Image Transform Pricing Compared: Small Pics vs Imgix vs Cloudinary vs ImageKit vs Bunny and More
Image transform pricing varies widely, from Cloudinary’s complex credit system to Small Pics’ flat $9/mo Lite tier. For agencies managing multiple client sites, the cost difference can be hundreds of dollars per month.
This post breaks down what each service actually costs so you can compare them side by side. If you want to plug in your own numbers, try the interactive cost calculator.
How do the eight services compare at a glance?
Before the details, here is the high-level view across all eight services.
| Feature | Small Pics | Imgix | Cloudinary | ImageKit | Bunny Optimizer | Cloudflare Images | Gumlet | ImageBoss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest paid plan | $9/mo | $25/mo | $89/mo | $9/mo | $9.50/mo | ~$5/mo | $39/mo | $5/mo |
| Pricing model | Flat tiers | Credits | Credits | Bandwidth + storage | Flat per site | Per-image + per-transform | Bandwidth | Per-origin-image |
| Free tier | No | No | Yes (25 credits) | Yes (20 GB bandwidth) | No | Yes (limited) | Yes (30 GB, 2 sources) | No |
| AVIF | Yes (default) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| JPEG XL | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Separate product | Separate product | Yes | No |
| DAM | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Multi-site friendly | Yes (sources/domains per tier) | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | No ($9.50 per site) | Neutral | Neutral | Verify |
| Imgix param compat | Yes (built-in) | N/A | No | No | No | No | Yes (partial) | No |
| Overages | Email warning, then $5/1k origins or $3/7k transforms | 120% per-credit, service blocked | Account suspension | Pay-per-use | N/A (unlimited) | Pay-per-use | Pay-per-use | Scales with usage |
How much does Small Pics cost?
Small Pics uses flat-tier pricing with no credits, no per-request fees, and no bandwidth charges. You pick a plan based on your origin image count and monthly transforms.
| Plan | Price | Origin Images | Transforms | Image Sources | Custom Domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $9/mo | 2,500 | 17,500 | 5 | 5 |
| Starter | $19/mo | 5,000 | 35,000 | 10 | 10 |
| Standard | $59/mo | 16,000 | 112,000 | 40 | 40 |
| Extended | $189/mo | 52,000 | 364,000 | 120 | 120 |
Every plan includes automatic AVIF and WebP encoding, global edge caching with instant purge, signed URLs, and origin shielding. No features are gated behind higher tiers. Small Pics is one of very few services that supports JPEG XL output.
If you go over your plan limits, Small Pics sends an email warning first. Overages are $5 per pack of 1,000 additional origins (with 7,000 transforms) or $3 per pack of 7,000 additional transforms. Annual plans get the first month of overages free. No service interruptions, no account suspensions.
The 14-day free trial requires no credit card.
How much does Imgix cost in 2026?
Imgix uses a credit-based pricing model. Credits are consumed across image management, delivery, and transformations.
| Plan | Price | Credits | Per-Credit Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $25/mo | 100 | $0.25 |
| Basic | $75/mo | 375 | $0.20 |
| Growth | $300/mo | 1,875 | $0.16 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Management credits are consumed at 2 per GB of cached data (origins plus transform variants). Delivery credits are 1 per GB of bandwidth. Transform credits are consumed per operation but the rate is not publicly documented. This makes it difficult to predict your actual bill from the published plan prices alone. Overages are billed at 120% of the standard per-credit price, and service can be blocked if you hit your limit.
Imgix has the most mature URL API with 100+ image operations. It is the industry benchmark for URL-based transforms. The problem is not the product, it is the pricing. Legacy customers have reported significant price increases on renewal, and the credit system’s opacity makes budgeting difficult.
How much does Cloudinary cost?
Cloudinary uses a credit-based system where one credit equals roughly 1,000 transformations, or 1 GB of managed storage, or 1 GB of bandwidth.
| Plan | Price | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25/mo |
| Plus | $89/mo | 225 |
| Advanced | $224/mo | 600 |
| Advanced Extra | $549/mo | Custom |
The credit model is flexible but opaque. It is hard to map credits to actual usage unless you track storage, transforms, and bandwidth separately. One risk that is not obvious from the pricing page: Cloudinary suspends accounts that exceed their quota, even by a fraction. On fixed-tier plans, there is no automatic overage billing on lower tiers, just suspension.
Cloudinary is the most feature-rich service on this list. If you need advanced video processing, AI tagging, background removal, or DAM (digital asset management), it may justify the higher cost. For teams that just need image transforms and CDN delivery, it is more than you need.
How much does ImageKit cost?
ImageKit offers a free tier with 20 GB of bandwidth and 3 GB of storage per month, with unlimited transformations.
| Plan | Price | Bandwidth | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 20 GB/mo | 3 GB |
| Lite | $9/mo | 40 GB/mo | 10 GB |
| Pro | $89/mo | 225 GB/mo | 225 GB |
Overages on the Lite plan are $0.50/GB for bandwidth and $0.10/GB for storage. On the Pro plan, $0.45/GB for bandwidth and $0.09/GB for storage.
