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Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

Cloudflare AI Gateway vs DeepInfra

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against DeepInfra's 63 (B), and leads in 5 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 DeepInfraDeep Infra Inc. · Model API B63/100#411 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.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 75 against 69
  • Security & auth, 75 against 64
  • Payments & pricing, 52 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 75 against 65
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 67

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

DeepInfra B

Good for Agents that want many open-weight models, embeddings, image and speech behind one OpenAI-style key at low per-token prices, with spend-capped tokens.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Cloudflare AI Gateway loses 3 points for them

Watch for

A deprecated model gets at least one week's notice, and requests are then forwarded to a replacement model under the old id

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCloudflare AI GatewayDeepInfraEdge
Reliability16%206670DeepInfra +4
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27569Cloudflare AI Gateway +6
Agent ergonomics13%16.27377DeepInfra +4
Security & auth14%17.57564Cloudflare AI Gateway +11
Payments & pricing10%12.55220Cloudflare AI Gateway +32
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87565Cloudflare AI Gateway +10
Transparency & trust7%8.87367Cloudflare AI Gateway +6
Negative events≤15-30
Total66.8 · B63 · B

Facts side by side

FactCloudflare AI GatewayDeepInfra
KindModel routerModel API
VendorCloudflare, Inc.Deep Infra Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/aihttps://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402payer tooling onlyno
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 the DeepInfra Terms of Service. The Python and Node SDKs and the docs repository are MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-062026-10-07
Terms last updated2025-09-122026-08-17
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-08-15
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity251k npm/wk21 stars, 1.2k npm/wk, 50 PyPI/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.

DeepInfra

The model list, context sizes and per-token prices are readable without a key, and keys can carry an IP allowlist, a monthly spending cap and model-limited JWTs. Deprecated models get one week's notice and are then redirected to another model, there is no changelog or SLA, and an account needs a card or prepayment before any call.

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

DeepInfra

  1. Call GET https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai/models at start-up for ids, context sizes and prices. No key is needed
  2. Check the model field of each response. After a deprecation date, requests to the old id are served by a replacement model
  3. Ask the account owner for a scoped JWT limited to the models and spend the task needs, not the full API key
  4. Stay under 200 concurrent requests per model. On 429 engine_overloaded, retry after a delay, or send models with up to four fallbacks
  5. Never inspect a JWT with GET /v1/scoped-jwt?jwtoken=, which puts the token in the URL. Keep credentials in the Authorization header

Questions

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

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against DeepInfra's 63 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do Cloudflare AI Gateway and DeepInfra need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Cloudflare AI Gateway has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai and DeepInfra at https://api.deepinfra.com/v1/openai.

Other comparisons with Cloudflare AI Gateway or DeepInfra

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