💰 5 PRO TIPS to SAVE MONEY on AWS CLOUDFRONT

by David Burgos

AWS CloudFront is fast, reliable… and can get surprisingly expensive if you’re not careful. Whether you're running a small project, a SaaS, or a blog with global traffic, CloudFront pricing can spiral quickly without the right setup.

In this post, I’ll show you 5 practical tips you can apply today to optimize your CloudFront configuration and reduce your AWS bill — without sacrificing performance.

✅ Want the video version? Watch it on YouTube

1. 🌍 Use the Right Price Class

CloudFront lets you choose which edge locations to serve your content from, using Price Classes:

  • Price Class 100: US, Canada, and Europe (cheapest)

  • Price Class 200: Adds Asia and Africa

  • Price Class All: Global (most expensive)

If your audience is mostly in the US or Europe, choose Price Class 100 to avoid paying for edge locations your users don’t need.

💡 Go to your CloudFront distribution → Settings → Edit → Price Class

2. ⏱️ Tune Your TTL (Time to Live)

TTL controls how long your content stays cached at edge locations. If it’s too short, CloudFront fetches from your origin too often — which costs you more.

Set sensible defaults:

  • Minimum TTL: 1 hour

  • Default TTL: 1–6 hours

  • Max TTL: 24 hours (or more, for static assets)

This reduces origin requests and saves you bandwidth costs.

🔧 Tip: Review TTLs under Behaviors > Cache Policy

3. 🗜️ Enable Gzip and Brotli Compression

Serving smaller files = lower data transfer costs. CloudFront supports both gzip and brotli compression (brotli is newer and better for text-based assets like HTML, CSS, JS).

Make sure both are enabled in your cache policy:

  • Brotli (for modern browsers)

  • Gzip (for older browsers)

You’ll serve lighter files and users will love the faster loads too! 🚀

4. 🌐 Use Geographic Restrictions (Smartly)

If your content doesn’t need to be accessible worldwide, restrict access by country. For example:

  • Block high-cost, low-value regions

  • Allow only countries where your app or service is available

This saves money and reduces unwanted traffic or abuse (like scrapers).

🛑 Set up in: CloudFront > Restrictions > Geo Restrictions

5. 🧠 Review Behaviors for Extra Costs

Sometimes forgotten, the Behaviors section is where extra costs hide:

  • 🚨 Check if you’re using Lambda@Edge or Function URLs

  • These add flexibility — but also cost per execution

  • Also check for signed URLs or headers that require extra processing

Make sure each behavior is actually necessary. If not, simplify!

🔍 Tip: Clean up unused paths or legacy configurations

✅ Bonus: Watch the Video Version

If you prefer watching, I’ve recorded a full walkthrough on YouTube with examples and screens:

🎥 Watch the video here

Final Thoughts

Saving money on AWS CloudFront isn’t about cutting corners — it’s about being strategic. These 5 pro tips help you serve your users faster and smarter, without wasting budget.

To recap:

  1. Use the right Price Class
  2. Optimize your TTL settings
  3. Enable gzip and brotli
  4. Set geo restrictions wisely
  5. Audit your Behaviors for hidden costs

🔁 Over to you:

Have you tried any of these tips? Got a trick of your own to save on AWS? Let me know on Twitter/X or leave a comment below.

🧠 Follow for more tips on AWS, performance, and smart architecture!