diff --git a/docs/deployments/apis.md b/docs/deployments/apis.md
index 7c3f4b6ddc..47b90ef8e5 100644
--- a/docs/deployments/apis.md
+++ b/docs/deployments/apis.md
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ Serve models at scale.
     max_replicas: <int>  # maximum number of replicas (default: 100)
     init_replicas: <int>  # initial number of replicas (default: <min_replicas>)
     target_cpu_utilization: <int>  # CPU utilization threshold (as a percentage) to trigger scaling (default: 80)
-    cpu: <string>  # CPU request per replica (default: 200m)
-    gpu: <string>  # gpu request per replica (default: 0)
+    cpu: <string | int | float>  # CPU request per replica (default: 200m)
+    gpu: <int>  # gpu request per replica (default: 0)
     mem: <string>  # memory request per replica (default: Null)
 ```
 
diff --git a/pkg/lib/cast/interface.go b/pkg/lib/cast/interface.go
index a38c27e2e3..4d981a8770 100644
--- a/pkg/lib/cast/interface.go
+++ b/pkg/lib/cast/interface.go
@@ -733,30 +733,21 @@ func IsFloatType(in interface{}) bool {
 	return false
 }
 
-func IsFloatOrIntType(in interface{}) bool {
+func IsNumericType(in interface{}) bool {
 	return IsIntType(in) || IsFloatType(in)
 }
 
 func IsScalarType(in interface{}) bool {
-	switch in.(type) {
-	case int8:
-		return true
-	case int16:
-		return true
-	case int32:
-		return true
-	case int64:
-		return true
-	case int:
-		return true
-	case float32:
-		return true
-	case float64:
+	if IsNumericType(in) {
 		return true
+	}
+
+	switch in.(type) {
 	case string:
 		return true
 	case bool:
 		return true
 	}
+
 	return false
 }
diff --git a/pkg/lib/configreader/string.go b/pkg/lib/configreader/string.go
index 003d15a332..afb9b01729 100644
--- a/pkg/lib/configreader/string.go
+++ b/pkg/lib/configreader/string.go
@@ -21,9 +21,11 @@ import (
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"strings"
 
+	"github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/cast"
 	"github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/errors"
 	"github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/regex"
 	"github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/slices"
+	s "github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/strings"
 	"github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/urls"
 )
 
@@ -38,6 +40,8 @@ type StringValidation struct {
 	AlphaNumericDashUnderscore           bool
 	DNS1035                              bool
 	DNS1123                              bool
+	CastNumeric                          bool
+	CastScalar                           bool
 	AllowCortexResources                 bool
 	RequireCortexResources               bool
 	Validator                            func(string) (string, error)
@@ -53,7 +57,19 @@ func String(inter interface{}, v *StringValidation) (string, error) {
 	}
 	casted, castOk := inter.(string)
 	if !castOk {
-		return "", ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString)
+		if v.CastScalar {
+			if !cast.IsScalarType(inter) {
+				return "", ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString, PrimTypeInt, PrimTypeFloat, PrimTypeBool)
+			}
+			casted = s.ObjFlatNoQuotes(inter)
+		} else if v.CastNumeric {
+			if !cast.IsNumericType(inter) {
+				return "", ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString, PrimTypeInt, PrimTypeFloat)
+			}
+			casted = s.ObjFlatNoQuotes(inter)
+		} else {
+			return "", ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString)
+		}
 	}
 	return ValidateString(casted, v)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/lib/configreader/string_ptr.go b/pkg/lib/configreader/string_ptr.go
index a18ce2f553..46088b1d57 100644
--- a/pkg/lib/configreader/string_ptr.go
+++ b/pkg/lib/configreader/string_ptr.go
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ package configreader
 import (
 	"io/ioutil"
 
+	"github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/cast"
 	"github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/errors"
+	s "github.com/cortexlabs/cortex/pkg/lib/strings"
 )
 
 type StringPtrValidation struct {
@@ -33,6 +35,8 @@ type StringPtrValidation struct {
 	AlphaNumericDashUnderscore    bool
 	DNS1035                       bool
 	DNS1123                       bool
+	CastScalar                    bool
+	CastNumeric                   bool
 	AllowCortexResources          bool
 	RequireCortexResources        bool
 	Validator                     func(string) (string, error)
@@ -47,6 +51,8 @@ func makeStringValValidation(v *StringPtrValidation) *StringValidation {
 		AlphaNumericDashUnderscore:    v.AlphaNumericDashUnderscore,
 		DNS1035:                       v.DNS1035,
 		DNS1123:                       v.DNS1123,
+		CastScalar:                    v.CastScalar,
+		CastNumeric:                   v.CastNumeric,
 		AllowCortexResources:          v.AllowCortexResources,
 		RequireCortexResources:        v.RequireCortexResources,
 	}
@@ -58,8 +64,21 @@ func StringPtr(inter interface{}, v *StringPtrValidation) (*string, error) {
 	}
 	casted, castOk := inter.(string)
 	if !castOk {
-		return nil, ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString)
+		if v.CastScalar {
+			if !cast.IsScalarType(inter) {
+				return nil, ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString, PrimTypeInt, PrimTypeFloat, PrimTypeBool)
+			}
+			casted = s.ObjFlatNoQuotes(inter)
+		} else if v.CastNumeric {
+			if !cast.IsNumericType(inter) {
+				return nil, ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString, PrimTypeInt, PrimTypeFloat)
+			}
+			casted = s.ObjFlatNoQuotes(inter)
+		} else {
+			return nil, ErrorInvalidPrimitiveType(inter, PrimTypeString)
+		}
 	}
+
 	return ValidateStringPtrProvided(&casted, v)
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/operator/api/userconfig/compute.go b/pkg/operator/api/userconfig/compute.go
index d9fad95ac9..980e7c1ac8 100644
--- a/pkg/operator/api/userconfig/compute.go
+++ b/pkg/operator/api/userconfig/compute.go
@@ -82,7 +82,8 @@ var apiComputeFieldValidation = &cr.StructFieldValidation{
 			{
 				StructField: "CPU",
 				StringValidation: &cr.StringValidation{
-					Default: "200m",
+					Default:     "200m",
+					CastNumeric: true,
 				},
 				Parser: QuantityParser(&QuantityValidation{
 					GreaterThan: k8sQuantityPtr(kresource.MustParse("0")),