Question about disabling CDN - Specifically for ToS

The terms of service mention the CDN, especially regarding the delivery of large files. My question is: if I disable caching, does that also disable the CDN? The ToS state that “you must use [paid services] in order to serve video and other large files via the CDN.” If disabling caching does disable the CDN, does that mean I’m allowed to serve audio files through Cloudflare Tunnels, or would Cloudflare still consider this as using the CDN according to their terms of service?

SSunnyWanderer The terms of service mention the CDN, especially regarding the delivery of large...

Chaika•5/27/25, 3:34 PM

No, disabling caching doesn't disable the CDN, it still all goes through it. Fundementally the rule exists because CF Pay for bandwidth, and as long as Proxy is enabled, regardless of cache, Cloudflare still pays

Chaika•5/27/25, 3:34 PM

technically w/o caching Cloudflare pays for twice the bandwidth consistently, since it has to pull from origin and serve to visitor

SunnyWandererOP•5/27/25, 3:35 PM

Is there anything that documents this? I think the same and would like to have something I can show directly from CF

SSunnyWanderer Is there anything that documents this? I think the same and would like to have s...

Chaika•5/27/25, 3:43 PM

hmm, what are you thinking?
the terms are under CDN
https://www.cloudflare.com/service-specific-terms-application-services/#content-delivery-network-terms
this docs talks about using Cloudflare dns-only or as a reverse proxy/cdn with proxy status
https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/concepts/how-cloudflare-works/

Cloudflare Docs

How Cloudflare CDN works

To optimize your website or web application, Cloudflare provides DNS and CDN services, so we can reverse proxy the web traffic to and from your domain.

Service-Specific Terms - Cloudflare | Cloudflare

Explore Cloudflare's service-specific terms of use and more.

CChaika hmm, what are you thinking? the terms are under CDN https://www.cloudflare.com/s...

SunnyWandererOP•5/27/25, 3:56 PM

hmm, what are you thinking?

I also think that turning off caching does not turn off the CDN (or does not use it) (so large files can still not be served), but only switching to DNS-only mode or pausing does. Using CF Tunnels, which I believe uses the proxy, would still count as using the CDN (even if caching is turned off).

I am currently discussing this topic with another person and wanted to ask what is correct now, because the other opinion is that turning off caching does turn off the CDN and makes the Service-Specific Terms in the ToS not apply (which would allow serving big files, bc they are not cached). I do not think this is true. I just want a somewhat clear answer, because I could also be wrong (for example, because CF mentions the CDN with the cache function explcitly in their docs).

And things like:

Instead the attackers will only be able to target the reverse proxy, such as Cloudflare's CDN

This sounds like the CDN can be part of the proxy, but does not have to be.

To optimize your website or web application, Cloudflare provides DNS and CDN services, so we can reverse proxy the web traffic to and from your domain.

This could also mean that it just provides DNS and CDN, for the proxy, for speed gains (what a CDN traditionally is) (but it does not say that DNS and CDN are required for CF to provide the reverse proxy).

The main discussion is about:

Unless you are an Enterprise customer, Cloudflare offers specific Paid Services (e.g., the Developer Platform, Images, and Stream) that you must use in order to serve video and other large files via the CDN.

Original message was deleted

SunnyWandererOP•5/27/25, 7:29 PM

The more I read, the more I believe this is false tbh. (My journey was from, could be both, to definitely still CDN to mehh, isn't that clear anymore)

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/cdn/what-is-a-cdn/ says:

A content delivery network (CDN) is a geographically distributed group of servers that caches content close to end users.
(I mean yes, that is a CDN in traditional ways, but that's the closest definition I found at CF websites where THEY say what a CDN is)

That’s a pretty clear definition.

The CDN documentation is literally at https://developers.cloudflare.com/cache/ under "Cloudflare Cache."

The only things that still make me believe the proxy is part of their CDN are that only the CDN is listed as an included feature in the subscription listings—not the proxy—which makes it seem like the proxy is part of the CDN (because otherwise, it would be listed as its own feature), and that requests get redirected to the nearest servers, also it still retreives the "CDN" headers.

