Cloudflare Zone ID Explained Simply | Generated by AI
Question: What is a Zone ID in Cloudflare?
Answer:
In Cloudflare, a Zone ID is a unique identifier (a long alphanumeric string) assigned to each zone in your account.
A zone in Cloudflare refers to a domain (or sometimes a subdomain) that you have added to Cloudflare for management. This includes services like DNS hosting, caching, security features (WAF, DDoS protection), performance optimizations, Workers, and more. In simple terms, each domain you connect to Cloudflare becomes one zone.
The Zone ID serves as the primary way to reference a specific domain/zone when using:
- The Cloudflare API (most common use case)
- API tokens with zone-level permissions
- Cloudflare Workers routes or bindings (when targeting a specific domain)
- Third-party integrations or tools that interact with Cloudflare on a per-domain basis
- Certain advanced configurations (Terraform, CLI tools like wrangler, automation scripts, etc.)
It is not sensitive information — unlike API keys or tokens, the Zone ID (and Account ID) can be safely shared publicly without compromising security, as they only identify resources and do not grant any access on their own.
How to find your Zone ID:
- Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard at https://dash.cloudflare.com
- Select the domain/zone you want from the list
- Go to the Overview tab for that domain
- Scroll down to the right-hand sidebar or bottom section labeled API
- You will see Zone ID listed there (usually next to Account ID)
- Click “Click to copy” to copy the value (it looks something like
a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6)
The same information appears in the URL when viewing zone settings (something like /[account_id]/[zone_id]/...).
References:
- Find account and zone IDs · Cloudflare Fundamentals docs
- Accounts, zones, and profiles · Cloudflare Fundamentals docs
- Cloudflare Community discussions on Zone ID