HEAD-TO-HEAD · FACTS ONLY
Bay vs Cloudflare AI Gateway: AI endpoint control facts side by side
Short answer
Bay describes 1 of the four product control types on the pages we read and Cloudflare AI Gateway describes 1; they differ on on-device control and AI or MCP gateway. On decisions, Bay decides on a tool call before it runs and Cloudflare AI Gateway does not describe tool-call decisions on the pages we read. We do not score either; the right choice depends on the AI tools people use, your devices, your current stack and whether you block or guide.
By The Device Desk · Endpoint AI Finder · Published 2026-10-11
Desk research from public vendor pages read on 27 September and 11 October 2026. Profiles follow our published method; we did not run the products.
Vendor pages read September and October 2026 · updated 2026-10-13
Where do their controls sit?
- Filled or hatched marker: Bay
- Dashed teal ring: Cloudflare AI Gateway, described
- DEV Filled marker: described on the product pages we read
- DEV Hatched marker: partly described (another component, a narrower scope, or method not detailed)
- DEV Dashed marker: not in our sources (it may exist; we did not find it)
What are the facts, side by side?
| Fact | Bay | Cloudflare AI Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | None | None |
| Positioning | An endpoint-first control layer for AI agents, coding assistants and MCP servers on employee devices. Bay describes itself as a fully preventive, agentless platform that classifies, governs and prevents risks across every AI agent and tool on enterprise endpoints. | A gateway for AI applications: Cloudflare's documentation describes it as a way to observe and control AI apps, with analytics on requests, tokens and cost, logging, caching, rate limiting, request retry and model fallback across providers including Workers AI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenAI and Replicate. It governs apps you build, not employees' devices. |
| How it reaches devices | Deploys through your existing EDR or MDM, with no new agents and no new tools; Bay says it scans in minutes and exits cleanly. Source: Bay homepage · Read 27 Sep 2026 | Routed in front of model providers from your own applications; Cloudflare says it takes one line of code to start. Source: Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation · Read 11 Oct 2026 |
| On-device controlDiffers | DescribedInventories AI agents, MCP servers, tools, credentials and extensions on the device, and its Enforcer returns Allow, Ask or Deny locally on prompts, pre-tool calls and post-tool responses on supported agent surfaces. Delivered as Wave, an ephemeral binary that runs through your existing MDM or EDR. Policies can be scoped by agent, group, endpoint or device. Source: Bay blog: Ghostjacking (re-read) · Read 11 Oct 2026 | Not in our sourcesNot described on the pages we read. |
| Browser extension | Not in our sourcesNo browser extension is described. Bay's Application Control can allow or block browsers and extensions as applications, which is a device rule, not a control on what goes into browser AI. Source: Bay blog: Ghostjacking (re-read) · Read 11 Oct 2026 | Not in our sourcesNot described on the pages we read. |
| Network or SSE proxy | Not in our sourcesNot described on the pages we read. | Not in our sourcesNot described on the pages we read. |
| AI or MCP gatewayDiffers | Not in our sourcesNot described on the pages we read. | DescribedAn AI gateway with analytics, logging, caching, rate limiting, retry and model fallback for AI applications. Source: Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation · Read 11 Oct 2026 |
| Names the coding agents it coversDiffers | MatchesManaged settings for Claude Code, Codex and Claude Desktop lock permission rules, preserve managed hooks, restrict MCP servers and constrain plugin sources. Source: Bay blog: Ghostjacking, an AI agent attack (August 2026) · Read 27 Sep 2026 | Not in our sources |
| Decides on a tool call before it runsDiffers | MatchesEvaluates prompts, pre-tool calls and post-tool responses and returns Allow, Ask or Deny locally, which Bay states takes under 4ms with no cloud round-trip, on supported agent surfaces. Source: Bay blog: Ghostjacking (re-read) · Read 11 Oct 2026 | Not in our sources |
| Controls what goes into browser AI | Not in our sources | Not in our sources |
