allocation using the AWS Pricing Calculator. Fill in some data, such as regions or request rates, for an appropriate breakdown of monthly charges.
Best Practices for Cost Management
Optimize Cache Settings: Lift the Time-to-Live for cached static assets within reason to decrease the number of times data needs to be pulled from the origin’s server.
Leverage Free Tier: Limit use to the free tier as it is necessary to avoid incurring costs.
Align Pricing Class: When addressing a specific region, ensure a certain pricing class will be used.
Save on CloudFront using Reserved Capacity with Pump
Reserved Capacity is a great way to cut your CloudFront costs by up to 30%. By committing to a specific amount of data usage, usually at least 10TB per month, for a 1-year or 3-year long term, you can secure discounted pricing to optimize your cloud spend.
With Reserved Capacity, you also have flexibility in how you pay:
No Upfront: Pay nothing at the start and spread the charges on it for the whole term.
Partial Upfront: Pay a portion of the cost at the start, and the rest will be billed over time.
Full Upfront: Pay the entire cost upfront for the full term and save maximum.
You can handle Reserved Capacity yourself by observing the current as well as forecasting the data usages to achieve the appropriate level of commitment. AWS provides everything needed to acquire and manage reserved capacity.
While you can manage Reserved Capacity yourself, we know the headache involved. Pump uses its advanced algorithm and AI to analyze your usage patterns and determines an optimal amount of Reserved Capacity, which it will commit. This way, you always get the best out of it for maximum savings without the hassle of figuring it all out manually.
Irrespective of the term, which might be 1-year or 3-year, Pump helps you save more by smarter, data-driven decisions tailored to your needs.
Monitoring and Reporting
Find out what trends look like by using AWS CloudWatch
Spend reports and activity spree can be controlled by enabling AWS Cost Explorer
Check stream logs to pinpoint inefficiencies.
Conclusion
Amazon CloudFront mixes multiple features in one product, ranging from reliable content delivery to effective scaling. While the pricing structure of Amazon CloudFront may appear difficult, a sound understanding allows enterprises to cut down on costs without diminishing performance.
By utilizing the recommendations as well as tools provided here, you can make educated choices and obtain maximum value from your CloudFront implementation. Both a global startup growing rapidly and a large company that consistently deals with high traffic can use CloudFront when scaling and adapting to demands. If you're prepared to elevate your CDN management, check out the CloudFront Developer Guide or get started for free with the AWS Free Tier.
Join Pump for Free
If you found this post interesting, consider checking out Pump, which can save you up to 60% off AWS for early-stage startups, and it’s completely free (yes, that's right!). Pump has tailor-made solutions to take you in control of your AWS and GCP spend in an effective way. So, are you ready to take charge of cloud expenses and maximize the most from your investment in AWS? Learn more here.