ImageKit’s pricing is primarily bandwidth-based, which is simpler than Cloudinary’s credit model. The free tier is decent for small projects, though the 3 GB storage cap is tight. The Lite plan at $9/mo is a reasonable step up, but the jump to $89/mo for Pro is steep. One important limitation: if you exceed the free tier’s bandwidth mid-month, ImageKit stops serving images until the next billing cycle.
One advantage of ImageKit: no per-image charges and unlimited transformations. You pay for bandwidth, not for the number of origin images or transforms.
How much does Bunny Optimizer cost?
Bunny Optimizer is $9.50/mo per Pull Zone with unlimited optimizations and transforms. Each Pull Zone supports up to 10 hostnames, but they all share the same origin. Different sites with different origins need separate Pull Zones. Multi-zone discounts are available on request.
CDN bandwidth is billed separately starting at $0.01/GB through Bunny CDN. This means the true cost is $9.50/mo plus bandwidth, which varies by traffic.
Bunny Optimizer does not support AVIF output as of March 2026. It outputs WebP. It also includes CSS and JS minification, which is a nice bonus if you are already using Bunny CDN.
For a single high-traffic site on one origin, Bunny is excellent value. For agencies with 5 client sites on different servers, that is 5 Pull Zones at $47.50/mo before bandwidth, compared to Small Pics Lite at $9/mo for 5 sources. If you run multiple domains off the same origin (e.g. a multi-tenant app), one Pull Zone covers them all for $9.50.
How much does Gumlet cost?
Gumlet uses bandwidth-based pricing for image optimization.
| Plan | Price | Bandwidth | Overage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 30 GB/mo | $0.50/GB |
| Growth | $39/mo | 300 GB/mo | $0.15/GB |
| Business | $259/mo | 2,500 GB/mo | $0.08/GB |
Gumlet is competitive at moderate scale and has video support and DAM built in. The bandwidth model means costs scale with traffic rather than image library size. For a site with modest traffic but a large image catalog, Gumlet can be cheaper than image-count-based services. For high-traffic sites, bandwidth billing can produce surprises.
One notable feature: Gumlet has partial Imgix parameter compatibility. They support most core Imgix transform parameters and market the migration as a hostname change. If you are coming from Imgix and do not need Craft CMS integration, Gumlet is worth evaluating alongside Small Pics.
How much does Cloudflare Images cost?
Cloudflare Images charges per stored image and per unique transform variant.
Their paid tier is roughly $5/mo for 100,000 stored images plus $0.05 per 100,000 served images. There is also per-unique-transform billing. A limited free tier exists for transformations from remote sources.
Cloudflare Images is tightly coupled to the Cloudflare ecosystem. If you are already on Cloudflare, it is the cheapest option at scale because of the massive CDN network. If you are not on Cloudflare, the integration cost and ecosystem lock-in may not be worth it.
For sites with many responsive image variants (5 sizes x 2 formats = 10 variants per image), per-transform billing adds up faster than you would expect.
How much does ImageBoss cost?
ImageBoss charges per origin image (they call them “master images”) with unlimited transforms and requests.
Their minimum plan is $5/mo for 4,200 master images and 5 GB of data transfer. Pricing scales with master image count at $1.20 per 1,000 active images. Bandwidth beyond the base allocation is $0.10/GB. Custom domains are $20/mo each.
ImageBoss is the most direct competitor to Small Pics in terms of philosophy: both charge by origin images, both offer a focused URL API, and neither has video or DAM. ImageBoss starts lower on the base price ($5/mo for 4,200 images vs Small Pics Lite at $9/mo for 2,500 images), but the $20/mo per custom domain adds up. An agency with 5 custom domains pays $100/mo in domain fees alone before image costs. Small Pics includes 5 custom domains on the Lite plan at no extra charge.
ImageBoss uses path-based URL transforms (/cover/300x200/image.jpg) rather than query parameters (?w=300&h=200&fit=cover). Query params are more familiar if you are coming from Imgix.
Which image CDN is cheapest for agencies with multiple sites?
For agencies, the relevant question is not just the sticker price but the total cost across all client sites.
Here is a comparison for an agency managing 5 client sites, each with 3,000 origin images and moderate traffic.
| Service | Estimated Monthly Cost | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Small Pics | $59 | Standard plan: 16,000 images, 40 sources |
| ImageBoss | ~$120-140 | 15,000 images + 5 custom domains ($100) + bandwidth |
| Bunny Optimizer | $47.50 + bandwidth | $9.50 per site x 5, plus CDN bandwidth |
| Gumlet | $39-259+ | Depends on total bandwidth across all sites |
| ImageKit | $89+ | Pro plan, bandwidth-based |
| Imgix | $75-300+ | Credits consumed across all sources (transform credits not published) |
| Cloudinary | $200-400+ | Credits across storage + transforms + bandwidth |
Small Pics lets you manage multiple client sites under one account with separate image sources and custom domains. One Standard plan at $59/mo covers 16,000 origin images across up to 40 image sources.
