# Cloudflare AI Search vs OpenSearch (slim)

> Cloudflare AI Search scores 73.5 (BB) to OpenSearch's 68 (B) for db hybrid. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-search-vs-opensearch.md (~2,850 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-search-vs-opensearch.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-search-vs-opensearch
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-17
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Cloudflare AI Search scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenSearch's 68 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. OpenSearch leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do db hybrid.

- Cloudflare AI Search: BB 73.5, rank #92 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-ai-search.min.md
- OpenSearch: B 68, rank #252 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/opensearch.min.md
- Cloudflare AI Search, good for Teams already on Cloudflare that want a managed retrieval index over their own documents or website, with hybrid search and a ready MCP endpoint, without running a vector database. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 89 against 77; Agent ergonomics, 88 against 80; Transparency & trust, 73 against 57. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No incidents deducted, where OpenSearch loses 5 points for them.
- OpenSearch, good for A team that already runs OpenSearch for logs or text search and wants vectors and hybrid search in the same cluster, with fine-grained access control. Ahead on Reliability, 77 against 70; Payments & pricing, 60 against 45; Maintenance & community, 84 against 78. Also Runs on your own machine; Open source.

| Category | Cloudflare AI Search | OpenSearch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 77 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 77 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 88 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 68 | 70 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 45 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 78 | 84 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 73 | 57 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Cloudflare AI Search | OpenSearch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Cloudflare, Inc. | OpenSearch Software Foundation |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| Price for db hybrid | $0.75 per 1,000 requests | free |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement. The `cloudflare` SDKs are Apache-2.0, `ai-search-provider` is MIT and the OpenAPI repository is BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 for the engine, the plugins, the clients, the API specification and the MCP server |
| Tools exposed | 1 | 9 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-09-22 |
| 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 | 86 npm/wk | 14k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 3.8/5 (4) |