Separate CloudFront charges before tuning the cache
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Separate CloudFront request and viewer-transfer charges and confirm the pricing plan before changing cache settings. Otherwise, you may tune cache misses without addressing the meters that drive charges or the plan that covers them.
What you need first
- Tool
- AWS Management Console is AWS's web interface. Open the CloudFront console, choose Cache Statistics, and use it to read one distribution's request and cache report. Prepare the distribution ID and UTC dates within the previous 60 days.
- Access
- If you cannot read the report or plan details, ask an authorized CloudFront colleague for the selected distribution's Cache Statistics result and current plan coverage. Ask a billing colleague for CloudFront records for the same period.
- If you do not use that tool
- Send those colleagues the distribution ID, account scope, UTC dates, viewer location, and requested result. Ask for the Cache Statistics CSV, current plan coverage, and billing labels, quantities, and units. A finance partner can review the returned files without using a terminal.
Why this is worth a look
Skipping this review can link cache changes to the wrong billing outcome. CloudFront charges for HTTP or HTTPS requests and data transferred out from edge locations; pay-as-you-go request pricing is per 10,000 requests and transfer pricing is per GB, with geography and usage type affecting the price. Flat-rate plans combine specified services into a monthly price with no overage charges, so confirm coverage before treating a traffic increase as an extra charge.
Run this check
CHECKLISTUse the AWS Management Console and authorized colleague-provided billing records to review one distribution without changing settings. Keep account-wide charges separate from distribution-level traffic.
Execution surface: AWS Management Console, CloudFront Cache Statistics, and billing records supplied by an authorized billing colleague.
Access: ask authorized CloudFront and billing colleagues to provide results for their respective scopes if you cannot read them yourself.
Scope: one distribution ID. Record the account scope of billing records separately.
Window: matching UTC start and end dates within the previous 60 days. Use a complete month when assessing monthly plan allowances.
Units: request counts, hit, miss, and error percentages, and bytes in the cache report. Retain billing quantities and units. Pay-as-you-go meters include per 10,000 requests and per GB of data transferred out from edge locations.
[ ] Record the distribution ID, account scope, UTC dates, viewer location, and current pay-as-you-go or flat-rate plan. For a flat-rate plan, record monthly allowances, covered costs, and unsupported features.
[ ] Ask the billing colleague to separate request and viewer-transfer charges. If present, also separate real-time logs, charged by generated log lines, invalidations, charged by submitted paths, and other feature charges. Keep AWS's displayed labels and units. Do not assign account-wide totals to one distribution.
[ ] Open the CloudFront console and choose Cache Statistics. Set Start Date, End Date, Granularity, Viewer Location, and Distribution. Choose All Locations unless investigating a particular viewer continent. Choose CSV to download the report.
[ ] Record total requests, viewer bytes, and hit, miss, and error percentages. Hourly points are unavailable for ranges greater than 14 days. Wait if recent data may still be delayed, sometimes by up to 24 hours.
[ ] Compare traffic trends with the applicable pricing rules. If investigating misses, ask the application owner to review how long objects are cached, which query strings and cookies create separate cached versions, and whether headers included in cache variation are necessary. Record candidates for review only. Do not change policies or subscribe to a plan.How to confirm it
- 01
Confirm what the plan covers
Record whether the distribution uses pay-as-you-go or a flat-rate plan. For a flat-rate plan, read its covered costs, monthly allowances, and unsupported features before comparing options. Do not assume every feature is included.
- 02
Separate the charge types
Ask your billing colleague for request, viewer-transfer, and feature charges with the original usage labels and units. Confirm the records' account scope before comparing them with a single distribution.
- 03
Match traffic to the period
Open CloudFront Cache Statistics for the distribution and matching UTC dates within the previous 60 days. Select All Locations or the relevant viewer continent, then download CSV for a shared review. Compare total requests and viewer bytes with charge trends.
- 04
Review misses without promising savings
Ask the application owner to review unnecessary cached versions if misses need investigation. Query strings and cookies used for cache variation can create separate copies of identical content. Also review whether each header included in cache variation is necessary for the correct response. Do not change policies until the proposal is reviewed.
Before making changes
Assume the billing records and cache report use matching UTC boundaries and known scopes. Cache Statistics reports traffic and result types, not charges, and its data can lag by up to 24 hours. A miss means CloudFront gets the object from the origin; it does not by itself establish a paid transfer. AWS documents free origin fetches from AWS origins. Do not project a partial reporting window into a monthly plan decision without accounting for remaining usage.