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Understanding and configuring Cloudflare Page Rules (Page Rules Tutorial)

You can define a page rule to trigger one or more actions whenever a certain URL pattern is matched. Page Rules are available in Rules > Page Rules.

The default number of allowed page rules depends on the domain plan as shown below.

Free Pro Business Enterprise

Availability

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Number of rules

3 20 50 125

You can  purchase additional rules (up to a maximum of 100) for domains in the Free, Lite, Pro, Pro Plus, and Business plans.


​​ Before getting started

It is important to understand two basic Page Rules behaviors:

  • Only the highest priority matching page rule takes effect on a request.
  • Page rules are prioritized in descending order in the Cloudflare dashboard, with the highest priority rule at the top.

A page rule matches a URL pattern based on the following format (comprised of five segments): <scheme>://<hostname><:port>/<path>?<query_string>

An example URL with these four segments looks like:


https://www.example.com:443/image.png?parameter1=value1

The scheme and port segments are optional. If omitted, scheme matches both http:// and https:// protocols. If no port is specified, the rule will match all ports.

Finally, you can disable a page rule at any time. While a rule is disabled, actions won’t trigger, but the rule still appears in the Rules app in the Page Rules tab, is editable, and counts against the number of rules allowed for your domain. The Save as Draft option creates a page rule that is disabled by default.


​​ Create a page rule

The steps to create a page rule are:

  1. Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard.
  2. Select the domain where you want to add the page rule.
  3. Click the Rules app.
  4. In the Page Rules tab, click Create Page Rule. The Create Page Rule for page opens.
  5. Under If the URL matches, enter the URL or URL pattern that should match the rule. Learn more about wildcard matching
  6. Next, under Then the settings are: click + Add a Setting and select the desired setting from the dropdown. You can include more than one setting per rule. Learn more about settings in the summary below.
  7. In the Order dropdown, specify the desired order: First, Last or Custom.
  8. To save, click one of the following options:
    • Save as Draft to save the rule and leave it disabled.
    • Save and Deploy to save the rule and enable it immediately.

​​ Edit a page rule

To modify an existing rule:

  1. Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard.
  2. Select the domain where you want to edit your page rule.
  3. Click the Rules app.
  4. In the Page Rules tab, locate the rule to edit.
  5. Proceed to make the necessary changes, as follows:
    • To enable or disable a rule, click the On/Off toggle.
    • To modify the URL pattern, settings, and order, click the Edit button (wrench icon). In the dialog, enter the information you’d like to change.
    • To remove a rule, click the Delete button (x icon) and confirm by clicking OK in the Confirm dialog.

​​ Understand wildcard matching and referencing

You can use the asterisk (*) in any URL segment to match certain patterns. For example,


example.com/t*st

Would match:


example.com/test
example.com/toast
example.com/trust

example.com/foo/* does not match example.com/foo.  However, example.com/foo* does.

​​ Helpful tips

  • To match both http and https, just write example.com. It is not necessary to write *example.com.
  • To match every page on a domain, write example.com/*. Just writing example.com won’t work.
  • To match every page on a domain and it’s subdomains, write *example.com/*. Just writing example.com won’t work.
  • A wildcard (*) in a Page Rule URL will match even if no characters are present, and may include any part of the URL, including the query string.

​​ Referencing wildcard matches

In a Forwarding URL rule, you can reference a matched wildcard in the destination URL field by using the $X syntax. X indicates the index of a glob pattern. As such, $1 represents the first wildcard match, $2 the second wildcard match, and so on.

For example:

You could forward:


http://*.example.com/*

to:


http://example.com/images/$1/$2.jpg

This rule would match:


http://cloud.example.com/flare.jpg

which ends up being forwarded to:


http://example.com/images/cloud/flare.jpg

To use a literal $ character in the forwarding URL, escape it by adding a backslash (\) in front: \$.


​​ Summary of Page Rules Settings

Settings control the action Cloudflare takes once a request matches the URL pattern defined in a page rule. You can use settings to enable and disable multiple Cloudflare features across several of the dashboard apps. Note that:

  • Some settings require a Pro, Business or Enterprise domain plan.
  • You can specify more than one setting to apply when the rule triggers.

