CF
Cloudflare AI Gateway
Edge-deployed gateway for caching, analytics and spend limits
Enterprise AI gatewayResearch complete
Company overview
Cloudflare AI Gateway proxies model traffic through Cloudflare's edge network, adding caching, rate limiting, analytics and spending controls, with guardrails and data-loss controls in the wider Cloudflare AI security portfolio.
Ideal customer: Web and application teams with Cloudflare in the path of their traffic
- Caching repeated model responses at the edge
- Rate limiting and spending limits on AI traffic
- Unified analytics across multiple model providers
GateYourAI verdict
Cloudflare's gateway is the low-friction option for teams already on its network, and it addresses the cost half of the thesis directly through caching, limits and analytics. Its security guardrails sit across a wider portfolio, so we verify those separately before marking them.
Best for: Teams already on Cloudflare that want fast caching, analytics and spend limits. Read how we assess platforms.
Security capabilities
A capability is marked available only when an official page or documentation says so. “Not publicly documented” means we could not find it — not that the vendor lacks it.
| Capability | Status | Verification | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prompt-injection detectionIdentifies attempts to override system instructions in prompts or tool output. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Prompt-injection blockingBlocks the request before it reaches the model, rather than only logging it. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Jailbreak detectionDetects known jailbreak and guardrail-evasion patterns. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| PII detectionIdentifies personal information in prompts or responses. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| PII redactionMasks or removes personal information before it leaves the gateway. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Secret & credential scanningDetects API keys, tokens and credentials in prompts or output. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Input inspectionInspects outbound requests before they reach the model. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Output inspectionInspects inbound model responses before they reach the application. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Content moderationClassifies harmful or policy-violating content. Not equivalent to injection defense. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Policy enforcementConfigurable rules applied per route, team, key or environment. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Agent & tool controlsConstrains tool calls, autonomous actions and agent permissions. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| MCP securityControls or inspects Model Context Protocol server traffic. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Audit logsDurable, reviewable record of requests and policy decisions.Request logging. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Access controlsRoles, teams, keys and scoped permissions. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
Cost-optimization capabilities
Token reduction, avoided calls, cheaper-model routing, budgets and reporting are tracked separately because they are not interchangeable.
| Capability | Status | Verification | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prompt compressionReduces the number of tokens actually sent to the model. | Not publicly documentedNot publicly documented. Not publicly documented. | Not publicly documented | — |
| Exact cachingReturns a stored response for a byte-identical request.Responses can be cached at the gateway. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Semantic cachingReturns a stored response for a semantically similar request using embeddings. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Intelligent model routingChooses a model per request based on task, cost or performance.Fallback and provider selection through a universal endpoint. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Automatic fallbackRetries against an alternate model or provider on failure.Request retries and model fallback. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Load balancingDistributes traffic across keys, regions or providers. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Token budgetsHard or soft limits expressed in tokens. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Dollar budgetsSpending limits expressed in currency. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Rate limitsRequest throttling. Throttling is not the same as token reduction. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Cost attributionAttributes spend to teams, keys, users or features. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Cost analyticsDashboards and reporting on token and dollar usage.Request, token and cost analytics. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Savings reportingReports the spend avoided by compression, caching or routing. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
Supported models and deployment options
Cloudflare-hosted edge service.
| Capability | Status | Verification | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAISupports OpenAI models. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| AnthropicSupports Anthropic models. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Google GeminiSupports Google Gemini models. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| AWS BedrockSupports AWS Bedrock as a provider. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Azure OpenAISupports Azure OpenAI deployments. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Open-source modelsSupports open-weight models or self-hosted inference endpoints.Workers AI and other open-weight providers. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| SaaS deploymentVendor-hosted managed service.Runs on Cloudflare's network. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| VPC / private cloudDeployable inside a customer cloud account. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| On-premiseDeployable in a customer data centre. | Not publicly documentedNot publicly documented. Not publicly documented. | Not publicly documented | — |
| Self-hostedCustomer runs and operates the gateway themselves. | Not publicly documentedNot publicly documented. Not publicly documented. | Not publicly documented | — |
| Open-source optionSource code published under an open-source licence. | Not publicly documentedNot publicly documented. Not publicly documented. | Not publicly documented | — |
| APIProgrammatic API for configuration or traffic. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| SDKOfficial client libraries.Integration is mostly a base-URL change rather than a dedicated SDK. | LimitedLimited. Partially documented. | Partially documented | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
Pricing status
Verification pending against the Cloudflare pricing documentation.
| Capability | Status | Verification | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public pricingList pricing published on the vendor website. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Free tierA permanently free usage tier.Available on all Cloudflare plans, including free. | AvailableAvailable. Verified from official documentation. | Verified from official documentation | Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation |
| Free trialA time-limited or credit-limited trial. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Enterprise planA named enterprise tier. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
| Contact sales requiredPricing requires contacting the vendor. | Verification pendingVerification pending. Verification pending. | Verification pending | — |
Strengths
- Very low adoption friction for existing Cloudflare customers
- Caching, analytics and spending limits are core product features
Limitations
- Security guardrails span multiple Cloudflare products rather than one gateway feature set
- Some capabilities are enterprise-tier only and need contract-level confirmation
Alternatives to Cloudflare AI Gateway
PortkeyTeams that want an open-source gateway with guardrails and spend controlsGate.AIOrganisations consolidating access to many models behind one API with cost governanceKong AI GatewayPlatform teams already running Kong that want AI policy in the same data plane
You can also compare Cloudflare AI Gateway against up to three other platforms, or read the AI Gate pillar page.
Sources
- Cloudflare AI Gateway product page Cloudflare · Official product page · Accessed 2026-07-30
- Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation Cloudflare · Official documentation · Accessed 2026-07-30Primary source of truth for capability marks.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-30
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