Comparison
A VM-first alternative when agent workloads outgrow edge runtimes.
Cloudflare Workers is excellent for request-driven code at the edge. But many agent workloads need something different: persistent state, full system access, longer execution times, and — critically — a signup flow that an AI agent can complete without human help.
Agent Cloud focuses on that gap. Instead of edge functions with millisecond cold starts, you get full Linux VMs that an agent can provision, configure, and manage through a simple REST API.
Side-by-side comparison
| Capability | Cloudflare Workers | Agent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Runtime | V8 isolates (JS/Wasm) | Full Linux VMs (any language, any tool) |
| Signup | Human account with email and dashboard | Single API call, no email required |
| Agent self-provisioning | Not supported | Core design principle |
| Execution time | 10ms-30s (depending on plan) | Unlimited (VM runs until stopped or expired) |
| System access | Sandboxed V8 — no filesystem, no shell | Full root access, SSH, install anything |
| Persistent state | KV, D1, R2 (separate services) | Local disk on the VM |
| Free tier | 100K requests/day | 1 micro VM for 72 hours, no card required |
| Billing model | Per-request and duration pricing | Simple plans, human-approved Stripe checkout |
| Best for | Low-latency request routing, edge logic | Agent tasks, sandboxes, longer-running jobs |
When to use Cloudflare Workers
Workers is the better choice when you need:
- Sub-millisecond cold starts for request-driven HTTP handlers
- Global edge distribution close to end users
- High-throughput, low-latency API routing
- Tight integration with Cloudflare's CDN, WAF, and DNS
If your workload is request-driven, stateless, and needs to run at the edge, Workers is hard to beat.
When to use Agent Cloud
Agent Cloud is the better choice when:
- An AI agent needs to provision its own compute. Workers requires a human to set up an account, configure wrangler, and deploy code. Agent Cloud lets the agent do all of this via API.
- The workload needs full system access. Installing packages, running shell commands, compiling code, accessing the filesystem — these are natural on a VM and impossible in a V8 isolate.
- Tasks run for minutes or hours. Agent research jobs, data processing, multi-step tool use — these exceed Workers' execution limits.
- You need an isolated sandbox. Code execution environments, untrusted workloads, and agent orchestration prototypes benefit from full VM isolation.
They work well together
This isn't purely either/or. A common pattern is using Workers for lightweight API routing and Agent Cloud VMs for heavier agent tasks behind the API. The agent provisions a VM when it needs persistent compute and tears it down when the task is done.
Try the quickstart to see how an agent provisions a VM in four API calls.