Easy Tech TutsHow to Stop, Turn Off, and Disable Cloudflare Easily 2026
By Impran M N
There are times you'll want to temporarily stop Cloudflare from proxying your traffic, whether for troubleshooting a caching issue or testing your origin server directly. This guide covers pausing Cloudflare for a domain and confirming the change took effect.
01Select your target domain
From the Cloudflare dashboard, click into the specific website you want to stop protecting.
02Scroll to Advanced Actions
On the domain overview page, scroll down to find the Advanced Actions panel.
03Click Pause Cloudflare on Site
Select the pause link and confirm the security warning that appears.
04Allow the propagation window
Give the change roughly five minutes to take full effect across the edge network.
05Confirm with a direct test
Refresh the overview page to check the paused status, then run a terminal ping or dig test to confirm traffic is now hitting your origin server directly.
Frequently asked questions
Is pausing Cloudflare the same as removing the domain entirely?
No, pausing keeps your domain and DNS records set up in Cloudflare; it just stops the proxy from intercepting traffic until you reactivate it.
Can I pause just one record instead of the whole domain?
Yes, switching an individual record to 'DNS Only' unproxies just that record, while the site-wide pause affects everything at once.
How long does the pause take to fully apply?
Expect roughly a five-minute propagation window before the change is fully reflected across Cloudflare's network.
Will my site lose its SSL certificate while paused?
Cloudflare's edge SSL handling is disabled during a pause, so your site depends on your origin server's own SSL certificate for the duration.
Watch the full walkthrough
The same steps, demonstrated on screen from start to finish.
