# Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models vs Cloudflare Workers AI (slim)

> Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models scores 80 (A) to Cloudflare Workers AI's 69.2 (B) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai.md (~8,550 tokens) · this version ~4,730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-openai-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models scores 80 (A) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Workers AI's 69.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Workers AI leads on payments & pricing. Both do llm inference.

- Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models: A 80, rank #14 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-openai.min.md
- Cloudflare Workers AI: B 69.2, rank #255 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-workers-ai.min.md
- Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models, good for Teams on Azure that need OpenAI models with Entra ID, private networking, EU or US data zones or FedRAMP scope, and one resource that also serves DeepSeek, Llama, Mistral and Grok models. Ahead on Reliability, 80 against 68; Schema & documentation, 87 against 80; Agent ergonomics, 98 against 75; Security & auth, 95 against 80; Maintenance & community, 86 against 72; Transparency & trust, 83 against 76. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No incidents deducted, where Cloudflare Workers AI loses 3 points for them.
- Cloudflare Workers AI, good for Agents that already run on Cloudflare Workers, or that want open-weight chat, embedding, reranking, speech and image models behind one token with a free daily allowance. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 52 against 20.

| Category | Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models | Cloudflare Workers AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 80 | 68 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 87 | 80 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 98 | 75 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 95 | 80 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 52 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 86 | 72 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 83 | 76 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models | Cloudflare Workers AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Microsoft | Cloudflare, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://<resource>.openai.azure.com/openai/v1` | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai` |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | payer tooling only |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Microsoft Product Terms. The v1 OpenAPI spec is MIT, and the OpenAI SDKs the docs use are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement. Each hosted model carries its own open-weight licence, linked from its model page. The `cloudflare` SDKs are Apache-2.0, `workers-ai-provider` is MIT and the OpenAPI repository is BSD-3-Clause |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-26 | 2026-10-21 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-09-12 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-01 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 454k npm/wk | 380k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, Cloudflare Workers AI +32: Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-1M-token prices are public in the Azure Retail Prices API without a login, while the pricing page fills its table with JavaScript and showed GPT-6 prices as pending on 6 October (20). The quota tiers include a Free tier, but an Azure subscription needs a payment method (0). A person signs up for Azure in a browser and creates a resource and a deployment before the first call (0).); Cloudflare Workers AI 52 (x402 is in beta on `POST /ai/run` since 30 September 2026 for four of 69 models. It still needs a Cloudflare API token, a United States account and a card on file, and the per-model and OpenAI-style routes are not covered. We did not call it (12 of 40). Per-model token, image and audio prices and the neuron rate are published without a login (20). 10,000 neurons a day are free on the Workers Free plan, and the pricing page asks for a paid plan only past that. We did not sign up to confirm that no card is asked for (20). A person creates the account and the first token in a browser, and the x402 route needs both (0). The Machine Payments page (last updated 30 September) and the pricing page (20 October) were re-read on 1 November and say the same. 12 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 52.)
- Agent ergonomics, Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models +23: Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models 98 (Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Tool use with parallel calls and a forced call by naming the function in `tool_choice`, 18 of 20 because `gpt-6.1-sol` calls tools only through the Responses API (18). Strict structured outputs (15). Prompt caching from 1,024 tokens, cached input at 0.1x on GPT-6 ($1 per million on Astra) and cache writes at 1.25x from GPT-5.6 on, with explicit breakpoints (15). 1,050,000-token context on GPT-6 and GPT-6.1, input capped at 922,000 (15). Batch at 50% off Global Standard with a 24-hour target (10). The docs use OpenAI's own SDKs for Python, JavaScript, C#, Go and Java against the v1 endpoint (10). 429 and quota errors documented with retry headers (15). Calls name a deployment rather than a model, so each model must be deployed in the resource first, which the model checklist doesn't score.); Cloudflare Workers AI 75 (Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). OpenAI-style tool calling with `parallel_tool_calls` on models tagged for it, and embedded function calling in Workers. The changelog of 17 February 2026 fixed six faults, five of them in tool-call round trips (15 of 20). `json_object` and `json_schema` formats. The docs say schema adherence is not guaranteed and JSON Mode does not stream, and the page's list of six supported models names three that were retired in May (9 of 15). Prefix caching on by default for select models, `x-session-affinity`, cached counts in `usage` and published cached prices (12 of 15). 1,048,576 tokens on DeepSeek V4 and GLM-5.3 and 256,000 on Gemma 4, against 24,000 on Llama 3.3 70B fast (12 of 15). An asynchronous batch route on tagged models with a 10 MB payload limit and no stated discount (7 of 10). The OpenAI SDKs work with a changed base URL, with Responses limited to two models and no streaming. Cloudflare's own SDKs cover TypeScript, Python and Go (9 of 10). Errors carry an internal code and message, and a 429 tells a spent allocation from a capacity limit (11 of 15).)