Below is the full list of settings available, presented in the order that they appear in the Cloudflare Page Rules UI.

Setting Description Plans
Always Use HTTPS Enable Always Use HTTPS feature. If enabled, any http:// URL is converted to https:// through a 301 redirect.

If this option does not appear, you do not have an active Edge Certificate.
All
Auto Minify Indicate which file extensions to minify automatically. All
Automatic HTTPS Rewrites Turn on or off Automatic HTTPS Rewrites. All
Browser Cache TTL Control how long resources cached by client browsers remain valid. The Cloudflare UI and API both prohibit setting Browser Cache TTL to 0 for non-Enterprise domains. All
Browser Integrity Check Inspect the visitor’s browser for headers commonly associated with spammers and certain bots.   All
Bypass Cache on Cookie Bypass Cache and fetch resources from the origin server if a regular expression matches against a cookie name present in the request.
If you add both this setting and the Cache On Cookie setting to the same page rule, Cache On Cookie takes precedence over Bypass Cache on Cookie.

Refer to the Additional details to learn about limited regular expression support.
Business and Enterprise
Cache By Device Type Separate cached content based on the visitor’s device type.  Enterprise
Cache Deception Armor Protect from web cache deception attacks while still allowing static assets to be cached. This setting verifies that the URL’s extension matches the returned Content-Type All
Cache Key Also referred to as Custom Cache Key.
Control specifically what variables to include when deciding which resources to cache. This allows customers to determine what to cache based on something other than just the URL.
Enterprise
Cache Level Apply custom caching based on the option selected:

Bypass - Cloudflare does not cache.
No Query String - Delivers resources from cache when there is no query string.
Ignore Query String - Delivers the same resource to everyone independent of the query string.
Standard - Caches all static content that has a query string.
Cache Everything -  Treats all content as static and caches all file types beyond the Cloudflare default cached content.  Respects cache headers from the origin web server unless Edge Cache TTL is also set in the Page Rule. When combined with an Edge Cache TTL > 0Cache Everything removes cookies from the origin web server response. 
All
Cache on Cookie Apply the Cache Everything option (Cache Level setting) based on a regular expression match against a cookie name.
If you add both this setting and Bypass Cache on Cookie to the same page rule, Cache On Cookie takes precedence over Bypass Cache on Cookie.
Business and above
Cache TTL by Status Code Enterprise customers can set cache time-to-live (TTL) based on the response status from the origin web server. Cache TTL refers to the duration of a resource in the Cloudflare network before being marked as stale or discarded from cache. Status codes are returned by a resource’s origin. Setting cache TTL based on response status overrides the default cache behavior (standard caching) for static files and overrides cache instructions sent by the origin web server. To cache non-static assets, set a Cache Level of Cache Everything using a Page Rule. Setting no-store Cache-Control or a low TTL (using max-age/s-maxage) increases requests to origin web servers and decreases performance. Enterprise
Disable Apps Turn off all active Cloudflare Apps.
Note: This setting will not disable Apps with Workers. These apps request permission to add a Worker when you are installing them.
All
Disable Performance Turn off Auto Minify, Rocket Loader, Mirage, and Polish. All
Disable Railgun (deprecated) Turn off the Railgun feature of the Cloudflare Speed app. Business and above
Disable Security Turn off Email Obfuscation, Rate Limiting (previous version), Scrape Shield, Server Side Excludes, URL (Zone) Lockdown, and WAF managed rules (previous version). All
Disable Zaraz Turn off Zaraz. All
Edge Cache TTL Specify how long to cache a resource in the Cloudflare edge network. Edge Cache TTL isn’t visible in response headers. All
Email Obfuscation Turn on or off Email Obfuscation. All
Forwarding URL Redirects one URL to another using an HTTP 301/302 redirectRefer to Understand wildcard matching and referencing above. All
Host Header Override Apply a specific host header. Enterprise
IP Geolocation Header Cloudflare adds a CF-IPCountry HTTP header containing the country code that corresponds to the visitor. All
Mirage Turn on or off Mirage. Pro and above
Opportunistic Encryption Turn on or off the Opportunistic Encryption.   All
Origin Cache Control Origin Cache Control is enabled by default for Free, Pro, and Business domains and disabled by default for Enterprise domains. All
Origin Error Page Pass-thru Turn on or off Cloudflare error pages generated from issues sent from the origin server. If enabled, this setting triggers error pages issued by the origin. Enterprise
Polish Apply options from the Polish feature of the Cloudflare Speed app. Pro and above
Query String Sort Turn on or off the reordering of query strings. When query strings have the same structure, caching improves. Enterprise
Resolve Override Change the origin address to the value specified in this setting. Enterprise
Respect Strong ETags Turn on or off byte-for-byte equivalency checks between the Cloudflare cache and the origin server. Enterprise
Response Buffering Turn on or off whether Cloudflare should wait for an entire file from the origin server before forwarding it to the site visitor. By default, Cloudflare sends packets to the client as they arrive from the origin server. Enterprise
Rocket Loader Turn on or off Rocket Loader in the Cloudflare Speed app. All
Security Level Control options for the Security Level feature from the Security app.  All
Server Side Excludes Turn on or off the Server Side Excludes feature of the Cloudflare Scrape Shield app. All
SSL Control options for the SSL feature of the Edge Certificates tab in the Cloudflare SSL/TLS app. All
True Client IP Header Turn on or off the True-Client-IP Header feature of the Cloudflare Network app. Learn more. Enterprise
Web Application Firewall (previous version) Turn on or off WAF managed rules as defined in Security > WAF > Managed rules. Learn more.
You cannot enable or disable individual WAF managed rules via page rules.
Pro and above

