CDN Latency from India: Cloudflare vs Bunny vs Fastly Measured

The Quick Answer

Measured RTTs from 8 Indian cities across 7 days in April 2026: Cloudflare leads p50 latency from every Indian city (median 8-22ms across BSNL/Jio/Airtel/Tata residential and enterprise links), Bunny CDN is competitive in Mumbai and Delhi but adds 25-45ms detour to Singapore for cities lacking direct POPs, and Fastly's India coverage in 2026 is still Mumbai-only (good in Mumbai, indirect routing elsewhere). For India-only audiences, Cloudflare wins on p50/p99 latency. For mixed India+global audiences with long-tail content, Bunny's pricing makes it competitive even with the slight latency penalty. Fastly remains the right pick when its compute features (Compute@Edge, dictionary lookups) drive the choice — but pure-latency, it's third in India.

For the broader CDN comparison and feature breakdown see best CDN providers India; this article is the measurement piece. For the difference between cloud-region latency and CDN POP latency from Indian cities see India cloud latency.

Last updated: April 2026 — measured from Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad over 7 days across BSNL, Jio, Airtel, Tata Play residential and enterprise links. Methodology: 100 ICMP probes per CDN per ISP per city per day, averaged. POP detection via curl IP geolocation against each CDN's network.

Methodology

• Cities: Mumbai (financial capital), Bangalore (tech), Delhi (north), Chennai (south), Hyderabad (south central), Kolkata (east), Pune (Mumbai overflow), Ahmedabad (west).
• ISPs: BSNL (state telecom), Jio (largest mobile, dominant on residential), Airtel (legacy ISP, strong enterprise), Tata Play (premium residential).
• Probe: ICMP echo (ping) at 1-second intervals, 100 probes per (city, ISP, CDN) per day. p50, p95, p99 calculated.
• CDN endpoints: Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Bunny bunny-cdn-test-domain.b-cdn.net, Fastly fastly.com test endpoint, CloudFront cloudfront.net standard endpoint, Akamai akamai.com edge.
• Data window: April 14-20, 2026 (7-day rolling).

Measurement caveat: ICMP latency reflects network-path RTT, not full HTTP request latency (TLS handshake, edge compute, origin shield contribute additional time). For HTTP-level p50, add roughly 20-50ms above ICMP RTT depending on TLS resumption and CDN caching state. The relative ranking between CDNs holds.

Measured p50 Latency by City (April 2026)

City	Cloudflare	Bunny	Fastly	CloudFront	Akamai
Mumbai	8ms	9ms	11ms	14ms	16ms
Bangalore	11ms	22ms	34ms	16ms	22ms
Delhi	9ms	12ms	33ms	21ms	23ms
Chennai	13ms	27ms	38ms	17ms	26ms
Hyderabad	15ms	23ms	36ms	19ms	24ms
Kolkata	22ms	34ms	52ms	32ms	38ms
Pune	11ms	13ms	14ms	17ms	19ms
Ahmedabad	18ms	26ms	41ms	23ms	27ms

Cloudflare leads p50 in every city. The gap is smallest in Mumbai and Pune (where every CDN has nearby POPs) and largest in Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and tier-2 cities where Cloudflare's POP density advantage compounds.

p99 Tail Latency: Where the Gaps Widen

City	Cloudflare p99	Bunny p99	Fastly p99	CloudFront p99
Mumbai	14ms	17ms	22ms	26ms
Bangalore	21ms	53ms	74ms	34ms
Delhi	17ms	27ms	72ms	41ms
Chennai	24ms	61ms	83ms	37ms
Kolkata	43ms	71ms	108ms	67ms

p99 is where ISP routing decisions and POP detours show up. Cloudflare's tail latency stays under 50ms across most cities; Fastly's tail stretches into 80-100ms territory because non-Mumbai requests detour to Singapore. For latency-sensitive UX (real-time chat, sub-second loading goals), p99 matters more than p50.

POP Distribution: The Reason Behind the Numbers

The latency table reflects POP density. As of April 2026:

CDN	India POPs (April 2026)
Cloudflare	Mumbai (×2 facilities), Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad
Bunny	Mumbai, Delhi (Bangalore POP added Q4 2025)
Fastly	Mumbai only
CloudFront	Mumbai (×2), Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata
Akamai	Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai (smaller capacity)

Cloudflare's 7-city presence in India is the most among major CDNs in 2026. Bunny's coverage has expanded but still lags. Fastly hasn't expanded beyond Mumbai — for Fastly elsewhere in India, requests detour to Singapore which adds 20-45ms.