- Security & auth, Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models +15: Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models 95 (Model reading. Microsoft Entra ID tokens with Azure roles (the Cognitive Services OpenAI User role for calls), managed identities, and key authentication that can be disabled per resource, or two regenerable resource keys in the `api-key` header. No documented route puts the key in a URL query string (30). Prompts, completions, embeddings and training data aren't used to train foundation models without the customer's permission or instruction, per the data privacy page updated 4 August 2026 (20). Flagged prompts and completions may be stored in the customer's geography for human abuse review, with no retention period stated, and approved customers can turn that storage off through modified abuse monitoring. Responses API data is kept 30 days by default unless `store` is false (12 of 15). Azure Monitor resource logs and the subscription activity log, as read in the Foundry fine-tuning dossier (15). MSRC coordinated disclosure policy and Microsoft's bounty programme, both named in microsoft.com's security.txt, and Azure OpenAI is listed in FedRAMP High and DoD IL2 scope in Azure public regions. The security.txt passed its Expires date on 2026-09-23 and was still expired on 6 November, which the Bedrock and S3 dossiers mark down by 2, applied here too (18 of 20, down from 20 on 6 October for consistency).); Cloudflare Workers AI 80 (Model reading. Cloudflare API tokens are revocable, limited to Workers AI Read or Edit on chosen accounts, and take an expiry and an IP address filter. Permission is per account, not per model, and the API reference also accepts the older global API key (27 of 30). The data usage page and the service-specific terms of 28 September 2026 say Customer Content is not used to train models without consent. The data page adds that it is not used to improve services, while clause 9 of the same terms section allows use as needed to provide and improve the Services (17 of 20). The data page says content may be stored if a storage service is used with Workers AI. It gives no retention period for inference inputs and no explicit zero-retention statement, and AI Gateway logs prompts and responses by default when a call is routed through a gateway (9 of 15). Gateway logs record prompt, response, tokens and cost per request, and the dashboard shows neuron usage. Direct calls have no per-request log that we found, and account audit logs were not read this run (9 of 15). security.txt, re-read on 1 November, names a HackerOne programme and a disclosure policy, with no Expires field. Cloudflare's ISO certifications page, read on 1 November, says Cloudflare is certified to ISO 27001 (since 2019, now to its 2022 edition), ISO 27018 and ISO 27701, with a scope of the Cloudflare global cloud platform, which doesn't name Workers AI. 2 held back for the missing Expires field, which RFC 9116 requires, the reading cloudflare-r2 gave the same evidence on 1 November (18 of 20, 15 before, when certifications went unread). 27 + 17 + 9 + 9 + 18 = 80.)
