Bunny.net vs Cloudflare vs Fastly CDN Pricing 2026

Comparing these three on a single price-per-GB number hides the real decision, because they do not sell the same thing the same way. Cloudflare treats CDN transfer as a loss leader and charges for compute, security depth, and hosted media. Bunny.net sells bandwidth as a clean, flat commodity. Fastly sells a programmable edge and prices bandwidth like a premium feature. This comparison puts the three billing models side by side and prices a concrete 1 TB workload on each.

1. How do Bunny.net, Cloudflare, and Fastly bill in 2026?

CDN	Pricing model	Base / minimum	Free allowance
Bunny.net	Flat per-GB by region tier, no request fees[1]	$1/mo minimum[1]	14-day trial, no card[1]
Cloudflare	Unmetered CDN bandwidth on all plans; charges for compute, security, hosted media[2]	Free $0; Pro from $20/mo; Business from $200/mo[2]	CDN bandwidth free on every plan, indefinitely[2]
Fastly	Usage-metered per GB plus per request, priced by region[5]	Consumption-based; Enterprise packages from $1,500/mo[5]	100 GB bandwidth and 1M requests[5]

The structural difference decides the bill more than any single rate. Bunny.net's number is what you pay: gigabytes out times the regional rate, with a floor of $1/mo and nothing added for requests^[1]. Cloudflare's CDN transfer line is $0 by design, so the cost lands on the plan and the add-ons instead^[2]. Fastly's meter runs on two axes at once, bandwidth and request count, and both scale with traffic in premium-priced regions^[5]. Predictable-flat, free-but-limited, and pay-per-use-premium is the honest three-word summary.

2. What does each charge per GB by region?

Region taxonomies differ between vendors, so these rows line up the closest equivalents rather than identical zones. Fastly figures are the 100 GB to 10 TB tier:

Region	Bunny.net Standard	Cloudflare	Fastly
US & Europe	$0.01/GB[1]	$0, unmetered[2]	$0.12/GB[5]
Asia & Oceania	$0.03/GB[1]	$0, unmetered[2]	$0.19/GB[5]
South America	$0.045/GB[1]	$0, unmetered[2]	$0.19/GB[5]
Africa	$0.06/GB (Middle East and Africa)[1]	$0, unmetered[2]	$0.28/GB[5]

Two footnotes matter. Bunny.net also runs a cheaper Volume network from $0.005/GB globally, which trades a smaller point-of-presence count for a lower rate on high-traffic media^[1]. Fastly adds request fees on top of the per-GB rate at $0.01 per 10,000 requests, so a request-heavy API workload costs more than the bandwidth column alone suggests^[5]. Cloudflare's $0 is real for CDN transfer, and the catch sits in what that free bandwidth is allowed to carry, covered in section 4^[2][4].

3. What does 1 TB a month cost on each?

One terabyte (1,000 GB) of cache-hit egress from the US and Europe, bandwidth only, before request fees:

Path	Rate	Monthly
Cloudflare (any plan)	Unmetered CDN bandwidth[2]	$0
Bunny.net Volume network	$0.005/GB[1]	~$5
Bunny.net Standard network	$0.01/GB[1]	~$10
Fastly	$0.12/GB after 100 GB free[5]	~$108

The Fastly arithmetic: the first 100 GB is free, the remaining 900 GB bills at $0.12/GB for about $108, and per-request fees stack on top of that^[5]. Bunny.net's Standard rate lands the same terabyte at roughly $10, and its Volume network at about $5^[1]. Cloudflare delivers it for $0 as long as the content fits the CDN rules^[2]. The gap is roughly 10x between Bunny.net and Fastly, and effectively infinite between Fastly and Cloudflare's free transfer. Shift the same terabyte to Asia and the spread widens: Bunny.net Standard is about $30 at $0.03/GB while Fastly rises to roughly $171 on 900 billable GB at $0.19/GB^[1][5]. Fold whichever number fits your traffic into your AI stack cost calculator.

4. Cloudflare's free CDN: where is the catch?

Cloudflare's unmetered CDN bandwidth is real, and it is the strongest single line in this comparison for a static or media-light site^[2]. But free transfer is not a free platform. Three limits decide whether it actually covers your workload:

• Compute bills separately. Dynamic logic runs on Workers, not the free CDN. The Workers Free plan allows 100,000 requests per day; the Paid plan starts at $5/mo with 10M requests and 30M CPU-milliseconds included, then $0.30 per additional million requests and $0.02 per additional million CPU-milliseconds^[3].
• Content rules still apply. Cloudflare retired the old Section 2.8 HTML-versus-non-HTML language, but video and large files hosted outside Cloudflare remain restricted on the CDN. To serve them within terms you host them on a Cloudflare service such as Stream, Images, or R2, which are billed on their own^[4].
• Depth sits behind plans. Advanced WAF, image optimization, and the 100% uptime SLA live on Pro at $20/mo and Business at $200/mo, not the Free tier^[2].