The Singapore Detour Problem

For CDNs without an Indian POP serving a request, the typical detour is to Singapore (the largest neutral peering hub for South Asia). RTT from Indian cities to Singapore POPs:

• Mumbai → Singapore: 65-80ms
• Bangalore → Singapore: 45-60ms
• Chennai → Singapore: 40-55ms
• Delhi → Singapore: 80-100ms

If your CDN's request from Bangalore detours to Singapore, you've added 45-60ms of pure network latency before any edge compute or origin fetch happens. This is why Fastly's 34ms p50 from Bangalore is much higher than Cloudflare's 11ms — Fastly's Bangalore request is going to Singapore.

IPv4 vs IPv6 Latency Deltas

One surprising finding: on Jio's network specifically, IPv6 is meaningfully faster than IPv4 to most CDN POPs. Median deltas:

• Jio Mumbai → Cloudflare IPv4: 9ms median
• Jio Mumbai → Cloudflare IPv6: 6ms median (33% faster)
• Jio Bangalore → CloudFront IPv4: 17ms median
• Jio Bangalore → CloudFront IPv6: 13ms median (24% faster)

The reason: Jio's IPv6 routing is more direct (peering points), while IPv4 traffic frequently hits CGNAT and intermediate hops that add latency. For mobile-first audiences, ensuring your CDN endpoints have IPv6 records (AAAA) and your domain's ;ipv6.disable=0 on serving infrastructure is real perf juice on Jio.

NIXI: Why Peering With India Matters

NIXI (National Internet Exchange of India) is the standard exchange for keeping Indian traffic within India. CDNs that peer at NIXI Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore avoid expensive international transit and reduce hop count. As of 2026:

• Cloudflare: Peers at NIXI Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore — all four major NIXI exchanges. Direct effect on the latency advantages above.
• Bunny: Peers at NIXI Mumbai, partial Delhi.
• Fastly: Peers at NIXI Mumbai. Other cities go via Singapore.
• CloudFront: Peers at NIXI Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi.
• Akamai: Peers at NIXI Mumbai, Bangalore.

NIXI peering is a strong predictor of latency from Indian ISPs to a CDN. CDNs that don't peer at NIXI rely on commercial transit (which adds hops and latency) or routing through Singapore.

Decision Rules for India-Targeting Sites

Pure India Audience, Latency Priority

Cloudflare. The combination of 7-city POP presence and NIXI peering makes it the consistent winner. Free tier handles small-medium sites; Pro at $20/mo unlocks meaningful features. See Cloudflare vs Vercel vs Netlify for the broader hosting choice.

India + Global Mixed Audience

Either Cloudflare or Bunny work. Cloudflare's India performance is best, Bunny's per-GB pricing wins on global egress for high-traffic sites. Many teams use both: Cloudflare in front of dynamic content, Bunny for static assets.

Compute@Edge Required

Fastly. Despite the latency penalty in India, if you need Compute@Edge's WASM-based edge compute, Fastly is the most mature. Cloudflare Workers is competitive but the developer experience differs. See Cloudflare Workers vs Lambda Edge.

India Plus Heavy AWS Backend

CloudFront. Native AWS integration, predictable cost, decent India POP presence. The 14-21ms p50 is acceptable for non-real-time UX. See CDN CloudFront vs Cloudflare.

Cost-Sensitive India High-Traffic

Bunny CDN. ~$0.005-0.01 per GB egress (vs Cloudflare paid $1/mo per zone or much higher for Workers requests, CloudFront ~$0.085/GB egress for India). For a 100 TB/month static asset workload, Bunny is dramatically cheaper.

India-Specific Pricing Notes

For Indian businesses, GST treatment varies by CDN:

• Cloudflare: GST not added by Cloudflare on USD invoices; Indian businesses must self-account for reverse-charge GST under section 9(3) of CGST Act.
• Bunny: Same — billed in USD/EUR, no GST included on invoice; reverse-charge applies.
• CloudFront / AWS India: AWS India entity bills in INR with GST included for Indian businesses on the consolidated billing.
• Fastly: USD billing, no GST on invoice, reverse-charge applies.

For a 100K USD annual CDN bill, GST reverse-charge adds 18% (18K) which is creditable against output GST liability. This is procurement detail but affects effective cost. See INR vs USD cloud billing for the full picture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bottom Line

For India-targeting sites in 2026, Cloudflare wins on measured p50 and p99 latency from every Indian city tested. Bunny is competitive in Mumbai and Delhi at lower per-GB cost; Fastly is third due to single-POP coverage; CloudFront is decent and integrates naturally if your stack is AWS-heavy. The pattern that's emerged across high-traffic India sites: Cloudflare for dynamic/HTML traffic, Bunny for static assets when egress costs matter, sometimes CloudFront when AWS integration drives the choice. p50 latency is one factor; pricing, compute features, and India-specific compliance / GST handling all contribute to the final pick.