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Application Performance

Connect, protect, perform — without compromise.

Speed isn't a feature — it's revenue, conversion, SEO, and retention. Every layer of the Cloudflare edge exists to shave milliseconds off every request, for every user, everywhere.

~50 ms
Cloudflare reach to 95% of the Internet-connected world
~30%
avg TTFB reduction with Argo Smart Routing
+2%
conversion uplift per 1s page-load improvement (Walmart)
explore the layers
Layer 01 · Cache

The closest copy wins.

Every request that hits Cloudflare's edge cache is a request your origin never sees. Less load, lower bills, faster pages. And with Tiered Cache, even cache misses get a head start — by checking a regional and upper-tier cache before bothering your origin.

Edge cache hit · vs · origin round-trip illustrative · loops continuously
Cache HIT
~20 ms
Origin MISS
~300 ms
Tiered Cache · the journey of a miss edge → regional → upper → origin
🌐
Edge
330+ cities
📍
Regional
closest tier
🏛️
Upper Tier
last stop
🖥️
Origin
your servers
Most misses get answered before they reach you.
~95%
of requests answered at the edge for typical static sites
60%+
origin offload on dynamic apps with Cache Rules tuned right
10×
faster TTFB for cache hits vs origin round-trip
$$$
less spent on origin compute, bandwidth, and scaling
Layer 02 · Network

Skip the traffic on the public internet.

The public internet routes packets along whichever path is cheapest — not whichever is fastest. Argo Smart Routing moves your traffic onto Cloudflare's private backbone, choosing the lowest- latency route in real time. Same request, same origin — fewer hops, less congestion, faster TTFB.

Public internet · vs · Argo Smart Routing illustrative · the path matters
Argo Smart Routing — Cloudflare backbone Public internet — congested, variable
~30%
average TTFB reduction across customers using Argo
~50%
connection error reduction on flaky paths
0
code changes — it's a toggle, not a rewrite
Real-time
route decisions based on live network telemetry
Layer 03 · Assets

Make every byte work harder.

The fastest byte is the one you don't send. Cloudflare transforms images and assets at the edge so your origin keeps doing what it does best — and your visitors download a fraction of what they used to.

Polish

Smaller images, automatically

Lossless or lossy recompression at the edge. WebP / AVIF for browsers that support them. Origin keeps the original; the edge ships the smallest viable copy.

before
1.2 MB
after
~420 KB
Mirage

Faster pages on slow networks

Detects mobile and slow connections, serves lightweight image placeholders, then upgrades them in place. Pages feel responsive even on patchy 3G.

Image Resizing

One source, every device

Resize, crop, and reformat on the fly via URL. Stop pre-generating ten variants per upload. Stop shipping desktop-sized images to phones.

~40%
image bandwidth savings typical with Polish on
Zero
build-pipeline changes — origin stays untouched
AVIF + WebP
automatic modern formats, transparent fallback
variants from one source — no storage explosion
The bottom line

Speed is a business metric.

Every layer of the Cloudflare edge — cache, network, assets — exists for one reason: less waiting, more revenue. You don't have to choose which one. They all ship together.

+1%
revenue per 100ms shaved off load time
−7%
conversion for every 1s of delay
53%
of mobile users abandon after 3s
↑ SEO
Core Web Vitals reward fast pages