azurerm_cdn_endpoint cost estimation

An azurerm_cdn_endpoint is a content-delivery endpoint that caches origin content at edge locations and serves it to users. Cost is primarily per GB of data transfer out, tiered by geographic zone and volume — Zone 1 (North America/Europe) Standard egress is ~$0.081/GB for the first tier, dropping at higher volumes. 1 TB of Zone 1 egress is ~$81/month. There's no significant standing fee; cost tracks delivered traffic.

The defining lever is cache hit ratio. A CDN's value is serving from the edge cache so requests don't hit (and you don't pay origin egress for) the origin. A high cache-hit ratio means most bytes are served from cache at the CDN egress rate, and the origin is offloaded. Sensible cache rules and TTLs are what make the CDN pay off.

The other factors are zone (egress to Asia/South America/Oceania costs more than Zone 1) and the CDN profile tier. For content-heavy sites, the CDN both improves performance and reduces total cost versus serving everything from origin compute.

c3x prices the endpoint from egress volume as usage, so projected delivery cost can be modelled.

Terraform example

A minimal but realistic configuration that C3X can estimate.

resource "azurerm_cdn_endpoint" "assets" {
  name                = "static-assets"
  profile_name        = azurerm_cdn_profile.main.name
  location            = azurerm_resource_group.main.location
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.main.name

  origin {
    name      = "origin"
    host_name = azurerm_storage_account.main.primary_blob_host
  }
}

Pricing dimensions

What you actually pay for when you provision azurerm_cdn_endpoint.

Dimension	Unit	What's being charged
Data transfer (egress)	per GB	Content served from the CDN, tiered by geographic zone and volume. Zone 1 (NA/EU) is cheapest; Asia/SA/Oceania cost more. ~$0.081/GB (Zone 1 Standard) → 1 TB ≈ $81/month

Sample C3X output

1 TB of Zone 1 CDN egress in a month:

azurerm_cdn_endpoint.assets
└─ Data transfer (Zone 1)   1000 GB   $81.00
                            Monthly   $81.00

Optimization tips

Common ways to reduce azurerm_cdn_endpoint cost without changing the workload.

Maximize cache hit ratio

Origin egress + compute offloaded

The CDN's value is serving from cache so requests don't pay origin egress and origin compute. Sensible cache rules and TTLs keep more content at the edge — the single biggest lever for both cost and performance.

Cache static assets aggressively

Proportional to cacheable traffic

Images, CSS/JS, fonts, and downloads are highly cacheable. Long TTLs on immutable, versioned assets mean they're served from cache for their whole lifetime rather than re-fetched from origin.

Be aware of zone-based pricing

Zone-mix dependent

Egress to Asia, South America, and Oceania costs more per GB than Zone 1 (NA/EU). For globally-distributed traffic, that geographic mix affects the bill — though serving from a CDN is still cheaper than origin egress.

Choose the right CDN tier/provider

Tier-dependent

Azure CDN comes in Microsoft/Standard and premium variants; for advanced routing, WAF, or global load balancing, Front Door may fit better. Match the product to your needs rather than over-buying.

FAQ

How is an Azure CDN endpoint billed?

Primarily per GB of data transfer out, tiered by geographic zone and volume — Zone 1 (NA/EU) Standard egress is ~$0.081/GB, dropping at higher volumes. 1 TB of Zone 1 egress is ~$81/month. There's no significant standing fee.

How do I reduce CDN cost?

Maximize cache hit ratio — the more content served from the edge cache, the less origin egress and compute you pay. Cache static assets aggressively with long TTLs, and be mindful that egress to Asia/SA/Oceania costs more than Zone 1.

How does c3x estimate the cost?

The CDN endpoint is usage-driven, so c3x models it from egress volume in c3x-usage.yml. There's no standing fee; cost tracks delivered traffic by zone.

Related resources

Azure

azurerm_storage_account

A common CDN origin for static content

`azurerm_cdn_endpoint` cost estimation