# Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Novita AI

> Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) to Novita AI's 53.5 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-novita-ai
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-novita-ai.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-novita-ai.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-novita-ai.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Novita AI's 53.5 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do llm inference.

- Cloudflare AI Gateway: grade B, 66.8/100, rank #275 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-ai-gateway.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-ai-gateway.json
- Novita AI: grade D, 53.5/100, rank #706 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/novita-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/novita-ai.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 136 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## 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:
- Reliability, 66 against 28
- Schema & documentation, 75 against 62
- Security & auth, 75 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 52 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 62
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 56

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

### Novita AI (D)

Good for: Agents that want many open-weight models at per-token prices behind one OpenAI-style key, with keys that can be limited by model, IP and expiry.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Cloudflare AI Gateway loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No status page or SLA was found on the home page, the docs index or the docs site map. The home page states 99.5% uptime with no supporting document


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloudflare AI Gateway | Novita AI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 28 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +38 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 62 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 72 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 65 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 52 | 35 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +17 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 62 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 56 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.8 · B** | **53.5 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloudflare AI Gateway | Novita AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model router | Model API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare, Inc. | Novita AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai` | `https://api.novita.ai/openai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | Proprietary 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-Clause | Proprietary service under the Novita AI Terms of Service. The agent skill and the MCP server are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | 2026-08-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-05-13 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 251k npm/wk | 6 stars, 1.4k 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.

**Novita AI.** Per-token prices for about 140 language models are public, and each key can carry an expiry, a model allowlist and a source IP allowlist. No status page, SLA or security.txt was found, the per-model rate limit figures are drawn by script, and both vendor SDK repositories are archived while the docs still point to them.

## 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

### Novita AI

1. Set the OpenAI client base URL to `https://api.novita.ai/openai` and send the key as `Authorization: Bearer`. Keys start with `sk_`
2. Do not close a connection to stop generation. A request that reached the model is billed in full under status 499, so cap output with `max_tokens`
3. On 429, check whether the code is `RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` or `TOKEN_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` and back off exponentially. No `Retry-After` header is documented
4. Read the changelog for retirement notices before pinning a model id. One retirement in October 2026 came with 11 days' notice
5. Ask the account owner for a key with an expiry, a model access policy and an IP allowlist. Keys are created and deleted only in the console

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare AI Gateway or Novita AI?

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Novita AI's 53.5 (D), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Cloudflare AI Gateway and Novita AI need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

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


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-novita-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-novita-ai.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cloudflare-ai-gateway", "b": "novita-ai"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cloudflare-ai-gateway novita-ai`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-ai-gateway.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/novita-ai.json

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