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Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

Cloudflare AI Gateway vs StepFun API

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against StepFun API's 44.4 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 153 models comparisons

Cloudflare AI GatewayCloudflare, Inc. · Model router B66.8/100#278 of 965 StepFun APIStepFun · Model API E44.4/100#889 of 965

Which one, for what

Cloudflare AI Gateway B

Best 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 53
  • Agent ergonomics, 73 against 68
  • Security & auth, 75 against 41
  • Payments & pricing, 52 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 75 against 50
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 58

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

StepFun API E

Best for Long-context agent and coding work over text, screenshots and video at a low per-token price, where a preview model is acceptable.

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

Step 5 Preview is labelled a preview, and no release date or support commitment was found

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCloudflare AI GatewayStepFun APIEdge
Reliability16%206628Cloudflare AI Gateway +38
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27553Cloudflare AI Gateway +22
Agent ergonomics13%16.27368Cloudflare AI Gateway +5
Security & auth14%17.57541Cloudflare AI Gateway +34
Payments & pricing10%12.55220Cloudflare AI Gateway +32
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87550Cloudflare AI Gateway +25
Transparency & trust7%8.87358Cloudflare AI Gateway +15
Negative events≤15-30
TotalB 66.8/100E 44.4/100

Facts side by side

FactCloudflare AI GatewayStepFun API
KindModel routerModel API
VendorCloudflare, Inc.StepFun
Hosted endpointhttps://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/aihttps://api.stepfun.ai/v1
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-ClauseClosed service under the StepFun Open Platform Terms of Service (STEPFUN TECHNOLOGY (HK) LIMITED, Hong Kong law).
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-06none
Terms last updated2025-09-12
Privacy policy last updatedno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity251k npm/wknone

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.

StepFun API

StepFun's API serves Step 5 Preview with a 1M-token context, video input, strict JSON Schema output and published per-token prices, documented in Markdown with an llms.txt. The model is a preview with no release date found, there's no free allowance or SLA, and the terms and privacy policy leave room to train on customer data.

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

StepFun API

  1. Set max_tokens yourself. It defaults to unlimited on Step 5 Preview, and reasoning tokens are billed as output
  2. Use response_format with type: json_schema and strict: true when the shape matters. JSON Mode alone isn't schema-checked
  3. Back off and retry on 429, 500, 503 and 504. The docs give no Retry-After header or backoff schedule
  4. Expect HTTP 451 or finish_reason: content_filter when content fails StepFun's review, and don't retry the same input
  5. Use api.stepfun.ai for the international platform. api.stepfun.com is the China platform with yuan pricing

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare AI Gateway or StepFun API?

Cloudflare AI Gateway scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against StepFun API's 44.4 (E), and leads in every scored category.

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

Both need an API key.

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

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

Other comparisons with Cloudflare AI Gateway or StepFun API

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