导航|地址|刷新
Query String Sort

Skip to contentDocumentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/cache/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Docs Directory API SDKs Changelog

Search

Log in

Cache / CDN

/

Overview

Plans

Get started

Concepts

CDN-Cache-Control

Cloudflare cache responses

Customize cache

Default cache behavior

Head Requests and Set-Cookie Headers

Origin Cache Control

Retention vs Freshness (TTL)

Revalidation

Vary

Cache configuration

Purge cache

Overview

Purge by single-file

Purge everything

Purge cache by cache-tags

Purge cache by hostname

Purge cache by prefix (URL)

Purge cache key resources

Purge varied images

Purge zone versions via API

Cache Response Rules

Overview

Create a rule in the dashboard

Create a rule via API

Terraform example

Available settings

Cache Rules

Overview

Create a rule in the dashboard

Create a rule via API

Terraform example

Available settings

Order and priority

Examples

Overview

Browser Cache TTL

Bypass Cache on Cookie

Cache by Device Type

Cache Deception Armor

Cache everything for hostnames in a list

Cache Everything while ignoring query strings

Cache Level (Cache Everything)

Cache TTL by status code

Custom Cache Key

Edge Cache TTL

Origin Cache Control

Query String Sort

Respect Strong ETags

Migration from Page Rules

Edge and Browser Cache TTL

Overview

Set Browser Cache TTL

Always Online

Cache by status code

Cache keys

Caching levels

Tiered Cache

Advanced configuration

Serving tailored content

Cache Reserve

Crawler Hints

Early Hints

Query String Sort

Vary for images

Performance review

Cache Analytics

Cache performance

Cache security

Avoid web cache poisoning

Cache Deception Armor

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

Reference

CDN Reference Architecture ↗

CSAM Scanning Tool

Development Mode

Using ETag Headers with Cloudflare

Interaction with Cloudflare products

Customize cache behavior with Workers

How Workers interact with Cache Rules

Enable cache in an R2 bucket

Control cache access with WAF and Snippets

Troubleshooting

Dynamic content and login issues

Issues with MP4 videos on iOS and Safari

Bot Management cookie causes cache bypass in O2O setups

edgeResponseBytes and cacheResponseBytes discrepancy

Always Online

Changelog

Glossary

Agent resources

Agent setup ↗

Cloudflare Skills ↗

Code Mode MCP Server ↗

Domain-specific MCP Servers ↗MCP

Cache llms.txt ↗

Cache llms-full.txt ↗

Cloudflare Docs llms.txt ↗

Cloudflare Docs llms-full.txt ↗

Home

/Cache / CDN

/Advanced configuration

/Query String Sort

Query String Sort

Last updated Apr 16, 2026|Copy as Markdown|View as Markdown|Agent setup

OverviewAvailabilityEnable Query String SortUnexpected behavior with WordPress admin pages Identify the problem Respond to the issueRelated resources

Query String Sort increases cache-hit rates by first sorting query strings into a consistent order before checking the Cloudflare cache.

By default, Cloudflare’s cache treats resources as distinct if their URL query strings are in a different order. For instance, these resources are cached separately:

/video/48088296?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=51a516

/video/48088296?byline=0&color=51a516&portrait=0&title=0

Query String Sort changes this behavior. If two query strings exist with the same name, the URL is sorted by the parameter value. For example:

/example/file?word=alpha&word=beta and /example/file?word=beta&word=alpha

would be sorted to:

/example/file?word=alpha&word=beta

Availability

Free Pro Business Enterprise

Availability

No

No

No

Yes

------

Enable Query String Sort

To enable Query String Sort:

Log into the Cloudflare dashboard ↗.

Select your account and zone.

Go to Caching > Configuration.

For Enable Query String Sort, switch the toggle to On.

------

Unexpected behavior with WordPress admin pages

When a site or an application requires exact query string ordering, enabling Query String Sort might cause unexpected behavior.

For example in the WordPress admin UI, you might notice any of the following behaviors:

No media appear in the Media Library

Inability to customize the site via Appearance > Customize

Inability to drag any widget to a sidebar in Appearance > Widgets

Inability to edit menus in Appearance > Menus

To understand why this happens, note that WordPress concatenates JavaScript files ↗ to speed up the administration interface. The way WordPress implements this involves multiple occurrences of load[] parameters in the query string, where the order of those parameters is crucial.

