Google Cloud CDN

Cloud CDN is Google's content delivery service for web applications, files and APIs. It stores copies of responses in caches on Google's global edge network, so that later requests are answered close to the visitor instead of travelling to your origin. Google says it runs on the same network that serves its own services such as Search, Gmail and Maps.

Cloud CDN is not sold alone: it is switched on for a backend of the global external Application Load Balancer, which supplies the front-end addresses, routing and health checks. Backends can be Compute Engine instances, Kubernetes workloads, Cloud Storage buckets or origins outside Google Cloud. A sister product, Media CDN, targets large-scale video and file downloads and has its own pricing. Billing combines bandwidth and request charges.

• Load balancer integration. Requests reach Google's edge front end, and if the load balancer URL map points to a backend with Cloud CDN enabled, the cache is consulted first. A hit is served from cache and a miss goes to the origin.
• Cache modes and cache keys. Google describes configurable cache controls by origin, including cache keys, lifetimes and modes, so static and dynamic content can be handled differently. Setting up a cache mode for dynamic content is a documented task.
• Any origin. Content can come from Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud Storage buckets or external backends, including storage buckets in other clouds. Requests to external backends are billed at internet transfer rates.
• Invalidation and signed URLs. When enabled on a backend bucket, controls such as cache modes, signed URLs and invalidation become available. Cloud CDN can also cache large objects over 10 MB, which header-based caching of smaller files does not cover.
• Dynamic compression. Responses can be compressed at the edge, and Google says the feature can reduce size by up to 85 percent. That cuts bytes metered for transfer, because billing counts headers and body after compression.
• Protocols and anycast. Google lists modern protocols, QUIC and global anycast as the means to deliver render-blocking content faster and reduce video start time. The user does not choose a region because one anycast address answers worldwide.
• Security with Cloud Armor. Cloud Armor can protect content at the edge against DDoS and other attacks, and Google documents using it together with Cloud CDN and Apigee. Edge image optimisation is in preview and free during that phase.

• A SaaS team already running on Google Cloud. If the application sits behind an external Application Load Balancer, switching on Cloud CDN is a backend setting. Static files and cacheable API responses leave the origin sooner, and billing stays inside the existing Google Cloud account.
• A publisher serving images from a Cloud Storage bucket. A backend bucket behind the load balancer lets Cloud CDN cache objects and apply signed URLs for private files. Cache fill from Cloud Storage replaces the direct transfer charges, which Google describes in its billing table.
• An ecommerce team with an origin outside Google. Google says Cloud CDN pulls from any HTTP-capable origin, including other clouds. The trade-off is that requests to the external backend are billed at internet data transfer rates, so a spreadsheet forecast is needed first.

Google's guide for a backend bucket walks through creating a global external Application Load Balancer with Cloud CDN enabled, then pointing a URL map at the bucket. Prerequisites are a Google Cloud project with billing and a load balancer.

New customers get $300 in free credits to try Cloud CDN and other products, according to the product page. Google offers a preconfigured solution to try for free, a Cloud Skills Boost lab and a pricing calculator for estimates. Skills in Google Cloud networking are assumed, because cache behaviour is tied to load balancer configuration.

Cloud CDN works together with an external Application Load Balancer, so it is an add-on to Google's own load balancing rather than a stand-alone service.

The bill combines cache data transfer out, cache fill and cache lookups, plus load balancer charges on a cache miss. Origins can be external, but those requests are billed at internet transfer rates, so forecasting takes a spreadsheet.

The CDN providers list places Google Cloud CDN 12 of 12: only Azure Front Door ranks higher in the list, and nothing follows it. No numeric score is attached; established products follow the challengers in their ranked order.

Home market: the United States, one of 8 North America bases among the 12 products here.

In the catalogue: Metered egress, cache fill and lookups, published.

Google prices Cloud CDN in US dollars. Cache data transfer out is $0.02 to $0.20 per GiB, depending on destination region and monthly usage tier (0 to 10 TiB, 10 to 150 TiB, 150 to 1,000 TiB, above that). Cache fill is $0.01 to $0.04 per GiB, and HTTP or HTTPS cache lookups cost $0.0075 per 10,000 requests. A cache miss adds load balancer data processing and storage operation charges. Volumes above 500 TiB a month can ask for discounts. Charges accrue daily and bill at period end, and there is no always-free allowance listed beyond the new-customer credit. Opt-in regions have separate prices.

Read from cloud.google.com/cdn when Best CDN Providers in 2026 was last reviewed (5 November 2026).

The setup is an external Application Load Balancer with caching enabled on its backend.

Charges are cache data transfer out, cache fill, lookup requests and, on misses, load balancer processing or storage operations.

For a stand-alone site on another host, the load balancer requirement is the reason this sits near the bottom of the list.

The pages checked do not state hosting regions for cached content, certifications or a data export policy for Cloud CDN. Google documents Cloud Armor for edge protection and signed URLs for access control. Traffic destined for mainland China is served from Google locations outside China, and Google warns that performance may be lower there. Compliance programmes are covered in Google Cloud's general documentation, not on these pages.

Integrations the vendor names (10):

• External Application Load Balancer
• Cloud Storage
• Compute Engine
• Google Kubernetes Engine
• Cloud Run
• Cloud Armor
• Apigee
• Media CDN
• External HTTP backends in other clouds
• Google Cloud Pricing Calculator

Shared tags and a similar price model decide who is listed here; where none match, the neighbours in the ranking fill in.

• imgix (#6 of 12): Image and video processing CDN billed in credits.
• Fastly (#7 of 12): Not for: small static sites watching a per-gigabyte budget. Programmable edge CDN with metered regions and a starter allowance. (United States)
• Akamai (#9 of 12): Many separate delivery products, priced after a sales conversation.
• Azure Front Door (#11 of 12): Aimed at: Organisations already running applications on Microsoft Azure. (United States)

Read from the vendor’s own pages on 5 November 2026.

• cloud.google.com/cdn: product description, features, Media CDN, free credits
• cloud.google.com/cdn/pricing: price components, rates, example, volume discounts
• cloud.google.com/cdn/docs/overview: how cache hit and miss work with the load balancer
• cloud.google.com/cdn/docs/setting-up-cdn-with-bucket: backend bucket setup, signed URLs, invalidation, large content

Four tests decide a position: how soon the product is useful, what the bill really becomes, how data leaves and who it suits. On those tests Google Cloud CDN lands at place 12 of 12. Read the editorial process for the method and where paid visibility fits in.