Image CDN bills can be hard to predict when several usage dimensions share one meter. Keenpix uses a narrower model: optimized bytes delivered through managed cloud, with transformations and team members included.
The problem with per-transform and credit pricing
When a CDN charges per transformation — or bundles transforms, storage, and delivery into "credits" — your bill becomes coupled to implementation details you do not control:
- A responsive
srcsetwith eight breakpoints generates eight derived images. - Adding a modern AVIF variant alongside WebP doubles the transform count.
- A crawler or a hotlinker can hammer new variants you never intended to create.
None of that reflects real value delivered to real users. It just makes the meter spin. The rational response — optimize less to save money — is exactly backwards for a product whose whole job is optimization.
What we meter instead
Keenpix's billing meter records one thing: optimized bytes delivered to end users through the managed Keenpix network. A Cloudflare edge hit, a Keenpix optimized-variant-cache hit, and a newly optimized response from the origin each count once; the source changes, but the returned bytes remain one delivered response. Creating another transform does not create a separate charge.
- Transformations are free and unlimited. Build as many variants as you want.
- One linear overage rate. Published, per-GB, no pooled-credit math.
- Always-on paid delivery. Usage and projected overage stay visible while production images continue serving.
What caching changes
Managed Cloudflare delivery is part of Keenpix, so its successful edge responses count toward the same delivery allowance as application responses. They are not added twice: an edge hit is counted at the edge, while an edge miss is counted when the Keenpix application returns the image. A browser cache hit—or a hit in a customer-owned CDN placed in front of Keenpix—never reaches the managed network and is not counted.
Bandwidth saved is different. Keenpix analytics compare source bytes with the smaller optimized response and report the reduction as bytesSaved. That savings value is never added to delivered bytes and never sent to Polar as billable usage.
Cache-hit billing, case by case
| Where the request is satisfied | Reaches managed Keenpix delivery? | Counts as one managed delivery response? |
|---|---|---|
| Browser memory or disk cache | No | No |
| Service worker returning its own stored response | No | No |
| Customer-owned CDN in front of Keenpix | No, on that CDN's hit | No |
| Keenpix-managed Cloudflare edge | Yes | Yes, once at the edge |
| Keenpix optimized-variant cache after an edge miss | Yes | Yes, once when Keenpix returns the image |
| New transform after all managed caches miss | Yes | Yes, once when Keenpix returns the image |
The table describes Keenpix's current managed-meter boundary, verified against the repository on September 3, 2026. It is not a promise about charges from a browser vendor, customer-owned CDN, source-storage provider, or network carrier. An edge miss does not mean the same response is charged twice: the managed path records the successful delivery at the layer that returns it.
Caching still matters to capacity and user experience even when the billing unit stays the same. Browser and customer-owned front-cache hits avoid the managed request entirely. Managed edge hits avoid origin fetch and transform work. Version image source URLs when bytes change so long-lived caches remain correct; the cache invalidation and versioned URL guide covers that lifecycle.
The result
Optimizing aggressively — more formats, more breakpoints, higher quality where it matters — should reduce delivered bytes when the resulting files are smaller, not add a separate transformation fee. See the exact allowances and overage rates on Keenpix pricing, then model one workload across providers in the image CDN cost calculator.
And if you would rather not be billed at all, you can always self-host Keenpix free — the same open-source engine on your own infrastructure.
See it against the incumbents
- Keenpix vs Cloudinary — credits vs managed-delivery pricing, with a reproducible canary method.
- Keenpix vs imgix — credit packages vs managed-delivery billing, with a reproducible canary method.
- Keenpix vs ImageKit — two delivery-pricing models, compared.