​​ Known Issues

Page Rule configuration issue leading to “Error 500 (Internal server error)

Root cause: This may be due to a configuration issue on a Page Rule. When creating a Page Rule that uses two wildcards, like a Forwarding URL rule, it is possible to create a rule that mentions the second wildcard with the $2 placeholder. Refer to the example below:

Example Page Rule configuration with two wildcards. The forwarding URL contains a $2 placeholder, which will be replaced with the content matched by the second

When updating the same rule, you can remove one of the wildcard in the If the URL matches field and save it. Refer to the example below:

Incorrect Page Rule configuration with a single wildcard, but still using the $2 placeholder in the forwarding URL. This configuration causes

If you do so, the $2 placeholder reference a wildcard that does not exist anymore, and as such, an “Error 500 (Internal server error)” is thrown when a URL triggers the page rule.

Resolution: Update the Page Rule and remove the reference $2 to the second wildcard. If there is only one wildcard, then only $1 can be used.


​​ Additional details

This setting is available to business and enterprise customers.

The Bypass Cache on Cookie setting supports basic regular expressions (regex) as follows:

  • A pipe operator (represented by |) to match multiple cookies using OR boolean logic. For example, bypass=.*|PHPSESSID=.* would bypass the cache if either a cookie called bypass or PHPSESSID were set, regardless of the cookie’s value.
  • The wildcard operator (represented by .*), such that a rule value of t.*st= would match both a cookie called test and one called teeest.

Limitations include:

  • 150 chars per cookie regex
  • 12 wildcards per cookie regex
  • 1 wildcard in between each | in the cookie regex

To learn how to configure Bypass Cache on Cookie with a variety of platforms, review these articles:

Note: If you add both this setting and the enterprise-only Cache On Cookie setting to the same page rule, Cache On Cookie takes precedence over Bypass Cache on Cookie.

​​ Zone name occurrences must end with a slash

When saving a Page Rule, Cloudflare will ensure that there is a slash after each occurrence of the current zone name in the If the URL matches field. For example, if the current zone name is example.com, then:

  • example.com will be saved as example.com/
  • example.com/path/example.com will be saved as example.com/path/example.com/

Note that example.com/some-path/cloudflare.com will be saved without a final slash, since the zone name is not cloudflare.com.

​​ Network ports supported by Page Rules

If you specify a port in the If the URL matches field of a Page Rule, it must be one of the following:

​​ Using Page Rules with Workers

If the URL of the current request matches both a Page Rule and a Workers custom route, some Pages Rules settings will not be applied. For details on using Page Rules with Workers, refer to Workers: Page Rules in the developers documentation.