What is a master image?

A master image is any image used by imgix to create and deliver derivative images. You can store master images in an Amazon S3 bucket, a web folder on your website, or any other addressable web storage location that you control.

What is a derivative image?

A derivative image is created in response to an imgix request. We fetch a master image (either from your image location or from our caches) and process, transform, and format it to your specifications into the image that is delivered to your users. Each derivative can have multiple parameters assigned.

What is included in the master image price?

The master image pricing includes all fetching, retargeting, processing, reformatting, caching, and analysis of your master images within each monthly billing cycle. You can use as many derivatives (image sizes, transformations, output formats, etc.) per image as you want without incurring additional master image charges. For instance, if you have 5 thumbnail sizes for your images and decide to add a 6th, there would be no additional charge.

We only charge for master images that are actually requested in a given billing cycle. We don’t penalize you for carrying a long tail of infrequently-accessed images as you grow.

What is included in the bandwidth price?

The bandwidth price covers the delivery of your derivative images onto the web within each month. For instance, if a derivative image that you have rendered is 100 kB and you serve that image 50 times, then you would be billed for 5,000 kB. Bandwidth prices are measured in gigabytes.

How will my costs change over time?

Our pricing is designed to grow with you in a way that is easy to understand and predict. You can create as many derivative variations of an image as you need (and use as many parameters per derivative as you want), at no extra cost. We charge for the bandwidth to deliver derivatives to your customers, but not to create them. This means your costs do not change if you suddenly need a new image size or want to take advantage of more features in imgix.

Can you show me a pricing example?

Sure—let’s take a look at a simplified setup.

• You have 50,000 master images in your imgix Source
• 35,000 of your masters are fetched in a 1-month billing cycle (these are the only ones you are charged for)
• Each of the fetched masters is generated in 2 derivative versions—one large at 150kB and 1 small at 30kB, and each derivative is accessed 500 times during the month by your users

Here’s how the costs work out for a month with these parameters:

• Master Images: 35,000 @ $3/1000 images: $105.00
• Bandwidth:
  • Large image: 150kB x 35,000 images x 500 views = 2625GB @ $0.08/GB: $210.00
  • Small image: 35kB x 35,000 images x 500 views = 612.5GB @ $0.08/GB: $49.00
• Total for the month: $364.00

How are watermarks, blends, and other multiple-image operations handled when it comes to pricing?

Images that are used as overlays, watermarks, etc. will count as master images even if they are not addressed or served directly. For example, if you have 5 images of cars and 1 image of a logo, and you use the logo as a watermark on each of the car photos, you would be billed for 6 master images. The logo image may never be delivered directly, but still counts as an master image since it is fetched to render the logo watermark.

How does using imgix.js (or other responsive image libraries) impact my costs?

Responsive image libraries like imgix.js abstract away the complexity of targeting your images at the ever-increasing number of web-enabled devices. However, using solutions like imgix.js can trigger the creation of a lot of new derivatives to satisfy every variety of device.

Fortunately, imgix’s pricing is designed to encourage this behavior, not discourage it, by pricing against master images and not the derivative images that are created. Using imgix.js is actually more likely to reduce your costs with regard to bandwidth by more efficiently sizing and formatting your images to the specific devices on which they are being viewed.

What if I overwrite and replace a master image?

Because the image content has changed, it would be considered a new master image in our system if requested and would be billed accordingly.

Is there a monthly minimum for usage?

Yes, we have a $10 minimum to maintain your imgix account. If you generate less than $10 in master image requests and bandwidth charges (combined) in a given month, your account will be billed the minimum amount of $10. After 60 days with no activity your account will be considered inactive, and may be deactivated.

What is the cost of performing new renders?

New renders are free—we don’t charge to create new derivative images, so you can create as many as you want from a single master. We will only charge for fetching the master and for bandwidth to deliver the derivatives.

Do you offer image storage or uploads?

No. We believe in giving our customers flexibility and control around image storage, so we go to where your images already are instead of locking you into a storage service. Once you are set up on imgix, you can change the location of your masters as needed without having to change your imgix Source URL.