# Cloudflare AI Gateway vs RouterPlus

> Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) to RouterPlus's 51.2 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-routerplus
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-routerplus.md (~3,050 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-routerplus.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-routerplus.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: 2026-10-13

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 51.2 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do llm inference.

- Cloudflare AI Gateway: grade B, 66.8/100, rank #282 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-ai-gateway.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-ai-gateway.json
- RouterPlus: grade D, 51.2/100, rank #777 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/routerplus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/routerplus.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 190 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 45
- Schema & documentation, 75 against 59
- Security & auth, 75 against 62
- Payments & pricing, 52 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 44
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 38

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

### RouterPlus (D)

Good for: Teams that call Claude and GPT models from one key and want the cost of every call in the response, with their own provider keys where they have them.

Watch for: No terms of service, privacy policy, status page, changelog or security.txt found for the gateway


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloudflare AI Gateway | RouterPlus | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 45 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +21 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 59 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 71 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 62 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 52 | 40 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +12 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 44 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +31 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 38 | Cloudflare AI Gateway +35 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **66.8 · B** | **51.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloudflare AI Gateway | RouterPlus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model router | Model router |
| Vendor | Cloudflare, Inc. | RouterPlus |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai` | `https://api.routerplus.com/v1` |
| 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 | Closed service. No terms of service for the gateway were found on routerplus.com or app.routerplus.com on 13 October 2026. The only terms on the site govern the capacity request form and name EVO HQ Inc, a Delaware corporation (https://routerplus.com/capacity/terms/). |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 251k npm/wk | none |

## 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.

**RouterPlus.** The docs are written for agents, every model price is public, and each response carries its own cost. No terms of service, privacy policy, status page or changelog were found. Signup adds no free credit, and the chat catalogue is Claude and GPT only.

## 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

### RouterPlus

1. Send `max_tokens` on every request. Without it the balance hold assumes up to 32,768 output tokens and can return `insufficient_quota` on a small balance
2. Switch on `error_type`. Retry `rate_limit` after `retry-after`, and stop on `insufficient_quota`, which needs a person to add credit or raise a cap
3. Don't add a retry loop on top of the SDK's. There is no idempotency key, so a retry that reaches a provider is billed again
4. Copy model ids from `GET /v1/models` or /api/models.json. An unknown id is a 404 and the gateway never substitutes one
5. Use `/v1/messages` for Claude when you need `thinking` or server tools, and `/v1/chat/completions` with `response_format` only for GPT ids

## Questions

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

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against RouterPlus's 51.2 (D), and leads in every scored category.

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

Both need an API key.

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

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Cloudflare AI Gateway or RouterPlus

- [Claude API vs Cloudflare AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-cloudflare-ai-gateway.md)
- [Claude API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Cloudflare AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-cloudflare-ai-gateway.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Cloudflare Workers AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Cohere Chat API (Command models)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-cohere-chat.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs DeepInfra](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-deepinfra.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Gemini Developer API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-gemini-api.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-groq.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Meta Model API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-meta-model-api.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Mistral AI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-mistral-api.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Novita AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-novita-ai.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs OpenAI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-openai-api.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [Cloudflare AI Gateway vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-routerplus.md)
- [DeepInfra vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-routerplus.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [GroqCloud vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Meta Model API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Mistral AI API vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-api-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Novita AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novita-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
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- [OpenRouter vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openrouter-vs-routerplus.md)
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