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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Cloudflare Workers Has a Free API: Deploy Code to 300+ Edge Locations in Seconds

#webdev #serverless #javascript #cloudflare

Lambda functions run in one region. Cloudflare Workers run everywhere — 300+ data centers, <50ms from any user on Earth.

What Is Cloudflare Workers?

Cloudflare Workers lets you deploy JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, or Python to Cloudflare's global edge network. Your code runs in the data center closest to each user.

Free tier: 100,000 requests/day. No cold starts.

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env): Promise<Response> {
    const url = new URL(request.url)

    if (url.pathname === "/api/hello") {
      return Response.json({ message: "Hello from the edge!", location: request.cf?.city })
    }

    return new Response("Not found", { status: 404 })
  }
}
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npx wrangler init my-worker
npx wrangler dev   # Local development
npx wrangler deploy  # Deploy globally in <1 second
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Built-in Storage

KV — Global key-value store:

await env.MY_KV.put("user:123", JSON.stringify({ name: "Alice" }))
const user = await env.MY_KV.get("user:123", { type: "json" })
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D1 — SQLite at the edge:

const { results } = await env.DB.prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?").bind(userId).all()
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R2 — S3-compatible object storage (zero egress fees):

await env.BUCKET.put("uploads/photo.jpg", imageData)
const object = await env.BUCKET.get("uploads/photo.jpg")
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Durable Objects — Stateful edge computing:

// Real-time collaboration, game servers, rate limiters — all at the edge
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Why Workers

1. Zero cold starts — V8 isolates boot in <5ms vs Lambda's 100-500ms.

2. Global by default — Every deploy goes to 300+ locations. No region selection needed.

3. Web standard APIs — fetch, Request, Response, URL, crypto — same APIs as browsers.

4. Free tier — 100K requests/day is enough for most side projects and MVPs.

5. Ecosystem — Hono, Remix, Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit all deploy to Workers.

Pricing

Tier Requests CPU time
Free 100K/day 10ms/request
Paid ($5/mo) 10M/month 30s/request

Building edge applications? Check out my developer tools or email spinov001@gmail.com.

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