# Cloudflare Workers AI vs Fireworks AI Inference

> Fireworks AI Inference scores 73.5 (BB) to Cloudflare Workers AI's 68.3 (B) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-19

Fireworks AI Inference scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Workers AI's 68.3 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Workers AI leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do llm inference.

- Cloudflare Workers AI: grade B, 68.3/100, rank #239 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-workers-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-workers-ai.json
- Fireworks AI Inference: grade BB, 73.5/100, rank #93 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fireworks-inference.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fireworks-inference.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 407 models comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inference/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cloudflare Workers AI (B)

Good for: Agents that already run on Cloudflare Workers, or that want open-weight chat, embedding, reranking, speech and image models behind one token with a free daily allowance.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 52 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 65
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 66

Watch for: No SLA for Workers AI was found in the docs or the agreements read

### Fireworks AI Inference (BB)

Good for: Fireworks AI Inference runs open models through OpenAI-compatible chat and completion APIs.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 80
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 75
- Security & auth, 85 against 77

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.3 against 3.0 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where Cloudflare Workers AI loses 3 points for them

Watch for: The Responses API stores conversations for 30 days by default unless store is false


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloudflare Workers AI | Fireworks AI Inference | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 70 | Fireworks AI Inference +4 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 93 | Fireworks AI Inference +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 80 | Fireworks AI Inference +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 85 | Fireworks AI Inference +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 52 | 40 | Cloudflare Workers AI +12 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 65 | Cloudflare Workers AI +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 66 | Cloudflare Workers AI +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.3 · B** | **73.5 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloudflare Workers AI | Fireworks AI Inference |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare, Inc. | Fireworks.ai, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai` | `https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement. Each hosted model carries its own open-weight licence, linked from its model page. The `cloudflare` SDKs are Apache-2.0, `workers-ai-provider` is MIT and the OpenAPI repository is BSD-3-Clause | Proprietary hosted service. The official Python SDK is Apache-2.0; served models retain their own licences. |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-18 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 380k npm/wk | 10 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 4.3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Cloudflare Workers AI.** Per-model prices, rate limits and JSON Schemas are public, 10,000 neurons a day are free, and x402 payment is in beta on `/ai/run` for four models. No SLA was found, three models moved to paid-only access on 28 July 2026 with no notice, and several docs pages still use a model retired in May.

**Fireworks AI Inference.** Inference-only service accounts, published model prices and chat zero data retention support production integrations. Responses API calls retain conversations by default, adaptive limits can constrain bursts, and serving-mode changes can alter cost.

## Before you call either

### Cloudflare Workers AI

1. Check the model page before calling. Seven models need Workers Paid or AI Gateway credits and return 403 with code 5035 on the Free plan
2. Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent until 00:00 UTC, 3040 means capacity, so retry later
3. Set `options.rejectIfBusy` to fail fast, or add `?queueRequest=true` for the batch route when the answer can wait
4. Send the same `x-session-affinity` value on every turn of a session to reach the prefix cache and the cached-input price
5. Keep paid frontier models under 20 requests a minute per model, or 50 with prepaid AI Gateway credits

### Fireworks AI Inference

1. Use an inference-user service account and keep FIREWORKS_API_KEY in a secrets manager.
2. Use https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1 for OpenAI-compatible requests and the complete accounts/fireworks/models identifier.
3. Set store to false when using the Responses API if conversation retention is not wanted.
4. Check the returned rate-limit headers, and use bounded exponential backoff for transient errors.
5. Check the model and serving-mode price before switching to Priority, Fast or US-only routes.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare Workers AI or Fireworks AI Inference?

Fireworks AI Inference scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Cloudflare Workers AI's 68.3 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cloudflare Workers AI leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Do Cloudflare Workers AI and Fireworks AI Inference need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Cloudflare Workers AI and Fireworks AI Inference without installing anything?

Yes. Cloudflare Workers AI has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai and Fireworks AI Inference at https://api.fireworks.ai/inference/v1.


## For agents

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

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