A free image CDN, with no account to create
Change your image URLs, and your images are converted to AVIF and served from Cloudflare's edge. There's nothing to sign up for and no card to enter.
Why use one
Images are usually the heaviest part of a web page. Serving them as AVIF from a server close to the visitor makes pages load faster, which visitors notice and search engines measure through Core Web Vitals.
Most image CDNs charge by bandwidth or by the number of transformations, and need an account, an API key and some setup. ServeProxy does one job, converting and caching images, and does it for free with nothing to configure.
What's included
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Account or card | Not needed |
| Format conversion | AVIF by default; animated GIF to WebP; optional JPEG XL |
| Delivery | Cloudflare's global network, including its DDoS protection |
| Security | HTTPS only, SVG sanitization, blocklisted domains refused |
| Integration | A URL prefix for any platform, or the WordPress plugin |
| Custom domain or cache purging | Not included. See ServeProxy CDN |
How it can be free
Each image is converted once. After that, Cloudflare serves the cached copy and our servers aren't involved at all. Serving a converted image to thousands of visitors costs almost nothing.
To keep that true, there is a fair-use limit of 5,000 uncached requests per IP address every 10 minutes. Cached images don't count, so ordinary websites never reach it.
The free image proxy will stay free. We won't add charges to it or move its features behind a paywall. Paid features, like custom domains and cache purging, live in the separate ServeProxy CDN.
Getting started
Pick a method
Use the URL prefix on any site, or install the WordPress plugin.
Change your image URLs
Put
https://serveproxy.com/?url=in front of each one. The plugin does this for you.Check the result
In your browser's Network tab, images should show
image/avifand, after the first load,CF-Cache-Status: HIT.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. There's no paid tier of the image proxy and no trial period.
Can I use it for a commercial website?
Yes, as long as you follow the terms of use and have the right to distribute the images.
Is it suitable for production sites?
It's built for them: converted images are served by Cloudflare, so a busy page puts almost no load on our servers. It's a free service without a service-level agreement. Live status is published at serveproxy.status.hesklo.com.
Do you keep my images?
Only as a cache, which expires on its own. We don't keep permanent copies or claim any rights to them.
How do I stop using it?
Change your image URLs back, or deactivate the plugin. There's nothing to cancel.