Cloudflare's Image Conversion Feature Now Free: Automatically Converts to WebP or AVIF

Cloudflare recently updated its pricing plan for the Images feature, making it free to use without the need to purchase a bundle. However, it's important to note that while the conversion feature is now free, the converted images still require Cloudflare's R2 storage and delivery, which is chargeable.

The Images feature primarily offers dynamic image conversion, allowing website-used PNG images to be automatically converted to smaller, more efficient formats like WebP or AVIF. These formats, known for their compression capabilities, reduce image size, leading to faster loading times on websites and ultimately enhancing the user experience.

Previously, this functionality was separate from image resizing, but now it has been combined under Cloudflare Images, which offers image format conversion, the creation of different-sized versions, and the use of R2 as a storage destination.

The feature provides adaptive solutions for different resolutions, such as loading a 1280720 image at 1080p resolution and a 38402160 image at 4K resolution, with settings that website administrators can customize according to their needs.

Here are some of the free features of Cloudflare Images:

• Utilize remote resources or use Images through Cloudflare
• Dynamic image conversion
• Delivery of resources in modern formats
• Up to 100 free variants/sizes per image
• Automatic optimization of images in formats like WebP or AVIF
• Support for direct uploads
• Support for API uploads

While the feature is free, storage is chargeable. Here are the details on storage and delivery costs:

• Free resizing, with up to 20 variants/sizes
• Storage price: Prepaid $5 for every 100,000 images, charged only for original images. For instance, if there are 10 original images and 5 variants/sizes, charges apply only to the 10 original images.
• Delivery price: Postpaid $1 for every 100,000 images

The storage price refers to the cost of storing original images in Cloudflare R2, while the delivery price is for the Cloudflare CDN nodes pulling files from the R2 storage buckets. Overall, these prices are quite affordable, and while not entirely free, the monthly expenses for a website should be very low.

Website administrators are advised to carefully review Cloudflare's support documents regarding fees. The prices mentioned are understood by Landian.news, and there may be inaccuracies. Refer to Cloudflare's official documentation for accurate information.

Finally, websites using Cloudflare can now navigate to the console, find Images (or website, speed, optimization, image optimization) and purchase Cloudflare Images, with an initial storage fee of only $5.