--- 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. ## 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/integrations/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. Use the `cf-aig-authorization` header to authenticate with your Cloudflare API token. Terminal window ``` curl -X POST https://gateway.ai.cloudflare.com/v1/$CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID/default/compat/chat/completions \ --header "cf-aig-authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \ --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \ --data '{ "model": "google-ai-studio/gemini-2.5-pro", "messages": [ { "role": "user", "content": "What is Cloudflare?" } ] }' ``` The `default` gateway is created automatically on your first request. Replace `default` with a specific gateway ID if you have already created one. The HTTP API supports the following providers through [provider-native endpoints](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/providers/) and the [Unified API (chat completions)](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-gateway/usage/chat-completion/): * [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 limits to prevent unexpected charges on your loaded credits. You can define daily, weekly, or monthly limits. When a limit is reached, the AI Gateway automatically stops processing requests until the period resets or you increase the limit. ### 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-4367) * [ API ](#tab-panel-4368) 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 ``` curl -X POST https://gateway.ai.cloudflare.com/v1/$CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID/{gateway_id}/openai/chat/completions \ --header "cf-aig-authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \ --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \ --header 'cf-aig-zdr: true' \ --data '{ "model": "gpt-4o-mini", "messages": [ { "role": "user", "content": "Explain Zero Data Retention." } ] }' ``` ```json {"@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"}}]} ```