Cloudflare introduces tool for monetising AI bot crawlers

Technology Jul 01, 2025

Cloudflare just rolled out a tool that lets website owners charge AI bots whenever they crawl their content.
Instead of letting AI companies use your site for free, you can now set your own price per visit—pretty handy as ad revenue from search keeps dropping thanks to all these new AI tools.

Publishers can now control how their work is used

Big names like Conde Nast, Associated Press, Reddit, and Pinterest are already backing the move.
Cloudflare's Stephanie Cohen says it's about giving publishers more control over how their work is used in the age of AI—especially since Google's crawls have shot up while actual visitors are way down.
This shift is pushing creators to rethink how they make money online.