--- title: Unified Billing description: Use the Cloudflare billing to pay for and authenticate your inference requests. image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/dev-products-preview.png --- > Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. [Skip to content](#%5Ftop) # Unified Billing Unified Billing allows users to connect to various AI providers (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google AI Studio) and receive a single Cloudflare bill. To use Unified Billing, you must purchase and load credits into your Cloudflare account in the Cloudflare dashboard, which you can then spend with AI Gateway. A 5% fee is applied to all credits purchased through Unified Billing. For example, a $100 credit purchase will result in a $105 charge. Inference pricing from providers is passed through with no markup — you pay the same per-token rates as you would directly with the provider. Warning In rare instances, your credit balance may go negative. If this happens, Cloudflare will charge the payment method on file for the outstanding amount. Charges occur at the beginning of each month for the previous month. ## Pre-requisites * Ensure your Cloudflare account has [sufficient credits loaded](#load-credits). * Ensure you have [authenticated](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/configuration/authentication/) your AI Gateway. ## Load credits To load credits for AI Gateway: 1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the **AI Gateway** page. [ Go to **AI Gateway** ](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/ai/ai-gateway) The **Credits Available** card on the top right shows how many AI gateway credits you have on your account currently. 2. In **Credits Available**, select **Manage**. 3. If your account does not have an available payment method, AI Gateway will prompt you to add a payment method to purchase credits. Add a payment method. 4. Select **Top-up credits**. 5. Add the amount of credits you want to purchase, then select **Confirm and pay**. ### Auto-top up You can configure AI Gateway to automatically replenish your credits when they fall below a certain threshold. To configure auto top-up: 1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the **AI Gateway** page. [ Go to **AI Gateway** ](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/ai/ai-gateway) 2. In **Credits Available**, select **Manage**. 3. Select **Setup auto top-up credits**. 4. Choose a threshold and a recharge amount for auto top-up. When your balance falls below the set threshold, AI Gateway will automatically apply the auto top-up amount to your account. ## Use Unified Billing Unified Billing works in two ways: through the AI binding or through the HTTP API. Both deduct credits from your account automatically without requiring provider API keys. Note Workers AI models (models prefixed with `@cf/`) routed through AI Gateway are not charged via Unified Billing. These models are billed through [Workers AI pricing](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers-ai/platform/pricing/) instead. Unified Billing only applies to third-party provider models (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google AI Studio). ### AI binding Call any model listed in the [model catalog](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai/models/) using `env.AI.run()`. This includes both Workers AI models and third-party models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. TypeScript ``` const resp = await env.AI.run( "openai/gpt-4.1-mini", { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "What is Cloudflare?" }], }, { gateway: { id: "my-gateway" }, },); ``` Refer to the [binding reference](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/worker-binding-methods/) for the full API surface. ### HTTP API Call a supported provider through the AI Gateway REST API without passing a provider API key. #### REST API Use the Cloudflare API to call third-party models. Pass your Cloudflare API token in the `Authorization` header: Terminal window ``` # Run `wrangler whoami` to get your account ID to replace $CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID,# and `wrangler auth token` to get an auth token to replace $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN.curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID/ai/v1/chat/completions" \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \ --header "Content-Type: application/json" \ --data '{ "model": "openai/gpt-4.1-mini", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What is Cloudflare?"}] }' ``` Refer to [REST API](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/rest-api/) for more details on all available endpoints. #### AI Gateway provider-native endpoints You can also call providers directly through [provider-native endpoints](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/) using the `cf-aig-authorization` header to authenticate: The HTTP API supports the following providers: * [OpenAI](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/openai/) * [Anthropic](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/anthropic/) * [Google AI Studio](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/google-ai-studio/) * [Google Vertex AI](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/vertex/) * [xAI](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/grok/) * [Groq](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/groq/) ### Spend limits Set [spend limit rules](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/features/spend-limits/) on individual gateways to cap spend, scoped by model, provider, or custom metadata dimensions like user or team. ### Zero Data Retention (ZDR) Zero Data Retention (ZDR) routes Unified Billing traffic through provider endpoints that do not retain prompts or responses. Enable it with the gateway-level `zdr` setting, which maps to ZDR-capable upstream provider configurations. This setting only applies to Unified Billing requests that use Cloudflare-managed credentials. It does not apply to BYOK or other AI Gateway requests. ZDR does not control AI Gateway logging. To disable request/response logging in AI Gateway, update the logging settings separately in [Logging](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/observability/logging/). ZDR is currently supported for: * [OpenAI](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/openai/) * [Anthropic](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/anthropic/) If ZDR is enabled for a provider that does not support it, AI Gateway falls back to the standard (non-ZDR) Unified Billing configuration. #### Default configuration * [ Dashboard ](#tab-panel-6840) * [ API ](#tab-panel-6841) To set ZDR as the default for Unified Billing in the dashboard: 1. Log into the [Cloudflare dashboard ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/) and select your account. 2. Go to **AI** \> **AI Gateway**. 3. Select your gateway. 4. Go to **Settings** and toggle **Zero Data Retention (ZDR)**. To set ZDR as the default for Unified Billing using the API: 1. [Create an API token](https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/api/get-started/create-token/) with the following permissions: * `AI Gateway - Read` * `AI Gateway - Edit` 2. Get your [Account ID](https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/account/find-account-and-zone-ids/). 3. Send a [PUT request](https://developers.cloudflare.com/api/resources/ai%5Fgateway/methods/update/) to update the gateway and include `zdr: true` or `zdr: false` in the request body. #### Per-request override (`cf-aig-zdr`) Use the `cf-aig-zdr` header to override the gateway default for a single Unified Billing request. Set it to `true` to force ZDR, or `false` to disable ZDR for the request. Unified Billing request with ZDR ``` # Run `wrangler whoami` to get your account ID to replace $CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID,# and `wrangler auth token` to get an auth token to replace $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN.curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID/ai/v1/chat/completions" \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \ --header "Content-Type: application/json" \ --header "cf-aig-zdr: true" \ --data '{ "model": "openai/gpt-4.1-mini", "messages": [ { "role": "user", "content": "Explain Zero Data Retention." } ] }' ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/features/unified-billing/#page","headline":"Unified Billing · Cloudflare AI Gateway docs","description":"Use the Cloudflare billing to pay for and authenticate your inference requests.","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/features/unified-billing/","inLanguage":"en","image":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/dev-products-preview.png","dateModified":"2026-06-22","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Cloudflare","url":"https://www.cloudflare.com/"},"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/#website","name":"Cloudflare Docs","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/directory/","name":"Directory"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/ai-gateway/","name":"AI Gateway"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"/ai-gateway/features/","name":"Features"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@id":"/ai-gateway/features/unified-billing/","name":"Unified Billing"}}]} ```