Manage spending limits and alerts with the cf CLI

Use the Cloudflare CLI (cf) to manage spending limits and email alerts. In the API, each limit or alert is a spend policy that applies to one product across your account.

• Review how spending limits and alerts work.
• Install cf and sign in.
• For API tokens, use Account > Billing > Read to inspect policies, or Edit to change them.
• Select the account you want to manage. Use its account ID, rather than a zone ID.

This command sets a $50 spending limit for Workers usage and sends notifications to billing@example.com. Replace the email address with your recipient's address. Review what a Workers limit blocks before running it.

cf billing spend-policies create \
  --name 'Workers $50 spending limit' \
  --product-id workers \
  --enabled true \
  --threshold-cents 5000 \
  --action usage_block \
  --notification-email billing@example.com

Save the returned policy id. To preview the request without creating a policy, add --dry-run.

To set a spending limit for Durable Objects, use --product-id durable_objects and a descriptive name. You can have one enabled limit per product on an account.

This limit counts spend already recorded in the current billing period. It can block usage shortly after creation if that spend has already reached $50.

Use --action notification to send email without blocking usage. This command creates a $20 Durable Objects email alert:

cf billing spend-policies create \
  --name 'Durable Objects $20 email alert' \
  --product-id durable_objects \
  --enabled true \
  --threshold-cents 2000 \
  --action notification \
  --notification-email billing@example.com

Replace the email address with your recipient's address. This alert can notify you at $16 (80%) and $20 (100%). Durable Objects continues running at both thresholds.

You can create multiple alerts, including alongside a limit.

Provide every required option when creating or updating a policy.

List your account's policies:

cf billing spend-policies list

The list includes policies that are turned off and excludes deleted policies.

To inspect one policy, replace <POLICY_ID> with its id:

cf billing spend-policies get <POLICY_ID>

The response includes a version. You need the latest version to update or delete a policy.

Updates replace the whole policy. Provide every required option, even when changing only the limit amount.

Preserve --notification-email if you want to keep receiving email. To add email to an existing limit, include this option with your recipient's address.

The --if-match option prevents your update from overwriting someone else's newer changes.

Use the same update command with all required options to:

• Turn a policy off with --enabled false.
• Turn it back on with --enabled true.
• Switch a limit to an alert with --action notification and --notification-email.
• Switch an alert to a limit with --action usage_block.

Lowering a limit below current spend can trigger a pause. Raising it above current spend, turning it off, or switching it to an alert lifts its block. Changes take time to apply and do not reset recorded spend.

Fetch the latest policy version:

cf billing spend-policies get <POLICY_ID>

Then delete the policy. Replace <VERSION> with the version you just fetched:

cf billing spend-policies delete <POLICY_ID> --if-match <VERSION>

Confirm the deletion when prompted. Deleting a limit lifts its block, and further usage can incur charges.

The API provides separate history for configuration changes and automatic threshold events. Configuration changes also appear in Cloudflare's account-wide Audit Logs.

List configuration changes across the account, including deleted policies:

cf billing spend-policies activity --limit 50

Entries include the actor and before and after settings. To retrieve older entries, pass the returned result_info.cursor as <CURSOR>:

cf billing spend-policies activity --limit 50 --cursor '<CURSOR>'

List automatic threshold events for one policy. These events occur when spending reaches a threshold, without a user making an API request:

cf billing spend-policies audit <POLICY_ID> --limit 50

Events include approaching_limit at 80% and limit_reached at 100%. Threshold history does not support pagination and is unavailable after a policy is deleted.

Both history commands default to 50 entries and accept a maximum --limit of 100.

A threshold event can be recorded again after a policy update. It records evaluation, rather than confirmation that blocking or email delivery succeeded.