So Cloudflare wins decisively when your bytes are cacheable web assets and your compute is light. The moment you are streaming outside-hosted video or running heavy per-request logic, the free number stops describing your bill, and a flat per-GB CDN like Bunny.net or a metered one like Fastly can be the simpler answer^[1][4][5].

5. Free tiers and minimums

• Bunny.net: a 14-day free trial with no card required, then pay-as-you-go against a $1/mo minimum. There is no permanent free bandwidth tier; the floor is a dollar^[1].
• Cloudflare: the only permanent free CDN of the three. The Free plan is $0 with unmetered CDN bandwidth, DNS, universal SSL, and unmetered DDoS protection, indefinitely^[2].
• Fastly: the pricing page lists a free allowance of 100 GB of bandwidth and 1M requests before metering begins, then usage billing by region. Fastly positions itself as consumption-billed rather than a permanent free production tier, and its committed Enterprise packages start at $1,500/mo^[5].

The honest framing for 2026: Cloudflare is the only one you can run a real site on for $0 of transfer, inside its content rules. Bunny.net's floor is a dollar, which is close enough to free for a small project and simpler to reason about. Fastly's free allowance is a starter credit, not a business model, and its economics assume paid production traffic.

6. Which should you pick?

• Static site, JAMstack, or media-light app: Cloudflare. Free unmetered CDN bandwidth on the $0 plan is hard to beat when your assets are cacheable web content^[2].
• Predictable image, download, or video delivery at volume: Bunny.net. Flat per-GB pricing from $0.01/GB with a $1 floor and no request fees keeps the bill legible as traffic grows^[1].
• High-traffic global media on a tight budget: Bunny.net's Volume network from $0.005/GB, accepting a smaller point-of-presence footprint for the lower rate^[1].
• Programmable edge logic where cost is secondary: Fastly. The $0.12/GB rate buys instant purge, VCL and Compute at the edge, and deep observability that Bunny.net and the free Cloudflare CDN do not match^[5].
• Serving large, outside-hosted video files: not Cloudflare's free CDN. Use Bunny.net or Fastly, or move the media onto Cloudflare Stream or R2 to stay inside the terms^[4].

Re-verify each pricing page before committing, since regional rate cards and free allowances move quietly. For the compute layer under the CDN, see Railway vs Render vs Fly pricing; for the object storage that pairs with a CDN for media, see cheapest object storage: R2 vs S3 vs Backblaze.

All pricing figures verified against official pricing pages and terms as of 2026-07-17.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cloudflare's CDN really free for unlimited bandwidth?

Yes, with conditions. Cloudflare includes CDN caching and bandwidth on every plan, including the $0 Free plan, and does not meter egress by the gigabyte, per its plans page on 2026-07-17. That is genuinely unusual: Bunny.net and Fastly both bill per GB. The conditions are what the free bandwidth does not cover. Cloudflare's terms still restrict serving video and other large files hosted outside Cloudflare on the CDN, so heavy media has to sit on Stream, Images, or R2. Compute runs on Workers, which is separate: the Workers free plan allows 100,000 requests a day and the paid plan starts at $5/mo. So the CDN transfer is free, but a media-heavy or compute-heavy app still pays elsewhere.

Is Bunny.net or Fastly cheaper for a CDN?

Bunny.net is far cheaper on raw bandwidth for most workloads. Bunny's Standard network charges $0.01/GB in the US and Europe with a $1 monthly minimum and no per-request fee, while Fastly charges $0.12/GB in the same regions after a 100 GB free allowance, plus $0.01 per 10,000 requests, per both pricing pages on 2026-07-17. That is roughly a 12x gap per GB in North America and Europe before request fees. Fastly's price buys real edge programmability and low-latency logic, so the comparison is not apples to apples, but on a pure content-delivery bill Bunny wins clearly. Bunny's Volume network drops to $0.005/GB for high-traffic media if you accept a smaller point-of-presence footprint.

Why is Fastly so much more expensive per GB than Bunny.net?

Fastly prices as a premium edge-compute platform, not a commodity file mover. Its $0.12/GB rate in the US and Europe reflects instant cache purging, VCL and Compute programmability at the edge, and enterprise-grade observability, per the Fastly pricing page on 2026-07-17. Bunny.net targets the opposite position: a flat, low per-GB rate for predictable media and static delivery, $0.01/GB in the US and Europe. If you need programmable logic running at the edge on every request, Fastly's price can be justified. If you are shipping images, video, downloads, or a static site, you are paying a large premium for capabilities you will not use.

Can I serve video files on Cloudflare's free CDN?

Not if the video is hosted outside Cloudflare. Cloudflare retired its old Section 2.8 language, but its updated terms still restrict serving video and other large files that live on third-party storage through the CDN, per the Cloudflare blog on 2026-07-17. To serve video within the rules you host it on a Cloudflare service such as Stream, Images, or R2, which are billed separately from the free CDN. For outside-hosted or bandwidth-heavy video without that constraint, Bunny.net's flat $0.01 to $0.06 per GB by region or Fastly's metered delivery are the cleaner fits.