# AWS WAF: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 63 judge labels across 4 categories by 14 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-waf

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Web application firewalls](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/web-application-firewalls/index.md) | 2% | 3 | 11% | 56 |
| [API security platforms](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/security/api-security-platforms/index.md) | 0% | 43 | 25% | 4 |
| [Bot management](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/bot-management/index.md) | 0% | 64 | 50% | 2 |
| [Load balancers](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/load-balancers/index.md) | 0% | 62 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "Cloudflare or AWS WAF tend to offer the best value with solid protection" (Claude Haiku 4.5, WAF)
- "If your company's infrastructure is already hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), using AWS WAF is likely the most cost-effective path." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, WAF)
- "Strong integration with CloudFront and other AWS services; cost-efficient if the application is already deeply invested in AWS." (Perplexity Sonar, WAF)
- "Choose AWS WAF instead if your apps already run on AWS and your team is comfortable owning the configuration" (GPT-6 Luna, WAF)

## And against it

- "Using the native security tools of hyperscalers like AWS WAF or Azure API Management alone... they typically lack the semantic understanding required for API-specific attacks" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, API security)
- "Out-of-the-box cloud WAF rules (e.g., basic default AWS WAF or Azure WAF rules) without fine-tuning either block legitimate traffic or miss application-specific flaws." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, WAF)
- "Relying on basic Cloud Provider WAF extensions (e.g., standard AWS WAF rules, basic Cloudflare firewall rules) as your sole bot protection." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, Bot management)
- "avoid high licensing costs (often $5K–$50K+/year for commercial tools like Cloudflare Enterprise, AWS WAF, or Imperva)" (Grok 4.20, WAF)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named AWS WAF, from 154 of the 198 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- imperva.com: 57
- cloudflare.com: 55
- geekflare.com: 54
- g2.com: 51
- developers.cloudflare.com: 42
- wafplanet.com: 38
- fastly.com: 34
- openappsec.io: 33
- radware.com: 33
- checkpoint.com: 31

### Pages cited

- https://geekflare.com/guides/best-web-application-firewall: 53
- https://g2.com/categories/web-application-firewall-waf/small-business: 33
- https://openappsec.io/post/best-waf-solutions-in-2024-2025-real-world-comparison: 29
- https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-web-application-firewalls: 26
- https://cloudflare.com/products/waf: 25
- https://softwaretestinghelp.com/web-application-firewall-waf: 25
- https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf: 24
- https://wafplanet.com/: 24

## In its own words

What AWS WAF's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: a web application firewall that helps protect web applications or APIs against common web exploits and bots that may affect availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/protect-your-web-applications-with-aws-waf-ready-partners)
- For: customers (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/protect-your-web-applications-with-aws-waf-ready-partners)
- Price stated: Rate-based rules are priced the same as Regular rules; see the WAF Pricing page for more info. (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/protect-web-sites-services-using-rate-based-rules-for-aws-waf)
- Starting price: 0.60 (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/networking-and-content-delivery/introducing-the-aws-waf-application-layer-ddos-protection)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.