What is Image CDN?

Image CDN is a new feature of Hosting on Gatsby Cloud. Instead of processing images at build time, Image CDN defers and offloads image processing to the edge.

Key benefits:

• Significantly faster build times by offloading and deferring image processing
• Improved front-end performance (about 300ms faster for media-rich pages)
• Better SEO since images are served from your site’s origin domain
• Save time when developing locally since image processing is deferred to runtime.

Together, these features improve developer and content editor productivity. Developers get faster builds, and content editors can ship content changes faster.

Who can use Image CDN?

Image CDN is currently in beta. During beta, Image CDN is available for free to all paid workspaces on Gatsby Cloud.

Image CDN requires Gatsby 4, specific source plugin versions, and may require you modify your site’s GraphQL queries. Image CDN only works on sites hosted on Gatsby cloud and doesn't work with other hosting integrations. 

Enable Image CDN on Gatsby Cloud

How does Image CDN work?

Much like DSG, images processing is deferred to runtime. The first request for an image will be marginally slower than subsequent requests. After initial request, images are cached on Gatsby Cloud’s Global Edge Network.

Current Limitations

Before using Image CDN, please be aware of the following limitation:

• Some input arguments are not supported: transformOptions

We plan to address these known issues before general availability later this spring.

What does Image CDN cost?

Bandwidth and requests for serving images on Gatsby Cloud's Global Edge Network count against your workspace's plan allotments.

During public beta, Image CDN is free to use for paid sites. When Image CDN launches in general availability, we will introduce platform and plan limits based on the number of original images being processed.

Even during free public beta, bandwidth and request limits apply.

Will my site go down when I enable Image CDN?

No. Image CDN and image processing at the edge impacts subsequent builds. Since Gatsby Cloud Hosting is atomic, your site will not experience any downtime.