| Rolls out through EDR or device management you runDiffers | MatchesDeploys through your existing EDR or MDM; no new agents. Source: Bay homepage · Read 27 Sep 2026 | Not in our sources |
| Can warn or ask instead of only blockingDiffers | MatchesAsk is one of three answers, with Allow and Deny. Source: Bay homepage · Read 27 Sep 2026 | Not in our sources |
| Can block an agent, tool or actionDiffers | MatchesDeny stops an action. Rules cover MCP servers (an allow or block list, and per-tool rules for read, create, update, delete and execute), applications, CLIs, browsers, IDEs and extensions, credentials and files, network egress allow lists, and capability rules such as shell execution, package installation and cloud CLIs. Source: Bay blog: Ghostjacking (re-read) · Read 11 Oct 2026 | Not in our sources |
| Has a watch-only or simulation modeDiffers | MatchesSimulation Mode runs a rule without enforcing it. Source: Bay blog: Ghostjacking, an AI agent attack (August 2026) · Read 27 Sep 2026 | PartlyAnalytics and logs on requests, tokens and cost without changing the traffic. Source: Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation · Read 11 Oct 2026 |
| Records who or what took each actionDiffers | MatchesRecords who triggered an action, whether a human was involved, and the chain from prompt to system action. Source: Bay homepage · Read 27 Sep 2026 | PartlyLogs requests; tying a call to a person or an agent is not described. Source: Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation · Read 11 Oct 2026 |
| Also covers SaaS, cloud or homegrown AIDiffers | Not in our sources | MatchesBuilt for AI applications you build and run. Source: Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation · Read 11 Oct 2026 |
| Has a public price or tiers (vendor site or marketplace) | Not in our sources | Not in our sources |
| Built into | None | None |
| Works with | None in our sources | None in our sources |
| Price | Not published. Bay's site has a demo request and no pricing page (re-checked 11 October 2026). Source: Bay homepage (re-read) · Read 11 Oct 2026 | Available on all Cloudflare plans, per the documentation; plan prices are not on the page we read. Source: Cloudflare AI Gateway documentation · Read 11 Oct 2026 |
Where do they differ?
- On-device control: Bay describes it; Cloudflare AI Gateway is not in our sources.
- AI or MCP gateway: Bay is not in our sources; Cloudflare AI Gateway describes it.
- Names the coding agents it covers: Bay matches; Cloudflare AI Gateway is not in our sources.
- Decides on a tool call before it runs: Bay matches; Cloudflare AI Gateway is not in our sources.
- Rolls out through EDR or device management you run: Bay matches; Cloudflare AI Gateway is not in our sources.
- Can warn or ask instead of only blocking: Bay matches; Cloudflare AI Gateway is not in our sources.
- Can block an agent, tool or action: Bay matches; Cloudflare AI Gateway is not in our sources.
- Has a watch-only or simulation mode: Bay matches; Cloudflare AI Gateway partly matches.
- Records who or what took each action: Bay matches; Cloudflare AI Gateway partly matches.
- Also covers SaaS, cloud or homegrown AI: Bay is not in our sources; Cloudflare AI Gateway matches.
Choose Bay if
- Your developers run coding agents with many MCP servers and you want a decision on each action before it runs
- You want to add AI agent control through the EDR or MDM you already run instead of rolling out another agent
Choose Cloudflare AI Gateway if
- You build your own AI apps and want one place to log and control their model calls
- You already use Cloudflare and want AI traffic to pass through it
Which limits should you check?
Bay
- Endpoint only: no browser extension, network proxy or AI gateway is described, and nothing on SaaS or cloud-hosted AI apps.
- One of the smallest public footprints here: a single homepage, two blog posts, no documentation portal and no published pricing (re-checked 11 October 2026).
- Headline figures such as under 5 minutes to deploy, under 1% false positives and 100% of shadow AI discovered are Bay's own statements and have not been verified.
Cloudflare AI Gateway
- It is an application gateway: it does not see employees' AI tools, coding agents or devices.
- Content controls such as blocking prompts are not described on the page we read, and plan prices are not on it.