Cloudflare Free Tier Deployment

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

Prerequisites

# 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)

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

Serverless API (Workers)

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

SQL Database (D1)

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

Key-Value Store (KV)

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

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

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

Expose Localhost (Tunnel)

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

Free Tier Limits (HARD CONSTRAINTS)

See references/limits.md for detailed breakdown.

wrangler.toml Template

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

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

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

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)

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

1. Before deploying: Estimate daily requests — stay under 100K/day for Workers
2. Use caching: KV for read-heavy data reduces D1 reads
3. Optimize queries: Add indexes to D1, avoid full table scans
4. Static over dynamic: Serve static assets from Pages (unlimited) not Workers
5. 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

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

# 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

See Also

• references/limits.md — Detailed free tier limits and calculations
• references/services.md — Full service configurations and patterns