---
description: Reduce origin requests by serving cached content from upper-tier data centers.
title: Smart Tiered Cache
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

[Skip to content](#main-content)

> Documentation Index  
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/smart-shield/llms.txt  
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Smart Tiered Cache

Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/smart-shield/configuration/smart-tiered-cache/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

Availability

Available in all Smart Shield packages.

With data centers around the world, Cloudflare caches content very close to end users. However, if a piece of content is not in cache, the Cloudflare data centers must contact the origin server to receive the cacheable content. Tiered cache works by dividing Cloudflare's data centers into a hierarchy of lower-tiers and upper-tiers, where only upper-tiers can ask your origin for content.

Smart Tiered Cache dynamically selects the single closest upper tier for each of your website’s origins with no configuration required, using our in-house performance and routing data. Cloudflare collects latency data for each request to an origin, and uses the latency data to determine how well any upper-tier data center is connected with an origin. As a result, Cloudflare can select the data center with the lowest latency to be the upper-tier for an origin.

#### Public cloud origins

Origins hosted on public cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure, or Oracle Cloud) often use [anycast ↗](https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/cdn/glossary/anycast-network/) or regional unicast networking, which prevents Smart Tiered Cache from determining the origin location through latency probing alone. To solve this, you can set a **cloud region hint** that tells Smart Tiered Cache which cloud provider and region your origin is in. Smart Tiered Cache then selects a primary upper-tier data center close to that cloud region, plus a fallback in a different location for resilience. To set up a cloud region hint, refer to [Set a cloud region hint](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cache/how-to/tiered-cache/#set-a-cloud-region-hint).

#### Load Balancing interaction

While Smart Tiered Cache selects one Upper Tier per origin, when using Load Balancing, Smart Tiered Cache will select the single best Upper Tier for the entire [Load Balancing Pool](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/load-balancing/understand-basics/load-balancing-components/#pools).

#### Caveats

You need to be careful when updating your origin IPs/DNS records while Smart Tiered Cache is enabled. Depending on the changes made, it may cause the existing assigned upper tiers to change, resulting in an increased `MISS` rate as cache is refilled in the new upper tiers. If the origin is switched to a network behind anycast, it will significantly reduce the effectiveness of Smart Tiered Cache unless you set a [cloud region hint](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cache/how-to/tiered-cache/#set-a-cloud-region-hint).

Was this helpful?

YesNo

## On this page

[![](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/_astro/logo.te5VL_aD.svg)Docs](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/)

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/smart-shield/configuration/smart-tiered-cache/#page","headline":"Smart Tiered Cache · Cloudflare Smart Shield docs","description":"Reduce origin requests by serving cached content from upper-tier data centers.","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/smart-shield/configuration/smart-tiered-cache/","inLanguage":"en","image":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png","dateModified":"2026-08-24","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Cloudflare","description":"One platform for your apps, agents, and workforce. Build, secure, and scale without managing infrastructure","url":"https://www.cloudflare.com/","sameAs":["https://github.com/cloudflare","https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloudflare","https://x.com/cloudflare"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/logo.svg"},"address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"101 Townsend St","addressLocality":"San Francisco","addressRegion":"CA","postalCode":"94107","addressCountry":"US"},"contactPoint":[{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactType":"Customer Support","url":"https://support.cloudflare.com/","availableLanguage":["English"]},{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactType":"Sales","url":"https://www.cloudflare.com/contact/","availableLanguage":["English"]}]},"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/#website","name":"Cloudflare Docs","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/"},"keywords":["Caching"]}
```