How to Get a Cloudflare Workers AI API Key for Free

In short: Cloudflare's Workers AI is included in the Workers Free plan. Every account can use 10,000 Neurons a day at no charge - Neurons are Cloudflare's unit of AI compute - on most of its text models, including gpt-oss-20b, gpt-oss-120b, Gemma 4 26B and Llama 3.3 70B. You need two things from the dashboard: an API token and your account ID. Workers AI also has an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, so the token works in apps made for OpenAI.

What you need

• A Cloudflare account (dash.cloudflare.com).
• A computer. Windows, Mac or Linux all work.
• Nothing to pay for 10,000 Neurons a day: anyone can use that much at no charge, as Cloudflare's pricing page lists. All limits reset at 00:00 UTC.

Step 1: Open Workers AI

Sign in to the Cloudflare dashboard. In the left menu, open AI > Workers AI, then click REST API at the top right (box 1).

Step 2: Create a token and copy your account ID

The Using Workers AI REST API page has both things you need:

1. Create a Workers AI API Token - opens a token form with the Workers AI permissions already filled in. Create it and copy the token: Cloudflare shows it only once.
2. Account ID - the long code under Get Account ID. Click the copy button next to it.

The token is a password; the account ID is not, but it goes in every request. Keep the token private:

• Anyone who has your token can use your allowance.
• Never paste it into a website, a public code repository or a screenshot.

Step 3: Check your token

Your tokens are listed under My Profile > API Tokens (open the profile icon at the top right). Each row shows the token's name, permissions and status (box 2). If a token leaks, use the menu at the end of its row to delete it, then create a new one with Create Token (box 1).

Step 4: Know which models are free

Some Workers AI models need the paid plan. If you pick one on the free plan, the request fails with a not available on the Workers Free plan error. In October 2026 these text models need Workers Paid: Kimi K2.7 Code and K2.6, GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3 Flash and GLM-5.2, and DeepSeek V4 Flash, V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash.

These general text models work on the free plan:

Step 5: Work out what 10,000 Neurons buys

Cloudflare bills Workers AI at $0.011 per 1,000 Neurons, so the free 10,000 Neurons a day are worth $0.11 a day at the prices above. Every request is counted against that.

For example, with @cf/openai/gpt-oss-20b, a request with 1,000 tokens in and 500 tokens out costs $0.0002 + $0.00015 = $0.00035, so $0.11 covers about 300 such requests a day. Longer prompts, longer answers or a pricier model mean fewer. Above 10,000 Neurons, requests fail on the free plan; the Workers Paid plan bills the extra.

Step 6: Send your first request (no programming)

Open a command window. On Windows, press the Start key, type PowerShell and open it. On a Mac, open Terminal. Put your token in place of YOUR_API_TOKEN and your account ID in place of YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID.

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN"
$env:CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID = "YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID"
$body = '{"messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Explain how AI works in a few words"}]}'
$r = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$env:CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID/ai/run/@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast" -Headers @{ Authorization = "Bearer $env:CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" } -ContentType "application/json" -Body $body
$r.result.response

Mac or Linux (Terminal):

export CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN="YOUR_API_TOKEN"
export CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID="YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID"
curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID/ai/run/@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Explain how AI works in a few words"}]}'

You get a short answer back. That is one request from your free daily allowance.

Step 7: Use it in an app made for OpenAI

Most Workers AI text models work with OpenAI's Chat Completions format (Cloudflare's OpenAI compatibility page). The base URL contains your account ID:

When something goes wrong

Words to know

• API token: Cloudflare's name for an API key - the password that identifies you. See what is an API key.
• Account ID: the code for your Cloudflare account; it is part of every request address.
• Neuron: Cloudflare's unit for AI compute; the free plan includes 10,000 a day.
• Workers Free / Workers Paid: Cloudflare's free and paid plans for Workers, which include Workers AI.
• Token (in prices): a piece of a word; the unit models read and write. See tokens and context windows.

More free AI API keys

Workers AI is one of the providers with a free tier. How to get AI API keys for free lists each one with its daily limit and source. For a simple daily request count instead of Neurons, see how to get a Groq API key for free.