Cloudflare’s bigger, better, faster AI platform

Michelle Chen
14 min readintermediate
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Overview

Cloudflare has announced significant upgrades to its AI platform, including Workers AI, AI Gateway, and Vectorize, aimed at enhancing performance, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness for developers. The new features include support for larger models, improved pricing structures, and enhanced logging capabilities, all designed to streamline AI application development.

What You'll Learn

1

How to leverage powerful GPUs for faster AI inference

2

Why transitioning to unit-based pricing can optimize costs for AI applications

3

How to utilize AI Gateway for enhanced monitoring and logging of AI requests

4

When to implement the Run Any* Model feature for greater model flexibility

Key Questions Answered

What are the new features introduced in Cloudflare's AI platform?
Cloudflare's AI platform has introduced several new features including support for larger models with more powerful GPUs, a revamped pricing model transitioning to unit-based pricing, and enhanced logging capabilities through AI Gateway. These improvements aim to provide developers with faster inference, better cost management, and more flexibility in model selection.
How does the new pricing model for Workers AI work?
The new pricing model for Workers AI is based on specific tasks, model size, and input/output tokens, moving away from the previous neuron-based system. This change aims to simplify cost comparisons and align with industry standards, making it easier for developers to estimate expenses based on their usage.
What performance improvements can be expected from the upgraded GPUs?
With the upgraded GPUs, users can expect to run inference on significantly larger models, achieving throughput of over 80+ Tokens per Second (TPS) for 8B models and a Time To First Token (TTFT) of around 300 ms. This enhancement allows applications to handle more complex tasks efficiently.
What benefits does AI Gateway offer for AI application development?
AI Gateway provides developers with enhanced monitoring, control, and optimization of AI usage. It includes features like persistent logs for analyzing user prompts and model responses, allowing for better performance tracking and cost analysis, thus improving overall application reliability.

Key Statistics & Figures

Number of cities with GPU presence
180
Cloudflare has expanded its GPU footprint to over 180 cities, enhancing performance by reducing latency.
Reduction in query latency for Vectorize
95%
The median latency for queries has decreased from 500 ms to 30 ms, significantly improving response times.
Maximum index size for Vectorize
5 million vectors
Vectorize now supports indexes of up to 5 million vectors, up from 200,000, allowing for more extensive data handling.
Log storage limit on Workers Free plan
100,000 logs
Users on the Workers Free plan can store up to 100,000 logs across all gateways at no charge.

Technologies & Tools

Backend
Workers AI
Provides AI model hosting and inference capabilities.
Backend
AI Gateway
Facilitates monitoring, logging, and optimization of AI requests.
Database
Vectorize
Offers vector database capabilities for AI applications.

Key Actionable Insights

1
Utilize the new GPU capabilities to enhance your AI applications by supporting larger models like Meta Llama 3.1 70B.
This allows for more complex tasks and improved response times, making your applications more efficient and capable of handling demanding workloads.
2
**Take advantage of the Run Any* Model feature to expand your model catalog beyond the curated options.** This flexibility enables developers to experiment with various open-source models, enhancing the adaptability of their AI solutions.
3
Implement AI Gateway's logging features to gain insights into your AI application's performance.
By analyzing logs, you can identify bottlenecks and optimize your models, ultimately improving user satisfaction and application reliability.
4
Transition to the new unit-based pricing model to better manage costs associated with AI workloads.
This change simplifies budgeting and allows for more accurate cost predictions based on actual usage, making it easier to scale your applications.

Common Pitfalls

1
Failing to transition from the neuron-based pricing model to the new unit-based model can lead to confusion and unexpected costs.
As the industry evolves, sticking to outdated pricing models may hinder cost management and make it difficult to compare services with competitors.

Related Concepts

AI/ML
Mlops
Performance Optimization
Cost Management In AI Applications