What I really want/need is a resource that clearly states one way or the other. Right now, it feels like Cloudflare can define “CDN” however they want, since I haven’t found a definition in the Terms of Service, which makes the term “CDN” basically a wildcard. Their whole glossary for https://developers.cloudflare.com/cache/ doesn't even include CDN.

And for https://community.cloudflare.com/t/can-i-disable-cdn/10892 which asks how to bypass the 100MB limit and disable the CDNa moderator answers that turning of the proxy would disable all features, but that the user instead should just disable caching.

Also in the same thread a staff says:

Max file upload size isn’t a feature of the CDN unfortunately, it is an aspect of the proxy itself.

which also suggest that the CDN and proxy are completely different products

SSunnyWanderer The more I read, the more I believe this is false tbh. (My journey was from, cou...

Chaika•5/27/25, 7:38 PM

Step back and look at the fundamentals, which matter more then anything else:
Cloudflare has rules about large files/video/etc transfer because bandwidth is a limited resource, it costs them money for more ports/capacity/etc
The only way you won't cost them bandwidth is if you don't use proxy
Disabling cache is going to cost them more money for the bandwidth you use twice (origin -> cloudflare -> visitor)

Chaika•5/27/25, 7:40 PM

You aren't going to hear anything until you are an issue/a small amount of usage is going to be overlooked, but the second you become bit enough they're going to ask you nicely to upgrade

Chaika•5/27/25, 7:40 PM

CDN/Reverse Proxy/Proxied is all the same thing, same infra

CChaika Step back and look at the fundamentals, which matter more then anything else: Cl...

SunnyWandererOP•5/27/25, 7:44 PM

I am totally your opinion (from a buisness perspective it only makes sense that way 100% (even 200%), but I mean they explcitly state CDN and do not say what it is. (Which is very suoptimal for telling people if something is covered by ToS or not)

CDN/Reverse Proxy/Proxied is all the same thing, same infra

If it would be that clear. I mean then there are these "comments" in the docs (link below):

In the above diagram, there are a few important key points to understand about the Cloudflare CDN and the global anycast network it resides on

suggesting that CDN is part of the global network and the proxy is just another part of the global network

And also

Cloudflare is a reverse proxy

(Not Cloudflare is a CDN )

Cloudflare is a reverse proxy, meaning it receives requests from clients and proxies the requests back to the customer’s origin servers. Thus, every request traverses through Cloudflare’s network before reaching the customer’s network. Since Cloudflare has hardened and protected its infrastructure at the edge (ingress), all customers are consequently also protected from infrastructure-level and volumetric DDoS attacks. Requests and traffic must go through the protected Cloudflare network before reaching the customer’s origin server.

I mean the whole thing still sounds like part of the CDN of CF, but it does not say so.

https://developers.cloudflare.com/reference-architecture/architectures/cdn/

I mean I don't use it for that purpose anyways. I just thought I can get a somewhat offical source I can cite before spreading misinformation when users ask if it's okay to stream trough CF tunnels and there are both parties, thinking it's ok and thinking it's not ok, to not spread wrong information.

But thanks for the views on that

SunnyWandererOP•5/27/25, 7:48 PM

And I mean we know that CFdoes not really do anything for small usages, especially if it is only for people’s self-hosted projects. So, this is mostly just an "ethical"/"theoretical" question.

Chaika•5/27/25, 7:51 PM

In the above diagram, there are a few important key points to understand about the Cloudflare CDN and the global anycast network it resides on

suggesting that CDN is part of the global network and the proxy is just another part of the global network

The proxy isn't part of the Anycast Network, the proxy's part of the CDN, they're saying the Anycast Network (all Cloudflare's data centers/networking) is separate/it lives on

but yea I agree, they're just assuming you understand the reverse proxy is a fundamental piece of the CDN and thus tied together

Chaika•5/27/25, 7:52 PM

For Streaming through tunnels, I'd refer to: Reverse proxing my nextcloud and others using tunnels

CChaika For Streaming through tunnels, I'd refer to: https://discord.com/channels/595317...

SunnyWandererOP•5/27/25, 8:06 PM

Actually Reverse proxing my nextcloud and others using tunnels this gives me a clear enough anywer. Basically says that streaming (even with cache disabled) will lead to emails (Which then also "contradicts" the other points in the ToS).

Thank you very much

Question about disabling CDN - Specifically for ToS

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