# Cloudflare Workers AI vs Beam 1.0

> Cloudflare Workers AI scores 68.3 (B) to Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D) for llm inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Cloudflare Workers AI scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do llm inference.

- Cloudflare Workers AI: grade B, 68.3/100, rank #236 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-workers-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-workers-ai.json
- Beam 1.0: grade D, 53.4/100, rank #786 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/reflection-beam.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/reflection-beam.json
- Best model APIs and inference for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/inference/index.md
- All 326 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:
- Reliability, 66 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 67
- Security & auth, 77 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 52 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 68

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5

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

### Beam 1.0 (D)

Good for: An OpenAI-compatible endpoint for a large open-weight coding and agent model, for builders who want the same model hosted or self-hosted under Apache-2.0.

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

Watch for: The API is a public beta with no SLA, and per-organisation rate limits and the daily allocation are not published as numbers


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloudflare Workers AI | Beam 1.0 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 40 | Cloudflare Workers AI +26 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 84 | Beam 1.0 +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 67 | Cloudflare Workers AI +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 46 | Cloudflare Workers AI +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 52 | 20 | Cloudflare Workers AI +32 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 50 | Cloudflare Workers AI +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 68 | Cloudflare Workers AI +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.3 · B** | **53.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloudflare Workers AI | Beam 1.0 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare, Inc. | Reflection |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai` | `https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| 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 | Weights under Apache-2.0. The hosted Reflection API is a closed service under Reflection AI, Inc.'s commercial terms of service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given |  |
| 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 | 380k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (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.

**Beam 1.0.** The Reflection API is OpenAI-compatible, with an OpenAPI document, strict structured outputs and tool calls, and error codes that say when to retry, and the weights are Apache-2.0. It is a free public beta with unpublished daily limits and no per-token price, reasoning can't be turned off, and three API incidents were posted between 14 and 16 October 2026.

## 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

### Beam 1.0

1. Send `reasoning_effort` `low` or `medium` for short tasks. The default is `max`, and `none` or `minimal` return `400 unsupported_value`
2. Return every assistant message with its `reasoning_content` unchanged. If a turn comes back without it, start a new conversation, since later requests fail with `missing_required_parameter`
3. Don't rely on `stop` or `seed`. Both are accepted and ignored, so truncate output in your own code
4. Honour `x-should-retry: false` on a 429. It means a daily limit is spent and `Retry-After` counts to 00:00 UTC
5. Set `max_completion_tokens` yourself on long prompts. The default budget isn't reduced to fit the prompt and includes reasoning tokens

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cloudflare Workers AI or Beam 1.0?

Cloudflare Workers AI scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Beam 1.0's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Cloudflare Workers AI and Beam 1.0 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Cloudflare Workers AI and Beam 1.0 without installing anything?

Yes. Cloudflare Workers AI has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai and Beam 1.0 at https://api.reflection.ai/openai/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Cloudflare Workers AI or Beam 1.0

- [Claude API vs Cloudflare Workers AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai.md)
- [Claude API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anthropic-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Antseed vs Cloudflare Workers AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai.md)
- [Antseed vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antseed-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Cloudflare Workers AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-cloudflare-workers-ai.md)
- [BlockRun.AI vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blockrun-ai-vs-reflection-beam.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 Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-ai-gateway-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Cohere Chat API (Command models)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-cohere-chat.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs DeepInfra](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-deepinfra.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs DeepSeek API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-deepseek-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Glimpse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-elorian-glimpse.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Gemini Developer API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-gemini-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs GroqCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-groq.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Jais 3](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-jais-3.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Meta Model API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-meta-model-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Mistral AI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-mistral-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Muse Spark Open](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-muse-spark-open.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-nemotron-3-5-super-vl.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Novita AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-novita-ai.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs OpenAI API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-openai-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs OpenRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-openrouter.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Prism Inference](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-prism-inference.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Workers AI vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-workers-ai-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Cohere Chat API (Command models) vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cohere-chat-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [DeepInfra vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [DeepSeek API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Glimpse vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elorian-glimpse-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Gemini Developer API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [GroqCloud vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Jais 3 vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jais-3-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Meta Model API vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/meta-model-api-vs-reflection-beam.md)
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- [Muse Spark Open vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-spark-open-vs-reflection-beam.md)
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- [Prism Inference vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prism-inference-vs-reflection-beam.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs RouterPlus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-routerplus.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs SambaCloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-sambanova.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs SiliconFlow](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-siliconflow.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs StepFun API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-stepfun-api.md)
- [Beam 1.0 vs Vercel AI Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reflection-beam-vs-vercel-ai-gateway.md)
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Beam 1.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-vs-reflection-beam.md)

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