Cloudflare Free Tier Deployment

Deploy to Cloudflare's edge network at $0 cost. All services have free tiers sufficient for personal projects.

Prerequisites

bash

# Verify CLI tools
wrangler --version   # Workers, Pages, D1, KV, R2
cloudflared --version  # Tunnels

# If missing:
npm install -g wrangler
# cloudflared:
brew install cloudflare/cloudflare/cloudflared

Quick Deploy Commands

Static Site (Pages)

bash

wrangler pages project create <name>
wrangler pages deploy ./dist  # or ./build, ./out, ./public
# Result: <name>.pages.dev — unlimited bandwidth

Serverless API (Workers)

bash

wrangler init <name> && cd <name>
wrangler dev          # local: localhost:8787
wrangler deploy       # live: <name>.<account>.workers.dev

SQL Database (D1)

bash

wrangler d1 create <name>
wrangler d1 execute <name> --command "CREATE TABLE ..."
# Add to wrangler.toml: [[d1_databases]] binding/name/id

Key-Value Store (KV)

bash

wrangler kv:namespace create <NAME>
# Add to wrangler.toml: [[kv_namespaces]] binding/id

Object Storage (R2) — requires credit card, won't charge under limits

bash

wrangler r2 bucket create <name>
wrangler r2 object put <bucket>/path --file ./file

Expose Localhost (Tunnel)

bash

cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:3000  # instant public URL

Free Tier Limits (HARD CONSTRAINTS)

Service	Limit	Reset
Workers	100K req/day, 10ms CPU/req	Daily UTC
Pages	Unlimited bandwidth, 500 builds/mo	Monthly
D1	5 GB storage, 5M reads/day, 100K writes/day	Daily UTC
KV	1 GB storage, 100K reads/day, 1K writes/day	Daily UTC
R2	10 GB storage, $0 egress	Monthly
Durable Objects	100K req/day, 5 GB storage	Daily UTC
Workers AI	10K neurons/day (~500 LLM queries)	Daily UTC
Tunnels	Unlimited	—

See references/limits.md for detailed breakdown.

wrangler.toml Template

toml

name = "my-app"
main = "src/index.js"  # or index.ts
compatibility_date = "2024-01-01"

# D1 Database
[[d1_databases]]
binding = "DB"
database_name = "my-db"
database_id = "<from wrangler d1 create>"

# KV Namespace
[[kv_namespaces]]
binding = "KV"
id = "<from wrangler kv:namespace create>"

# R2 Bucket
[[r2_buckets]]
binding = "BUCKET"
bucket_name = "my-bucket"

# Environment Variables
[vars]
ENVIRONMENT = "production"

Worker Patterns

Basic API Router

javascript

export default {
  async fetch(request, env) {
    const url = new URL(request.url);
    
    if (url.pathname === '/api/data') {
      const data = await env.DB.prepare('SELECT * FROM items').all();
      return Response.json(data.results);
    }
    
    return new Response('Not Found', { status: 404 });
  }
};

With D1 + KV

javascript

export default {
  async fetch(request, env) {
    // KV: fast reads, eventual consistency
    const cached = await env.KV.get('key', 'json');
    if (cached) return Response.json(cached);
    
    // D1: SQL queries
    const { results } = await env.DB.prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?').bind(1).all();
    
    // Cache result
    await env.KV.put('key', JSON.stringify(results), { expirationTtl: 3600 });
    return Response.json(results);
  }
};

Workers AI

javascript

export default {
  async fetch(request, env) {
    const response = await env.AI.run('@cf/meta/llama-3.2-1b-instruct', {
      prompt: 'Hello, how are you?'
    });
    return Response.json(response);
  }
};
// Add to wrangler.toml: [ai] binding = "AI"

Persistent Tunnel (Custom Domain)

bash

cloudflared tunnel login
cloudflared tunnel create <tunnel-name>
cloudflared tunnel route dns <tunnel-name> subdomain.yourdomain.com

# Create ~/.cloudflared/config.yml:
cat << EOF > ~/.cloudflared/config.yml
tunnel: <tunnel-id>
credentials-file: ~/.cloudflared/<tunnel-id>.json
ingress:
  - hostname: subdomain.yourdomain.com
    service: http://localhost:3000
  - service: http_status:404
EOF

cloudflared tunnel run <tunnel-name>

Staying Within Free Limits

•Before deploying: Estimate daily requests — stay under 100K/day for Workers
•Use caching: KV for read-heavy data reduces D1 reads
•Optimize queries: Add indexes to D1, avoid full table scans
•Static over dynamic: Serve static assets from Pages (unlimited) not Workers
•Monitor usage: wrangler d1 info <db> or check dashboard

What NOT to Do (ToS Violations)

•Don't use CDN primarily for video streaming or large media distribution
•Don't proxy traffic for other sites (reverse proxy abuse)
•Don't run crypto mining or similar compute-heavy workloads
•Don't exceed 10ms CPU per Worker request consistently

Project Structure Recommendations

bash

my-project/
├── wrangler.toml
├── package.json
├── src/
│   └── index.js      # Worker entry
├── public/           # Static assets (if using Pages)
└── migrations/       # D1 schema migrations
    └── 0001_init.sql

Common Commands Reference

bash

# Development
wrangler dev                    # Local dev server
wrangler dev --remote           # Dev against real services

# Deployment  
wrangler deploy                 # Deploy Worker
wrangler pages deploy ./dist    # Deploy Pages

# Database
wrangler d1 execute <db> --file ./migrations/001.sql
wrangler d1 execute <db> --command "SELECT * FROM users"

# Debugging
wrangler tail                   # Live logs
wrangler tail --format pretty   # Formatted logs

# Info
wrangler whoami                 # Check auth
wrangler d1 info <db>           # DB stats

cf-edge

Cloudflare Free Tier Deployment

Prerequisites

Quick Deploy Commands

Static Site (Pages)

Serverless API (Workers)

SQL Database (D1)

Key-Value Store (KV)

Object Storage (R2) — requires credit card, won't charge under limits

Expose Localhost (Tunnel)

Free Tier Limits (HARD CONSTRAINTS)

wrangler.toml Template

Worker Patterns

Basic API Router

With D1 + KV

Workers AI

Persistent Tunnel (Custom Domain)

Staying Within Free Limits

What NOT to Do (ToS Violations)

Project Structure Recommendations

Common Commands Reference

See Also