Vercel Firewall now waives costs for mitigated malicious traffic

🔑 Enhanced Key Takeaways

•The new pricing policy directly addresses a significant concern for developers using usage-based billing models, where malicious traffic could previously lead to unpredictable and inflated bills for CDN and data transfer, thereby aligning Vercel's billing with the protective nature of its Web Application Firewall (WAF).
•This update extends Vercel's existing, always-on DDoS mitigation (which has historically blocked billions of suspicious TCP connections weekly) to now explicitly waive costs for Layer 7 traffic blocked, challenged, or rate-limited by the Web Application Firewall.
•The Vercel Web Application Firewall, officially introduced in May 2024, offers granular Layer 7 control with features like customizable and framework-aware rules, managed rulesets (for Enterprise plans), and instant global propagation of rule changes (within 300ms), making its deployment financially risk-free against application-level threats.

📊 Competitor Analysis▸ Show

Feature/Provider	Vercel Firewall	Cloudflare WAF	AWS WAF	Fastly DDoS Protection / Next-Gen WAF
Pricing Model	Usage-based for legitimate traffic; waived CDN/data transfer costs for WAF-blocked, challenged, or rate-limited malicious traffic.	Flat-rate subscription (e.g., Pro $20/month) with free egress data.	Usage-based (per Web ACL, per rule, per request). Additional costs for bot control/fraud prevention.	Usage-based for legitimate traffic; "Zero Attack Fees" for DDoS-mitigated traffic.
DDoS Protection	Automatic, multi-layered (L3, L4, L7) DDoS mitigation included on all plans.	Built-in, unmetered DDoS protection on all plans, including free tier.	AWS Shield Standard (free, L3/4) and Shield Advanced (paid, L3/4/7). WAF can be configured for L7 DDoS.	Automatic detection and mitigation at the edge, "Zero Attack Fees".
WAF Features	Customizable rules (path, user agent, IP, geolocation, JA4), framework-aware rules, managed rulesets (Enterprise), rate limiting (beta), instant propagation (300ms), instant rollback.	Advanced bot detection, robust preconfigured rules, managed rulesets.	Customizable rules, managed rule groups (OWASP Top 10, Bot Control, Fraud Control), rate-based rules.	Contextual detection (SmartParse), deception techniques, edge rate limiting.
Cost for Malicious Traffic	Waived for WAF-blocked, challenged, or rate-limited traffic.	Egress data is free; unmetered DDoS mitigation with no penalty for spikes.	Charges apply per request, but AWS ManagedRulesAntiDDoSRuleSet aims to not charge for detected and mitigated attack traffic. AWS Shield Advanced waives WAF fees for protected resources.	Not billed for mitigated attacks; billed based on non-attack traffic.

🛠️ Technical Deep Dive

Vercel Firewall is a multi-layered security system comprising a platform-wide firewall for DDoS mitigation (Layer 3/4) and a Web Application Firewall (WAF) for granular Layer 7 control.
The WAF features a customizable rules engine that allows defining policies based on over 15 parameters, including path, user agent, IP address, geolocation, JA4 fingerprints, and target paths.
It supports framework-aware rules, enabling definitions based on application routes rather than regular expressions, and offers managed rulesets for Enterprise customers to combat OWASP Top 10 risks.
Advanced detection mechanisms utilize JA3 and JA4 TLS fingerprints to identify and restrict malicious traffic patterns.
Rule execution follows a specific order: DDoS mitigation rules are applied first, followed by WAF IP blocking rules, then WAF custom rules, and finally WAF Managed Rulesets.
Configuration changes to the firewall propagate globally within 300 milliseconds, and instant rollback capabilities are available to revert unintended rule creations.
Vercel introduced "Protectd," a next-generation real-time security engine that reduces mitigation times for novel DoS attacks by over tenfold by continuously mapping complex relationships between traffic attributes.
Observability features provide insights into key security metrics, real-time monitoring of threats and connections, and integration with Log Drains for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems.
The Vercel Firewall can be managed directly from the command-line interface (CLI), allowing configuration of custom rules, IP blocks, system bypasses, attack mode, and system mitigations.

🔮 Future ImplicationsAI analysis grounded in cited sources

Increased adoption of Vercel for cost-sensitive projects.

The removal of unexpected costs from malicious traffic makes Vercel's pricing more predictable and attractive, especially for smaller developers or startups who are wary of variable cloud bills.

Industry pressure on other CDN and WAF providers to adopt similar billing models.

As Vercel sets a precedent for waiving costs for mitigated malicious traffic, customers may demand similar 'zero attack fees' policies from other providers to avoid unpredictable bills.

Enhanced focus on AI/ML-driven threat detection at the edge.

By waiving costs for mitigated traffic, providers are incentivized to improve their detection and blocking capabilities to reduce the volume of malicious traffic that would otherwise incur infrastructure costs.

⏳ Timeline

2015-11

Vercel founded as ZEIT.

2020-04

ZEIT rebranded to Vercel.

2023-05

Vercel announced Vercel Firewall and Vercel Secure Compute, expanding platform security capabilities.

2024-05-23

Vercel officially introduced the Vercel Web Application Firewall (WAF), adding granular Layer 7 control.

2025-03-25

Vercel introduced "Protectd," its next-generation real-time security engine, enhancing DoS mitigation.

2026-04-19

Vercel disclosed a security breach originating from a third-party AI tool.

Vercel Firewall now waives costs for mitigated malicious traffic

⚡ 30-Second TL;DR

Key Points

🧠 Deep Insight

🔑 Enhanced Key Takeaways

🛠️ Technical Deep Dive

🔮 Future ImplicationsAI analysis grounded in cited sources

⏳ Timeline

📎 Sources (28)

👉Related Updates