---
title: Route to private services from Workers
description: Build a Worker gateway that routes and load balances across multiple private VPC Services.
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/dev-products-preview.png
---

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# Route to private services from Workers

**Last reviewed:**  6 months ago 

This example shows how to use Workers VPC to create a centralized gateway that routes requests based on URL paths, provides authentication and rate limiting, and load balances across internal services.

## Prerequisites

* Multiple private APIs or services running in your VPC/virtual network (we'll use a user service and orders service)
* Cloudflare Tunnel configured and running (follow the [Get Started guide](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers-vpc/get-started/#2-set-up-cloudflare-tunnel) to set up or [create a tunnel from the dashboard ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/workers/vpc/tunnels))
* Workers account with Workers VPC access

## 1\. Create the VPC Services

First, create services for your internal APIs using hostnames:

Terminal window

```

# Create user service

npx wrangler vpc service create user-service \

  --type http \

  --tunnel-id <YOUR_TUNNEL_ID> \

  --hostname user-api.internal.example.com


# Create orders service

npx wrangler vpc service create order-service \

  --type http \

  --tunnel-id <YOUR_TUNNEL_ID> \

  --hostname orders-api.internal.example.com


```

Note the service IDs returned for the next step.

## 2\. Configure your Worker

Update your Wrangler configuration file:

* [  wrangler.jsonc ](#tab-panel-8982)
* [  wrangler.toml ](#tab-panel-8983)

JSONC

```

{

  "$schema": "./node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json",

  "name": "api-gateway",

  "main": "src/index.js",

  // Set this to today's date

  "compatibility_date": "2026-05-08",

  "vpc_services": [

    {

      "binding": "USER_SERVICE",

      "service_id": "<YOUR_USER_SERVICE_ID>"

    },

    {

      "binding": "ORDER_SERVICE",

      "service_id": "<YOUR_ORDER_SERVICE_ID>"

    }

  ]

}


```

TOML

```

"$schema" = "./node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json"

name = "api-gateway"

main = "src/index.js"

# Set this to today's date

compatibility_date = "2026-05-08"


[[vpc_services]]

binding = "USER_SERVICE"

service_id = "<YOUR_USER_SERVICE_ID>"


[[vpc_services]]

binding = "ORDER_SERVICE"

service_id = "<YOUR_ORDER_SERVICE_ID>"


```

## 3\. Implement the Worker

In your Workers code, use the VPC Service bindings to route requests to the appropriate services:

index.js

```

export default {

  async fetch(request, env, ctx) {

    const url = new URL(request.url);


    // Route to internal services

    if (url.pathname.startsWith('/api/users')) {

      const response = await env.USER_SERVICE.fetch("https://user-api.internal.example.com" + url.pathname);

      return response;

    } else if (url.pathname.startsWith('/api/orders')) {

      const response = await env.ORDER_SERVICE.fetch("https://orders-api.internal.example.com" + url.pathname);

      return response;

    }


    return new Response('Not Found', { status: 404 });

  },

};


```

## 4\. Deploy and test

Now, you can deploy and test your Worker:

Terminal window

```

npx wrangler deploy


```

Terminal window

```

# Test user service requests

curl https://api-gateway.workers.dev/api/users


# Test orders service requests

curl https://api-gateway.workers.dev/api/orders


```

## Next steps

* Add [authentication and authorization](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/examples/auth-with-headers/)
* Implement [rate limiting](https://developers.cloudflare.com/durable-objects/api/)
* Set up [monitoring and alerting](https://developers.cloudflare.com/analytics/analytics-engine/)
* Explore [other examples](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers-vpc/examples/)

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/directory/","name":"Directory"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/workers-vpc/","name":"Workers VPC"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"/workers-vpc/examples/","name":"Examples"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@id":"/workers-vpc/examples/route-across-private-services/","name":"Route to private services from Workers"}}]}
```