Turn Your Own Machine Into a Public API Server (For Free) Using Cloudflare Tunnel

Description and use

Expose a local API to the internet without port forwarding using Cloudflare Tunnel.

Expose a local API to the internet without port forwarding, firewall changes, or cloud deployment.

Local FastAPI server is securely exposed to the internet via Cloudflare Tunnel without opening inbound ports or changing firewall settings.

Install cloudflared via brew
Log in with cloudflared tunnel login
Create a tunnel with cloudflared tunnel create my-tunnel
(Optional) Map a domain with cloudflared tunnel route dns my-tunnel api.yourwebsite.com
Create ~/.cloudflared/config.yml with tunnel ID, credentials file, and ingress rules
Run the tunnel with cloudflared tunnel run my-tunnel
(Optional) Use launchctl on macOS to keep the tunnel alive

cloudflared connects out to Cloudflare, so your router and firewall stay closed.

No domain? For quick tests, cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8000 gives you a temporary trycloudflare.com address instead.