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Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Cloudflare Workers AI

Cloudflare Workers AI scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Cloudflare AI Gateway's 66.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 136 models comparisons

Cloudflare AI GatewayCloudflare, Inc. · Model router B66.8/100#275 of 950 Cloudflare Workers AICloudflare, Inc. · Model API B68.3/100#224 of 950

Which one, for what

Cloudflare AI Gateway B

Good for Teams that already hold a Cloudflare account and want one token, one bill, logs, budgets and fallbacks in front of several model providers, or that want to keep their own provider keys behind a proxy with spend limits.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

API tokens are account-scoped. Any token with AI Gateway Run can send requests through every gateway in the account and spend its stored provider keys

Cloudflare Workers AI B

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

  • Schema & documentation, 80 against 75

Watch for

No SLA for Workers AI was found in the docs or the agreements read

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCloudflare AI GatewayCloudflare Workers AIEdge
Reliability16%206666even
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27580Cloudflare Workers AI +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27375Cloudflare Workers AI +2
Security & auth14%17.57577Cloudflare Workers AI +2
Payments & pricing10%12.55252even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87572Cloudflare AI Gateway +3
Transparency & trust7%8.87376Cloudflare Workers AI +3
Negative events≤15-3-3
Total66.8 · B68.3 · B

Facts side by side

FactCloudflare AI GatewayCloudflare Workers AI
KindModel routerModel API
VendorCloudflare, Inc.Cloudflare, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/aihttps://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402payer tooling onlypayer tooling only
LicenceProprietary service under Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement and its service-specific terms. Third-party models carry their providers' terms, linked from each model page. ai-gateway-provider is MIT and Cloudflare's OpenAPI repository is BSD-3-ClauseProprietary 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
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-062026-10-01
Terms last updated2025-09-122025-09-12
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity251k npm/wk380k npm/wk

Verdicts

Cloudflare AI Gateway

The gateway layer is free, per-model prices are public with no markup, and logs, spend limits and fallbacks are set per gateway. API tokens cannot be limited to one gateway, the service terms take third-party models outside Cloudflare's DPA, no SLA names the product, and error codes changed on 6 October 2026 with same-day notice.

Cloudflare Workers AI

Per-model prices, rate limits and JSON Schemas are public, 10,000 neurons a day are free, and x402 payment is in beta on /ai/run for four models. No SLA was found, three models moved to paid-only access on 28 July 2026 with no notice, and several docs pages still use a model retired in May.

Before you call either

Cloudflare AI Gateway

  1. Use the REST API at api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/v1 with a token holding Workers AI Read. A token with only an AI Gateway permission returns 401 with code 10000
  2. Send cf-aig-gateway-id on every Workers AI (@cf/) call and on dynamic routes. Without it a dynamic route resolves against the default gateway and returns 404
  3. Set cf-aig-collect-log: false or cf-aig-collect-log-payload: false on sensitive requests. Logging of prompts and responses is on by default
  4. Treat a 429 as a rate limit or a spent budget and a 401 with code 2009 as a rejected provider key. Do not retry a 2009
  5. Set byok_only on the gateway or send cf-aig-no-wholesale: true to stop a request without a provider key falling through to paid Unified Billing credits

Cloudflare Workers AI

  1. Check the model page before calling. Seven models need Workers Paid or AI Gateway credits and return 403 with code 5035 on the Free plan
  2. Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent until 00:00 UTC, 3040 means capacity, so retry later
  3. Set options.rejectIfBusy to fail fast, or add ?queueRequest=true for the batch route when the answer can wait
  4. Send the same x-session-affinity value on every turn of a session to reach the prefix cache and the cached-input price
  5. Keep paid frontier models under 20 requests a minute per model, or 50 with prepaid AI Gateway credits

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare AI Gateway or Cloudflare Workers AI?

Cloudflare Workers AI scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Cloudflare AI Gateway's 66.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

Do Cloudflare AI Gateway and Cloudflare Workers AI need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Cloudflare AI Gateway and Cloudflare Workers AI without installing anything?

Yes. Cloudflare AI Gateway has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai and Cloudflare Workers AI at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai.

Other comparisons with Cloudflare AI Gateway or Cloudflare Workers AI

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