Cloudflare Always Online: A Guide for Website Owners
Learn how Cloudflare Always Online can show older cached or archived pages during origin outages, plus setup steps, limits, and visitor expectations.
Facts that can change should include a source and check date. Benchmark claims should state the plan, region, method, and test period.
If your website’s origin server becomes unreachable, Cloudflare Always Online may show visitors an older cached version of the site. If Cloudflare has no usable cached copy, its Internet Archive integration may provide static portions instead. The feature is a fallback for an unreachable origin, not a way to make every page or interactive feature continue working.
How Always Online works#
Cloudflare Cache stores copies of frequently accessed content, including webpages, images, and videos, in its distributed cache. Always Online depends on suitable cached or archived content being available when Cloudflare cannot reach the origin server.
When a cached copy is available, visitors may see older content. If Cloudflare cannot use its cache, the Internet Archive integration may serve an archived version of selected static content. Visitors may see an archived-version banner and can refresh the page to check whether the origin has recovered.
Always Online does not preserve every page. Dynamic features such as shopping carts and comment forms cannot be served as working features from an archived static copy.
When it applies#
The documented use case is an origin that Cloudflare cannot reach. Always Online is not designed for an origin that is online but returning an error response. The result also depends on whether suitable cached or archived content exists for the requested URL.
| Situation | What may happen |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare cannot reach the origin and has a usable cached copy | Cloudflare may show the older cached content. |
| No usable cached copy is available | The Internet Archive integration may serve static portions of the site. |
| The page relies on dynamic features | Features such as carts and comment forms will not function as part of an archived static copy. |
| The origin is reachable but returns an error | Always Online is not intended for this case. |
How to enable it#
Cloudflare’s documented setup path is:
- Open the Cloudflare dashboard.
- Go to Configuration.
- Select the domain.
- Turn on Always Online.
Enabling Always Online also enables Cloudflare’s Internet Archive integration. Cloudflare shares the hostname and selected popular URL paths with the Internet Archive as part of that integration.
What website owners should expect#
Treat Always Online as a limited continuity option for an origin outage. Review important pages while the site is operating, but do not assume that every URL will have a cached or archived copy. Cached content may also be older than the current site.
Plan separately for features that require live requests to the origin, such as shopping carts, comment forms, and other dynamic interactions. When the origin is restored, visitors can refresh to check the live site again.
Sources
- Cloudflare: Always Online Checked 2026-10-20
- Cloudflare cache documentation Checked 2026-10-20