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CDN Bandwidth Usage for Cache Hits on Spaces (S3-Compatible Storage)

Posted on January 15, 2026

Subject: Detailed Question on CDN Bandwidth: Origin-to-Edge vs Edge-to-User Traffic

Hello,

I would like to clearly understand how CDN bandwidth is counted for DigitalOcean Spaces, especially the difference between origin-to-edge traffic and edge-to-user traffic.

Here is a concrete example:

  1. I have 400 GB of content stored in DigitalOcean Spaces (origin).

  2. The CDN fetches this content from Spaces once and stores it on the edge (initial cache fill).

  3. After that, 10 different users download the same content.

  4. All user requests are 100% cache hits (no further requests from edge to origin).

My questions are:

  • Is only the initial 400 GB transfer from Spaces (origin) to CDN edge counted as bandwidth usage?

  • Or is each download from CDN edge to end users also counted toward CDN bandwidth, resulting in 400 GB × 10 = 4,000 GB total usage?

In other words:

  • Does DigitalOcean CDN billing count only origin → edge traffic, or

  • Does it also count edge → user traffic, even when all requests are cache hits?

A clear explanation of what traffic is included in CDN bandwidth billing would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.



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