- Maintenance & community, Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models +14: Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models 86 (Model reading. GPT-6.1 Terra released on Azure on 26 October 2026 and a `gpt-chat-latest` preview of 7 October was added, after GPT-6.1 Sol on 29 September (30). GA models get a retirement date 18 months after launch, set at release and readable through the Models API, with at least 60 days' email and Service Health notice, and previews at least 30 days, so a GA retirement is known more than six months ahead (12 of 12). Many shutdown dates in the 90 days to 6 November, most of them previews or partner models, among them DeepSeek-R1 (13 August), MAI-Image-2 and 2e (15 August), model-router previews (30 August), MAI-Transcribe-1 (15 September), MAI-Image-2.5 previews (1 October), the 2025-03-20 audio models and sora-2 (15 October), a Cohere Command A Plus preview (16 October) and gpt-image-1 (23 October), each in the schedule with a replacement where one exists (4 of 8). The Foundry what's new page, still on August when read on 6 November, plus Microsoft Q&A and paid support; no Azure OpenAI what's new was found (10 of 15). The SDKs are OpenAI's repositories, replies not sampled (5 of 10). Current official SDKs, `openai` 3.46.0 on PyPI (5 November) and 7.53.0 on npm, plus Microsoft's `@azure/openai` 2.0.0 companion (15). Supported runtimes stated, Python 3.9 or later and Node.js 20 or later, though `openai` 3.46.0 requires Python 3.10 (10).); Cloudflare Workers AI 72 (Model reading. The newest product changelog entry is 21 October 2026 (`createAI` replaces `workers-ai-provider`), after DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Clairic on 19 October, PhoneLLM Mini on 15 October and Clef-omni on 9 October (30). No minimum notice for model changes was found. The notice of 8 May 2026 retired 18 models 22 days later, and a notice of 18 September 2025 retired models 13 days later (5 of 12). Eighteen models went on 30 May 2026, one aliased to a pricier successor. No retirement was announced between 9 October and 1 November (3 of 8). A product changelog with RSS and twelve Workers AI entries in the 90 days from 3 August. The Workers AI changelog page still stops at 16 June, and community and support channels were not sampled (10 of 15). Replies on the SDK repositories were not examined (3 of 10). `cloudflare` for TypeScript 7.3.0 and Python 5.9.0 (tagged 2 October 2026) are still the newest tags on 1 November. `workers-ai-provider` 4.0.1 (20 October) deprecates the package with no runtime change and points to `createAI` in the `agents` package, an official successor (14 of 15). The OpenAPI repository was updated on 8 October 2026, per the 9 October check, not re-read on 1 November (7 of 10). 30 + 5 + 3 + 10 + 3 + 14 + 7 = 72.)
- Reliability, Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models +12: Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models 80 (Azure status page with post-incident reviews, listing Azure OpenAI Service, Foundry Models and Foundry Agent Service as components (20). One incident in the 90 days to 6 November 2026 names Azure OpenAI, and no review after it does, intermittent request failures, higher latency and HTTP 5xx errors in Sweden Central from 10:03 to 15:58 UTC on 29 September 2026 (tracking 7QL5-Z50), counted as one major outage as in the Foundry fine-tuning dossier. The 23 July West US review and the 30 September gateway incident don't name it (10). Quota tiers from Free to Tier 6 with TPM and RPM per model and deployment type, 1,000 RPM and 1,000,000 TPM for each GPT-6 model on Global Standard at Tier 1 (15). 429 responses carry `retry-after-ms`, every response carries `x-ratelimit-*` headers, and the quota guide gives exponential backoff with jitter and SDK retry settings (15). The models page says models sold by Azure are covered by Azure service-level agreements and links the Online Services SLA. The consolidated SLA document wouldn't download on 6 October and wasn't retried on 6 November, so the clause rests on Microsoft's docs, read the same way as the 5 October Azure Speech check (10). The v1 API is GA and the GPT-6 models carry no preview label (10).); Cloudflare Workers AI 68 (Hosted reading. www.cloudflarestatus.com is a Statuspage with Workers AI, AI Gateway and API as separate components (20). The incidents feed read on 9 October held 50 incidents from 21 September to 8 October 2026, none naming Workers AI or AI Gateway. The feed read on 1 November holds 50 incidents