Cloudflare Vary rules balance cache correctness against fragmentation

Cloudflare now supports configurable Vary handling in Cache Rules on every plan. An origin names request headers that change a response; the rule decides whether to normalize their values, preserve exact values or bypass caching. This helps prevent the wrong representation being served without turning harmless header differences into thousands of separate cache entries.

Cloudflare · Sep 22, 2026

Why it matters

Useful when one URL serves different formats or languages and cache behavior is hard to reason about.

More context

Try a rule on a controlled endpoint and compare responses across headers. Origins must emit Vary consistently, including error responses. Cloudflare forwards normalized values to keep origin behavior aligned with cache matching.

Keep in mind

Changing the rule does not purge old cached entries. Personal or unbounded header values need special care, and Vary: * bypasses caching. 1min has not tested this configuration.

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