What is the Difference Between Pay-As-You-Go CDN vs Commit-Based Pricing CDN?
Pay as you go CDN pricing is prepaid style, where the meter runs only when traffic flows and there is no monthly minimum. commit-based pricing CDN is contract style, where a monthly or annual minimum unlocks lower per‑unit prices.
When traffic is light or unpredictable, usage billing stays safer. When traffic is consistently high, the committed discount usually wins.
Pay-As-You-Go CDN Pricing Explained
Think of a prepaid phone. No commitment. Use some data, pay for that data. Use none, pay nothing. A pay as you go CDN works the same way.
What it feels like day to day:
- Sign up, point DNS or origin, and traffic starts counting.
- Each gigabyte out to users and each request adds a small charge.
- Turn a feature on and the bill for that feature appears; turn it off and the cost stops.
- No minimum to hit and no contract term to satisfy.
Why teams pick it:
- Launching a new app or region without guessing traffic.
- Handling seasonal spikes without worrying about missing a quota later.
- Keeping options open for a multi‑provider setup or a CDN network pay as you go arrangement.
I treat it as the default when the goal is quick start and low risk. If the question in your head is “can I get a CDN cheap pay as you go just to test,” this is exactly that.
Commit-Based Pricing CDN Explained
Now think of a phone plan with a contract. Promise to pay at least a certain amount each month and, in return, every minute or gig costs less. A commit-based pricing CDN does the same.
What it feels like day to day:
- There is a monthly minimum in dollars or in traffic volume, and a defined term.
- The price per GB and per million requests drops below public list rates.
- If usage goes over the commit, extra usage is billed at the negotiated overage rate.
- If usage falls short, the minimum still gets billed.
Why teams pick it:
- The traffic graph is steady and large enough that the discount matters.
- Predictable bills help planning.
- Contracts often include stronger support guarantees or bundled feature discounts, which can be worth real money.
On the finance side, it behaves like a subscription based CDN because the minimum anchors spend, even though the underlying service is still usage based.
Differences Between Pay-As-You-Go CDN vs Commit-Based CDN
Pay as you go is flexibility at list price, commit is a lower unit price wrapped in a minimum.
What Both Models Actually Bill For
Same building blocks, different math around them.
- Egress to users, usually priced per GB. This is the big one.
- HTTP requests, priced per thousand or per million. Small number times big counts.
- Optional features such as WAF, bot control, image or video optimization, and edge functions.
- Log or analytics export to your storage, sometimes priced per GB pushed out.
With pay as you go, each line simply follows usage. With a commit, all these lines either count toward the minimum or bill at your discounted rates once the minimum is exceeded.
Minimums And Overages
This is the heart of the difference.
- Minimums: the floor you promise to pay. It can be a dollar amount per month or a traffic amount such as terabytes per month.
- Discounts: the price per GB and per request is lower than public pricing as the trade for accepting a minimum.
- Overages: if usage is higher than the commit level, the extra is billed at a rate listed in the contract.
Pay as you go has no floor and no overage table. It is simply meter times list price.
I like to sanity‑check any commit by asking two questions: what is the minimum, and what exact overage rate applies in the regions that matter?
The Difference In Day-To-Day Practice
How the pricing model changes practical choices is part of the same answer.
- Pay as you go keeps flexibility high. New feature tests or sudden bursts simply increase the bill that month without any risk of missing a quota later.
- A commit swaps flexibility for a better price. If a quiet quarter happens, the minimum still applies, so planning matters more.
The question is not “which CDN is better,” it is “which pricing shape matches the way traffic behaves.” That is the difference.
Which Model Fits for You?
Keeping this tied to pricing, suitability flows directly from the two shapes.
- Pay as you go CDN fits uncertain or seasonal workloads where the goal is to avoid paying for unused capacity. It also fits secondary providers in a multi‑CDN setup where only a slice of traffic is routed, since there is no minimum to worry about.
- A commit-based pricing CDN fits steady, high‑volume workloads where the lower price per GB and per request outweighs the loss of flexibility. It resembles a subscription based CDN from a budgeting point of view, which some teams prefer.
If I had to give one practical nudge, it would be this: start on usage billing while traffic is still a guess, then move to a commit when the monthly numbers are stable enough that the break‑even math says the discount is real.
