CDN Cache Hit Ratio: What It Is and How to Raise It

Cache hit ratio is the percentage of requests a CDN serves from its cache instead of fetching content from your origin server. At 95%, only 5 of 100 requests reach your server — the site is fast and the server relieved. At 60%, you lose much of the CDN''s benefit.

How it is measured

The formula is simple: hits / (hits + misses). Most CDNs show this percentage in their analytics, and the response carries a header like CF-Cache-Status: HIT or MISS.

Why it is low

• Poor Cache-Control headers — content is not cached long enough.
• Unnecessary cookies and query parameters that create „unique" versions of the same page.
• Too much dynamic content — everything marked „do not cache".
• Short TTL — the cache expires too quickly.

How to raise it

Set longer TTLs for static assets (images, CSS, JS — months), ignore marketing query parameters when caching, strip needless cookies on static routes, and use „cache everything" rules for rarely changing pages. Combine with host-level caching so even a miss is fast.

A realistic target

For a static-heavy site, passing 90% is realistic. Stores with many dynamic pages will sit lower, but even there static assets can be cached aggressively.

Our plans include a free global CDN — see the plans and the SEO hosting guide to get the most from caching.