Overview

Baidu Intelligent Cloud (Baidu Cloud) is the cloud computing brand under Baidu Inc. Its CDN acceleration product—Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN (formerly Baidu Cloud CDN)—leverages Baidu's decade-plus expertise in search engines, AI large models, and edge computing to build a global content delivery network centered on "intelligent scheduling." Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN deeply integrates Baidu Search's index data, global URL database, and user behavior analysis, forming differentiated competitiveness in cache pre-fetching, hot content prediction, and dynamic acceleration. Domestic nodes exceed 2000+, covering six major ISPs and 30+ provinces with 150Tbps+ bandwidth capacity.

Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN officially launched commercially in 2014, covering static acceleration, dynamic acceleration, full-site acceleration, download distribution, video-on-demand/live streaming, and deeply integrating with Baidu Intelligent Cloud's BOS object storage, BCC cloud servers, WAF security products, and SCS cloud cache. Baidu applies predictive models from the PaddlePaddle deep learning framework to traffic scheduling and cache decisions, achieving intelligent resource allocation based on real-time traffic characteristics. Baidu Search's URL quality database is also used for CDN pre-warming and pre-fetching, significantly improving cache hit ratios for popular content. For enterprises using or planning to use the Baidu Intelligent Cloud ecosystem, Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN is the most natural, lowest-integration-cost acceleration choice. See the CDN provider selection guide for more.

Key Strengths

  • Leading Smart Scheduling Algorithm: Core scheduling system trained on Baidu Search's URL database and nationwide access data. Analyzes user IP characteristics, ISP network quality, node load, and link latency in real-time using multi-factor weighted decision-making to assign optimal nodes. Compared to standard DNS nearest-resolution + static weight scheduling, latency is reduced by 15%-30% in weak-network and cross-ISP scenarios. Combine with the website CDN setup guide for targeted tuning.
  • Broad Domestic Node Coverage: Operates 2000+ acceleration nodes across China covering China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile, CERNET, China Broadcast Network, and China Tietong, with 150Tbps+ bandwidth capacity. Node coverage extends down to third- and fourth-tier cities and township levels, especially suitable for consumer internet, online education, and live streaming applications with widely distributed users.
  • Deep Baidu Cloud Ecosystem Integration: API-level integration with BOS object storage, BCC cloud servers, SCS cloud cache, WAF, and DDoS mitigation. After enabling CDN, users can complete BOS bucket binding, origin changes, HTTPS certificate management, and cache rule configuration in one click. For enterprises already on Baidu Intelligent Cloud, CDN integration and operations costs are far lower than cross-vendor combinations.
  • AI-Driven Performance Optimization: Deeply applies AI technology to cache strategy and traffic scheduling. The system automatically adjusts cache rules based on historical access data and real-time traffic characteristics, predicts hot content, and pre-warms caches to reduce origin-pull ratio. In image/video delivery, AI image enhancement and adaptive bitrate adjust content quality in real-time, especially valuable during e-commerce promotions and hot events.

Product Ecosystem

BOS Object Storage Acceleration

Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN achieves internal-network direct connection with BOS (Baidu Object Storage). Static resources hosted on BOS can be accelerated with one click. When BOS is the origin, CDN nodes fetch via the internal network, eliminating public traffic fees, with support for custom origin Host, Range origin-pull, and origin redirects.

Whole Site Acceleration DCDN

For non-cacheable dynamic requests (APIs, real-time queries, login authentication), intelligent routing and TCP optimization achieve cross-ISP acceleration, reducing dynamic request RTT by 15%-30%. Supports QUIC and HTTP/2 multiplexing, especially effective on mobile weak networks.

Security Protection System

Deeply integrated with Baidu WAF and DDoS mitigation, providing multi-layer protection from network to application layer. Supports Referer anti-leech, timestamp anti-leech, IP blacklist/whitelist, UA blacklist/whitelist, HTTPS mutual authentication, and Token authentication, meeting enterprise security requirements with a security hardening framework.

