CDN deflation hits a wall: Akamai adds surcharges
Akamai informed customers and partners that it will introduce interim surcharges and pricing adjustments on contract renewals, citing sharp increases in server component and energy costs since late 2025. The company says it will apply a 3% surcharge effective April 1, 2026, and up to a 10% price adjustment on renewals, alongside internal cost-mitigation efforts such as migrating workloads to Akamai Cloud. The article frames the move as part of broader infrastructure market inflation, noting similar price increases from providers like Hetzner and OVHcloud.
Key Takeaways
- A 3% surcharge begins April 1, 2026 for Akamai customers and partners.
- Contract renewals may see up to a 10% price adjustment tied to higher infrastructure input costs.
- Akamai says server costs are up 75%–200% vs. H1 2025, with RAM more than doubling and SSDs rising amid shortages.
- Energy costs are cited as up 200%+ in many regions; talent costs are also rising.
- This is broader infra inflation, not just Akamai—Hetzner and OVHcloud have also raised prices.
Why It Matters
For streaming operators, this is a clear signal that “CDN prices only go down” is no longer a safe planning assumption. Even single-digit surcharges can materially change unit economics at scale—especially for ad-supported services where margins are already thin and bitrate ladders keep creeping upward. Expect tougher renewal negotiations, more interest in multi-CDN and traffic-shaping strategies, and renewed scrutiny of offload levers (caching, peering, edge compute, and encoding efficiency). The meme to watch: infrastructure inflation is forcing delivery to be a first-class product decision again, not just a procurement line item.
Read full article at streamingmediablog.com
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