Cloudflare

Overview

The Cloudflare API manages everything on Cloudflare — DNS zones, CDN/cache, Workers, Pages, KV, Durable Objects, R2 storage, WAF rules, analytics, and more. Auth is a Global API Key or (preferred) API Tokens — there’s no anonymous access.

Quick Start

An API token is required (create at dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens):

# List zones:
curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Create a DNS record:

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/ZONE_ID/dns_records" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"type": "A", "name": "example.com", "content": "192.0.2.1", "ttl": 3600}'

Purge cache:

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/ZONE_ID/purge_cache" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"purge_everything": true}'

Authentication

• API Tokens (preferred): create scoped tokens (e.g. “Zone.DNS:Edit”) at dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens.
• Global API Key (legacy): account-level, powerful — prefer tokens.
• Send as Authorization: Bearer TOKEN (or X-Auth-Email + X-Auth-Key for the global key).

Rate Limits & Notes

• All responses are wrapped in {"success": true, "result": ...} — check success and errors[].
• Rate limits are per-endpoint (documented); Workers/Pages have their own limits.
• The API is versioned (/client/v4/); account-scoped calls use /accounts/{account_id}/.
• GraphQL analytics API available at /graphql.

FAQ

Is Cloudflare API free? Yes — the API is free; costs come from paid plan features you use.

Token or global key? Prefer scoped API tokens; the global key is a legacy all-powerful credential.

How do I find my zone ID? In the dashboard’s domain overview, or via GET /zones with your token.