How does pricing scale as you add more origin images?
This is where pricing models diverge the most.
Imgix scales with credits. Every image, access, and transform consumes credits. Large image libraries with infrequent access still consume management credits.
Cloudinary scales with a blend of storage, transforms, and bandwidth credits. Adding more origin images increases storage credit consumption.
ImageKit scales primarily with bandwidth. Adding more images does not directly increase your bill unless those images drive more traffic.
Bunny Optimizer scales per site. More sites means linearly more cost. More images on a single site does not change the price.
Gumlet scales with bandwidth. Similar to ImageKit but with tighter tier caps on the lower plans.
ImageBoss scales with origin image count, similar to Small Pics. Unlimited transforms per image.
Small Pics scales with origin images and transforms, but in predictable steps. You know exactly what each tier costs and what it includes. No per-request multipliers.
What hidden costs should you watch for?
Every service has costs that are not obvious from the pricing page.
Overage surcharges. Imgix charges overages at 120% of the standard per-credit price and can block service entirely if you hit your limit. Budget a margin.
Account suspension. Cloudinary suspends accounts that exceed their quota on fixed-tier plans, even by a small amount. There is no automatic overage billing on lower tiers, just a hard cutoff.
Per-transform charges. Cloudflare Images charges per unique transform variant. If you serve responsive images with 5 different sizes and 2 formats, that is 10 variants per image.
Credit expiration. Cloudinary credits do not roll over. Unused credits at the end of the month are lost.
Separate bandwidth billing. Bunny Optimizer’s $9.50/mo does not include CDN bandwidth. That is billed separately through Bunny CDN starting at $0.01/GB.
Feature gating. Some services charge extra for signed URLs, custom domains, or specific output formats. Small Pics includes all features on every plan.
Minimum commitments. Some services require annual contracts for better pricing. Small Pics is month-to-month with no minimum commitment.
The simplest way to avoid surprises is to choose a service with flat pricing that matches your usage level. If you know you have fewer than 16,000 origin images and moderate traffic, you know exactly what you will pay.
See our pricing page for the full breakdown, or read why we built Small Pics for the backstory on how we landed on this model. If you are coming from Imgix, check the Imgix compatibility reference to see which parameters are supported without changes.
Competitor pricing in this article is based on publicly available information as of March 2026. Pricing models change. Always verify current pricing on each provider’s website before making a decision.
Frequently asked questions
- Which image CDN is cheapest for small sites?
- ImageBoss starts at $5/mo for 4,200 origin images with unlimited transforms. Small Pics Lite is $9/mo for 2,500 origin images with 5 sources and 5 custom domains. Bunny Optimizer is $9.50/mo per site with unlimited transforms but no AVIF. Cloudflare Images is roughly $5/mo but charges per image and per transform.
- How much does Imgix cost in 2026?
- Imgix uses a credit-based pricing model. Starter is $25/mo for 100 credits, Basic is $75/mo for 375 credits, and Growth is $300/mo for 1,875 credits. Credits cover management, delivery, and transformations in one opaque bucket. Overages are billed at 120% of the standard per-credit price.
- Does Small Pics charge for bandwidth?
- No. Small Pics pricing is based on origin images and transforms only. There are no bandwidth charges, no per-request fees, and no credit system.
- What are the hidden costs of image CDNs?
- Common hidden costs include bandwidth overage fees, per-transform charges beyond plan limits, credit expiration (Cloudinary credits do not roll over), overage surcharges (Imgix charges 120% per credit), account suspension (Cloudinary suspends accounts that exceed quotas), and charges for features like signed URLs or custom domains.
- Is Cloudinary free?
- Cloudinary offers a free tier with 25 monthly credits, which covers roughly 25,000 transformations or 25 GB of storage. Once you exceed the free tier, pricing is credit-based starting at $89/mo. Cloudinary suspends accounts that exceed their quota, even by a small amount.
- How does Small Pics pricing work?
- Small Pics uses flat-tier pricing. You pick a plan based on how many origin images and transforms you need. Plans range from $9/mo (Lite) to $189/mo (Extended). No credits, no per-request fees, no surprises. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial.
- Which image CDN is best for agencies with multiple sites?
- Small Pics is built for agencies. Each plan includes multiple image sources and custom domains, so you can manage several client sites under one account. Bunny Optimizer charges $9.50 per site, which adds up fast. Most other services use bandwidth or credit models that make multi-site costs hard to predict.
- How much does Bunny Optimizer cost?
- Bunny Optimizer is $9.50/mo per website with unlimited optimizations and transforms. CDN bandwidth is billed separately starting at $0.01/GB. It does not support AVIF output.