---
description: Definitions of core Cloudflare Images terms including transformations, variants, hosted images, and origins.
title: Key concepts
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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# Key concepts

Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/images/get-started/key-concepts/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

Here is a summary of the key terms that we use throughout our guides.

| Term               | What this means                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Remote image       | An image that is stored outside of Images storage, including images in [R2](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/r2/).                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| Transformation     | A request to optimize a remote image that is stored outside of Images.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| Origin             | The location where your image is stored.When you optimize a remote image, Cloudflare will pull the original image from the origin and store it in cache.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| Hosted image       | An image that is stored in Images.Cloudflare dynamically serves copies of your original image, optimized based on your requirements.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| Parameter / Option | A parameter is a type of optimization that you can perform on an image.An option is the value for the parameter.For example, you can set the width parameter to a value of 100 to resize an image to a width of 100.                                                                                                                                                             |
| Variant            | A predefined way to specify how a hosted image should be resized.For example, you can create a variant called "thumbnail" that sets image dimensions to 100x100.When you serve images with this variant, Cloudflare will serve a version of the original image that is resized to 100x100.Predefined variants specify a limited set of parameters: width, height, fit, and blur. |

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