Baidu Cloud CDN Pricing 2026: Cost per TB Explained

Baidu cloud pricing for CDN delivery in 2026 comes down to two meters. Mainland China traffic on Baidu AI Cloud CDN lists at roughly ¥0.14 to ¥0.25 per GB depending on monthly volume, about $19 to $35 per TB at ¥7.2 to the dollar. Traffic served from overseas nodes runs on a separate regional meter, which this blog estimates at $40 to $120 per TB. This brief covers a dated tier table, the four billing modes, the ICP gate, a worked 100 TB cost model and a decision matrix for splitting China and non-China traffic.

As of 2026, Baidu AI Cloud CDN charges approximately ¥0.14 to ¥0.25 per GB for mainland China traffic, roughly $19 to $35 per TB, but only for domains with a valid ICP filing. Without that filing, delivery falls back to overseas nodes billed at higher regional rates, so a global workload's real cost per TB is a blend of both meters.

How Baidu cloud pricing is structured for CDN traffic

Baidu rebranded its cloud as Baidu AI Cloud (百度智能云), but search and procurement documents still say "Baidu Cloud". The CDN product bills mainland China and overseas delivery on separate meters, each with its own price list, and the mainland meter is graduated by monthly volume. Value-added features such as HTTPS requests, real-time logs and security add-ons appear as separate line items.

Two details change the arithmetic. Chinese cloud providers typically bill 1 TB as 1,024 GB, so a per-GB rate converts to a slightly higher per-TB figure than Western price lists suggest. The invoice is in CNY, which means USD-denominated budgets carry currency exposure on top of usage variance.

Key numbers to repeat in a budget meeting:

• Mainland list traffic: about ¥0.14 to ¥0.25 per GB, or $19 to $35 per TB (2026 list ranges, estimate at ¥7.2 per USD).
• Overseas traffic: about $0.04 to $0.12 per GB by region (this blog's estimate, 2026).
• Sustained 1 Mbps for a 30-day month moves about 324 GB, the conversion behind every bandwidth-versus-traffic decision.
• ICP filing lead time: commonly two to four weeks before mainland acceleration can start (estimate).

Baidu CDN pricing table: mainland tiers, 2026

The bands below are approximate 2026 list ranges for pay-as-you-go mainland traffic, converted at ¥7.2 per USD and 1,000 GB per TB for readability. Confirm exact figures in the Baidu AI Cloud console before signing, because promotions and account-level discounts move them.

Mainland unit cost falls by roughly a third between the entry band and the 100 TB band, so volume matters more than vendor discounts at the low end.

Tiers are graduated: each rate applies only to the gigabytes inside its band, so the effective rate at 60 TB sits between the first three bands, not at the 50 to 100 TB price. Overseas traffic is priced by region, with North America and Europe at the low end and South America, the Middle East and Africa at the high end of the $0.04 to $0.12 per GB estimate.

Billing modes: traffic, peak bandwidth, 95th percentile and resource packages

Traffic billing is the safe default; bandwidth billing only wins when the traffic curve is flat enough to keep peak close to average.

The test is the load factor: average bandwidth divided by billed peak. A stream that holds 1 Gbps around the clock moves about 324 TB a month, and on a peak-based meter it pays only for that 1 Gbps. A VOD catalog that spikes to 1 Gbps for two evening hours and idles near 100 Mbps otherwise pays the same peak charge for perhaps a sixth of the bytes. As a working estimate, bandwidth billing tends to beat traffic billing when load factor stays above roughly 0.4; replay a real month of logs against both meters before switching. Resource packages are typically mainland-only and expire, so overbuying them converts a discount into stranded spend.

Add-on charges that move the per-TB number

Chinese CDNs commonly bill HTTPS requests per 10,000, often in the range of ¥0.05 per 10,000 (estimate). That is negligible for large video segments and material for small-object APIs or image grids. Real-time log delivery, dynamic acceleration for uncacheable paths, and security features such as WAF and bot protection are separate products with separate meters. Origin pull egress from a non-Baidu origin is billed by the origin's provider, not by Baidu, so a cache hit ratio drop shows up on two invoices.

ICP filing and the ICP license: the gate on mainland pricing

Mainland acceleration on Baidu AI Cloud CDN requires the domain to hold a valid ICP filing (ICP 备案) with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, submitted through the cloud provider. The filing generally requires a mainland-registered entity, or a mainland individual for non-commercial sites, which rules out most foreign companies without a local subsidiary or partner.

The filing is not the same as the commercial ICP license (经营性 ICP 许可证). A filing covers informational sites; operating revenue-generating online services such as paid content, e-commerce platforms or online games typically needs the license, and some categories need further permits. Procurement should confirm which one the business model requires before budgeting for mainland rates.

Without a filing, Baidu will not serve the domain from mainland edges. Traffic to Chinese users then lands on overseas nodes, typically Hong Kong or other Asia-Pacific locations, at the higher overseas rate and with cross-border latency that this blog estimates at 60 to 200 ms extra, varying by carrier and time of day.

Worked cost model: 100 TB a month with a 70/30 split

Assumptions, all labeled estimates: 100 TB a month, 70 TB to ICP-filed mainland users and 30 TB to users outside China; blended mainland rate ¥0.20 per GB; overseas rate $0.07 per GB; 1 MB average object; HTTPS requests at ¥0.05 per 10,000; ¥7.2 per USD; 1,000 GB per TB.