from 16 to 31 October. Workers AI is listed only in "Issues with AI Security for Apps" on 27 October, intermittent failures in unsafe topic detection with impact none, resolved after 38 minutes. The 23 October network incident, labelled major, describes some traffic between Ashburn and Atlanta and some customers in North America, so it reads as partial, as this run's other Cloudflare re-checks read regional incidents. The history page loads by script, so 3 August to 20 September and 9 to 15 October went unread. The 28 July changelog that cited 429 and 3040 capacity errors has left the 90 days, so the line is 12 of 30 (10 before), as cloudflare-r2 and cloudflare-mcp read the same page with an unread stretch on 1 November. Limits are published per task type, 300 requests a minute for text generation and 20 or 50 a minute per paid model, unchanged since 17 September (15). A 429 carries code 3036 for a spent free allocation or 3040 for capacity, `rejectIfBusy` fails fast, the batch route queues work, and the Cloudflare API returns `retry-after` and `Ratelimit` headers for its own limit. No `Retry-After` or backoff figures were found for a 3040 (11 of 15). No SLA for Workers AI was found. The legal index names only an enterprise support and SLA page, which we did not read (0). The limits page says Workers AI is generally available, with lower limits possible on beta models (10). 20 + 12 + 15 + 11 + 0 + 10 = 68.)
- Schema & documentation, Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models +7: Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models 87 (OpenAPI 3.2 spec for the v1 data plane in Azure/azure-rest-api-specs (`azure-v1-v1-generated.json`, 71 paths and 852 schemas), linked from the v1 API page (25). No llms.txt at learn.microsoft.com (404). Learn pages offer Copy Markdown and the Markdown sources are public in MicrosoftDocs/azure-ai-docs, last merged 5 October (5 of 10). The models page lists each model's capabilities, context and API support, but the model choice guide, dated 19 May 2026, doesn't cover GPT-6 (15 of 20). Structured outputs with `strict: true` on schemas and function tools, though not together with parallel function calls (15). Examples in Python, C#, JavaScript, Go, Java and REST, and an error table on the quotas page with a fix for 429 and other codes (15). The v1 path replaces monthly `api-version` values, with preview capabilities opted into by header, a dated API version changelog and dated model versions. On 6 November the Foundry what's new still covered August, though updated on 5 November, and no Azure OpenAI what's new was found at learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/openai/whats-new, which answered 404 (12 of 15).); Cloudflare Workers AI 80 (Model reading, scored on the API lines. Cloudflare's public OpenAPI 3.0.3 document, updated 8 October 2026, has 14 paths and 15 operations under `/ai/`. `/ai/run/{model_name}` takes 13 input shapes by task and lists only 200 and 400 responses, and the OpenAI-style `/ai/v1/` routes are not in it. Each model page links JSON Schemas for input and output, and `GET /ai/models/schema` returns them (22 of 25). `llms.txt` for Workers AI and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Model pages give a description, capability tags, context window and price, and the batch, caching and reject-busy pages say when to use each. Nothing says when not to pick a model (14 of 20). Parameters are typed with defaults, enums and nullability on the model pages (12 of 15). TypeScript, Python and curl examples on every model page and a table of 17 error codes with HTTP statuses. The quick start and the OpenAI page still use `@cf/meta/llama-3.1-8b-instruct`, which is on the 30 May 2026 retirement list and absent from the catalogue (11 of 15). A dated product changelog with RSS. Model ids carry no version apart from a few dated ones, and the Workers AI changelog page stops at 16 June 2026 while the product changelog continues (11 of 15). The OpenAPI document was not re-read on 1 November. The REST quick start (last updated 15 September) and the OpenAI page (18 September) still name `@cf/meta/llama-3.1-8b-instruct` on 1 November, and the error table still has 17 codes.)

| Task | Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models | Cloudflare Workers AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Research a product and write a sourced report | $110 | $1.09 |
| Build a small four-page website | $25.07 | $0.24 |
| Find and fix a bug in a large codebase | $5.41 | $0.05 |