Limitations

  • Limited Overseas Node Coverage: Overseas node quantity and regional coverage density still lag significantly behind Cloudflare (330+ cities), Akamai, and other international CDN giants. Bandwidth reserves in Europe and the Middle East need improvement. For overseas-focused businesses, adopt multi-CDN load balancing, pairing with Cloudflare for global coverage.
  • Market Share Behind Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud: Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN holds approximately 5%-8% of the domestic CDN market, below Alibaba Cloud CDN (~30%+) and Tencent Cloud EdgeOne (~20%+). Fewer partner ecosystem resources and more reliance on official support for complex issues.
  • Low CDN Brand Recognition: Baidu is better known as a search engine and AI company; its CDN product has limited brand appeal as a standalone offering. Some potential customers are unaware Baidu offers CDN services.

Use Cases

  • Baidu Intelligent Cloud Existing Users (★★★★★): Enterprises already using BOS, BCC, WAF, etc. Adding CDN has the lowest integration cost and best ecosystem synergy.
  • Domestic Geographic Coverage Business (★★★★): Consumer internet with users distributed from first-tier to township levels. Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN's down-tier node density ensures access experience in remote areas.
  • AI/Large Model Application Acceleration (★★★★): Baidu's AI expertise gives the CDN unique intelligent capabilities. For AI applications, large model inference, and image/speech recognition workloads, AI scheduling and predictive pre-warming provide extra performance benefits.
  • Video/Live Streaming (★★★★): Supports video-on-demand and live streaming acceleration, paired with Baidu AI's video enhancement and intelligent transcoding. See CDN SSL/TLS configuration best practices.
  • High-Concurrency Events/Promotions (★★★★): For e-commerce promotions, flash sales, and hot events, AI hot content prediction and elastic bandwidth reserves ensure stability.
  • Overseas Business/Cross-border E-commerce (★★): Overseas node coverage lags international CDN vendors; not recommended as primary overseas acceleration. Pair with Cloudflare or Qiniu for multi-region coverage.

Pricing

Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN uses a pay-as-you-go + resource package pre-purchase model with no minimum consumption. Reference prices (July 2026, tax included):

Item Billing Mode Reference Price Notes
Domestic CDN Traffic Per GB (tiered) 0.18-0.38 RMB/GB Lower for higher volume, 10TB+ as low as 0.18 RMB/GB
Overseas CDN Traffic Per region 0.30-0.85 RMB/GB APAC lower, Europe/Americas higher
Dynamic Acceleration Requests Per 10K requests 0.10-0.50 RMB/10K For dynamic API acceleration
HTTPS Requests Per 10K requests 0.05-0.20 RMB/10K Stacked with static traffic billing
Live/VOD Transcoding Per minute 0.008-0.080 RMB/min Varies by resolution and codec
DDoS Mitigation (Optional) Per protection tier 2,000-50,000 RMB/month Depends on baseline protection bandwidth

Free Tier: New users get 20GB domestic CDN traffic + 20GB overseas CDN traffic + 1M HTTPS requests, valid for 3 months. See the CDN cost optimization guide for details.

FAQ

  • What is the difference from Baidu Yunjiasu? Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN is the professional CDN product under Baidu Intelligent Cloud; Baidu Yunjiasu has been gradually integrated into the Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN brand. New services should use Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN directly—see the CDN provider selection guide.
  • Does it support WebSocket and QUIC? Yes. Both WebSocket long connections and HTTP/3 (QUIC) are supported and can be enabled in one click. QUIC is especially suitable for mobile weak-network acceleration—see CDN SSL/TLS configuration best practices.
  • Is AI scheduling really faster than traditional DNS scheduling? Independent tests show 10%-25% faster first-screen loading time in mobile weak-network conditions compared to traditional DNS scheduling. For broadband static resource delivery, the difference is minimal—see the cache hit ratio optimization guide.
  • How to choose between Baidu and Alibaba Cloud CDN? If your business is deeply integrated with Baidu Intelligent Cloud (BOS, BCC, WAF), Baidu Intelligent Cloud CDN has the lowest integration cost. If you need a richer cloud ecosystem and more mature overseas network, Alibaba Cloud CDN is the safer choice—see the CDN comparison.
  • How to ensure content security? Multi-layered anti-leech mechanisms (Referer, timestamp, IP blacklist/whitelist, UA blacklist/whitelist), HTTPS mutual authentication, and Token authentication. Enabling WAF in the console auto-blocks SQL injection, XSS, and CC attacks—see CDN security protection features.