---
source_url: "https://developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/?utm_source=openai"
title: Overview · Cloudflare Turnstile docs
mirrored_at: 2026-08-04T12:31:53.463Z
host: developers.cloudflare.com
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mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/index__q__utm_source_openai"
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> **Original source:** https://developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/?utm_source=openai

1.  [Home](https://developers.cloudflare.com/)
2.  /Turnstile

Cloudflare's smart CAPTCHA alternative.

Turnstile can be embedded into any website without sending traffic through Cloudflare and works without showing visitors a CAPTCHA.

Cloudflare issues challenges through the [Challenge Platform](https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-challenges/), which is the same underlying technology powering [Turnstile](https://developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/).

In contrast to our Challenge page offerings, Turnstile allows you to run challenges anywhere on your site in a less-intrusive way without requiring the use of Cloudflare's CDN.

![Turnstile Overview](https://developers.cloudflare.com/_astro/turnstile-overview.BlA8uXVD_2tsm0o.webp)

Turnstile adapts the challenge outcome to the individual visitor or browser. First, we run a series of small non-interactive JavaScript challenges to gather signals about the visitor or browser environment.

These challenges include proof-of-work (computational puzzles), proof-of-space, probing for web APIs, and various other challenges for detecting browser-quirks and human behavior. As a result, we can fine-tune the difficulty of the challenge to the specific request and avoid showing a visual or interactive puzzle to a user.

Turnstile [widget types](https://developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/concepts/widget/) include:

-   **Managed** (recommended): Automatically decides whether to show a checkbox based on visitor risk level.
-   **Non-interactive**: Visitors never need to interact with the widget.
-   **Invisible**: The widget is completely hidden from the visitor.

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Turnstile is WCAG 2.2 AA compliant.

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[Pre-clearance](https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-challenges/concepts/clearance/#pre-clearance-support-in-turnstile)

Integrate Cloudflare challenges on single-page applications (SPAs) by allowing Turnstile to issue a Pre-Clearance cookie.

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[Bots](https://developers.cloudflare.com/bots/)

Cloudflare bot solutions identify and mitigate automated traffic to protect your domain from bad bots.

[DDoS Protection](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ddos-protection/)

Detect and mitigate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks using Cloudflare's Autonomous Edge.

[WAF](https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/)

Get automatic protection from vulnerabilities and the flexibility to create custom rules.

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### [Plans](https://developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/plans/)

Learn more about Turnstile's plan availability.

[NextPlans](https://developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/plans/)