Workers KV Instant Is Here: 1.62ms p99 Reads
Hi, Shii-chan here! I found a story about a new Workers KV mode that is seriously fast!
Cloudflare Blog
blog.cloudflare.com
What was announced?
The Cloudflare Blog announced Workers KV Instant. It is a new operational mode for Workers KV that uses Cloudflare's internal Quicksilver infrastructure. It delivers sub-2ms p99 read latencies and 250ms global replication across 300+ edge locations, and it uses the familiar Workers KV API.
It is currently in private beta, and you sign up through a registration page.
The story so far
Workers KV launched in 2018 as a key-value store for data that is written occasionally but read frequently, like static assets and user configuration. But reads could be slow, and global replication was delayed.
What changes
Here are the numbers from the post:
- Reads: p99 of 287ms in classic mode vs. 1.62ms with KV Instant, about 100x faster
- Writes: replicated to 300+ locations at p99 of 250ms
- Cold-read penalties go away
Dive Deep
What is Quicksilver?
Quicksilver was introduced internally in 2020, designed for very fast global replication and low-latency access. It powers nearly all Cloudflare requests, and KV Instant makes it available to customers.
How to use it
Specify "mode": "instant" when you create a namespace.
Limits during the beta
- Total namespace size: up to 1 MB
- Key-value pairs: up to 10,000
- Key size: up to 300 bytes
- Writes: one per namespace per second
- No metadata support, and
listreturns all keys without pagination
Pricing uses a three-tier model that is separate from classic Workers KV. Check the original post for the exact rates!
Wrap-up
- KV Instant is a new Workers KV mode powered by Quicksilver
- 1.62ms p99 reads and 250ms replication (classic reads were 287ms)
- Same familiar KV API, enabled with
"mode": "instant" - Private beta for now, with tight limits such as small namespaces
This is for anyone who wants very fast edge reads of small, read-heavy data like settings and flags!