• Mainland: 70,000 GB at ¥0.20 equals ¥14,000, about $1,944.
• Overseas: 30,000 GB at $0.07 equals $2,100.
• Requests: 100 TB at 1 MB per object is about 100 million requests, or 10,000 units of 10,000, at ¥0.05 each: ¥500, about $69.
• Total: about $4,113, or an effective $41 per TB.

In this model the 30 percent overseas share generates more than half of the bill, so the mainland headline rate understates a global workload's cost by about 1.5 times.

Moving only the overseas 30 TB to a metered global CDN changes the picture. On BlazingCDN's tiers, 30 TB costs 5 TB at $5 plus 20 TB at $4.50 plus 5 TB at $4.00, which is $25 plus $90 plus $20, or $135. The split total becomes about $1,944 plus $69 plus $135, roughly $2,148, a 48 percent reduction, at the cost of running two CDN accounts and steering traffic by geography in DNS.

Non-China traffic: how Baidu compares on global delivery

For traffic outside mainland China, Baidu's overseas meter competes with global CDNs that price delivery as their core product. The table ranks cost at 100 TB a month of non-China traffic, using published price lists, checked August 2026, plus this blog's 2026 estimate for Baidu.

For non-China traffic at 100 TB a month, Baidu's overseas meter is likely the most expensive option on this list, while its mainland meter has no equivalent among the others.

BlazingCDN publishes this blog, so verify this ranking on your own traffic; the 14-day testing period exists for exactly that. Cloudflare sits outside this cost ranking because its Enterprise tier is quote-based and widely reported to start near $5,000 a month.

As of October 2026, BlazingCDN prices delivery from $5 per TB down to $2.50 per TB at volume, with one rate for US, Europe and Asia and no request fees; 100 TB a month costs $415, and current rates are on the BlazingCDN pricing page. It measured 47 ms and 761 Mb/s on a 100 MB HTTPS download in Asia (measured June 2026), relevant for the Asia-Pacific share of a split deployment, and the full CDN cost comparison for global delivery lays out the same criteria vendor by vendor.

Best fit by workload: when Baidu wins and when to split

The mainland share and the ICP status decide the architecture before any per-TB comparison does.

Risks finance should price in

Filing revocation is the largest single risk: if an ICP filing lapses or is withdrawn, mainland acceleration stops and traffic either fails or reroutes to overseas pricing overnight. Watch for a sudden rise in the overseas meter as the symptom. Currency moves of a few percent shift a CNY invoice against a USD budget without any change in usage. Expired resource packages and a single spiky month on a 95th percentile contract are the two common sources of invoice surprise. Switching cost is mostly DNS and certificate work plus re-filing if the ICP record is tied to a specific provider's access.

FAQ: Baidu Cloud CDN pricing and billing

How much does Baidu Cloud CDN cost per TB in 2026?

Baidu Cloud CDN costs roughly $19 to $35 per TB for mainland China traffic in 2026, based on approximate list rates of ¥0.14 to ¥0.25 per GB converted at ¥7.2 per USD. The lower end applies above 100 TB a month. Overseas traffic is metered separately and this blog estimates it at $40 to $120 per TB by region.

Is Baidu CDN pricing different for traffic outside mainland China?

Yes, Baidu CDN pricing uses a separate overseas meter that costs several times more than mainland traffic, an estimated $0.04 to $0.12 per GB in 2026 depending on region. North America and Europe sit at the low end. A workload with 30 percent overseas traffic can see that share generate more than half the monthly bill.

Can a foreign company use Baidu Cloud CDN without an ICP filing?

A foreign company can open a Baidu Cloud CDN account, but without an ICP filing its domains cannot use mainland China edge nodes. Delivery falls back to overseas nodes at overseas rates, with added cross-border latency. Obtaining a filing generally requires a mainland-registered entity, so most foreign firms need a local subsidiary or partner first.

Which Baidu CDN billing mode is cheapest for live streaming?

For sustained mainland live streaming, Baidu's monthly 95th percentile or daily peak bandwidth billing is usually cheaper than traffic billing. Bandwidth billing wins when average bandwidth stays above roughly 40 percent of the billed peak, an estimate worth testing. Replay one real month of bandwidth samples against both meters before committing to a contract.

Does Baidu Cloud CDN charge extra for HTTPS requests?

Baidu Cloud CDN, like most Chinese CDNs, typically bills HTTPS requests as a separate line item, often around ¥0.05 per 10,000 requests (estimate). For video segments of several megabytes the charge is negligible. For APIs, thumbnails or small images it can add a meaningful amount, so model it from your average object size.

Price your China and non-China traffic separately this week

Export one month of CDN or origin logs and split delivered bytes into mainland China and everything else by viewer geography. For the mainland share, apply the graduated bands above, compute your load factor to see whether bandwidth billing beats traffic billing, and add request fees from your average object size. For the rest, price the bytes on two or three global CDNs at the same volume. If the overseas share costs more than the mainland share on a single Baidu account, a DNS-based geographic split is worth a pilot.

For the non-China share, the BlazingCDN pricing page lists progressive tiers from $5 per TB with one rate for US, Europe and Asia, and a 14-day testing period on real production traffic.