Note

Note that more recent versions of WordPress may not experience this issue, as a patch has been implemented in WordPress since 2019. The patch can be found at WordPress Core Trac Changeset 45456 ↗.

Identify the problem

The screenshot below shows an example where resources in the Media Library are not rendered correctly and the browser debugging console reveals that the page is throwing an error:

When the page load-scripts.php loads, the browser sends a request to Cloudflare for:
/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=0&load%5B%5D=hoverIntent,common,admin-bar,underscore,shortcode,backbone,wp-util,wp-backbone,media-models,wp-plupload,wp-mediaelement,wp-api-r&load%5B%5D=equest,media-views,media-editor,media-audiovideo,mce-view,imgareaselect,image-edit,media-grid,media,svg-painter&ver=5.0.3
With Query String Sort enabled, Cloudflare will then sort the parameters and values in the request query string, resulting in the following:
/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=0&load%5B%5D=equest,media-views,media-editor,media-audiovideo,mce-view,imgareaselect,image-edit,media-grid,media,svg-painter&load%5B%5D=hoverIntent,common,admin-bar,underscore,shortcode,backbone,wp-util,wp-backbone,media-models,wp-plupload,wp-mediaelement,wp-api-r&ver=5.0.3
Note that the load[] parameters were swapped, as equest should come before hoverIntent when alphabetically ordered.

When this happens, you will most likely find errors in the browser console, such as:

_____ is not defined at load-scripts.php?c=0&load[]=...

This type of error indicates that Query String Sort is inadvertently breaking some WordPress admin page functionality.

After sorting, the query then goes to Cloudflare's cache infrastructure (and to the origin server, if the resource is not in the Cloudflare cache or is not cacheable). The origin server then serves the concatenated scripts, which are ordered differently. Because scripts might depend on other scripts, this process might break dependencies.

Respond to the issue

Start by analyzing your site or application behavior around the use of query strings. Do you have assets served with multiple possible arrangements of query strings?

For example, you might have an image resizing endpoint or a search form, where the order of query parameters might vary - such as width, height, and version - yet a unique parameter combination points to a single relevant asset.

To minimize problems, consider:

Disabling Query String Sort for the site if you’re sure that this feature does not add value to any part of your site. Cloudflare disables this option by default in the Caching app.

Use Cache Rules to enable Query String Sort (set Cache key > Sort query string: On) for URLs where preserving the query string parameter order is not important.

Alternatively, use Cache Rules to disable Query String Sort for URLs where a specific parameter order is required. For example, set Cache key > Sort query string: Off for URI paths starting with /wp-admin/load-scripts.php, or for any URLs with similar requirements.

To learn more about Cache Rules, visit Cache Rules.

------

Related resources

Increasing Cache Hit Rates with Query String Sort ↗

Best Practice: Caching Everything While Ignoring Query Strings

PreviousEarly HintsNextVary for images

Was this helpful?

YesNo

Edit pageReport issue

On this page

Overview

Availability

Enable Query String Sort

Unexpected behavior with WordPress admin pages

Identify the problem

Respond to the issue

Related resources

Edit pageReport issue

Getting started
PlansContact salesPartnersFind a partnerStartupsUnder attack?Domain name search

Company
AboutCareersInvestorsPressPress kitGlobal network

Public interest
Project GalileoAthenian ProjectCloudflare for CampaignsProject FairshotImpact/ESG

Compliance
Compliance resourcesTrust HubData ProtectionResponsible AITransparency reportReport abuse

Resources
App innovation reportCloudflare RadarCase studiesStatusSupportEventsBlog

Developers
DocumentationLearning centerCommunity

Solutions
SSE and SASE platformCloudflare AI CloudAI SecurityFrontend Development PlatformMulti-Tenant Platform DevelopmentWeb Security Platform

Start BuildingLog In

© 2026 Cloudflare, Inc.

Privacy policy|Report security issues|Terms of use|Trademark
|
Your privacy choices

Docs

------
导航页打开网址