Cloudflare says blocking AI crawlers is pushing publishers into licensing deals
Cloudflare says default AI crawler blocking is creating scarcity that pushes AI companies to license publisher content, and pay-per-use is next.

Cloudflare says default AI crawler blocking is creating scarcity that pushes AI companies to license publisher content, and pay-per-use is next.

Time is placing brand FAQs inside markdown pages aimed at AI crawlers, with Ally Bank and the Project Management Institute among its first buyers.

By charging AI companies when content is actually used, Cloudflare hopes to build a more sustainable business model for the open web.

The company says new controls will let publishers separate search, agent use and model training
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Companies say the collaboration enables newsletter publishers to manage AI bot traffic, improve visibility in AI-powered search tools and protect archives

For the first time, bots account for more web traffic than humans, according to Cloudflare data.

The same companies building AI products that strip publishers of traffic are now writing the rules for AI licensing.

Cloudflare launched a feature that automatically converts HTML pages to markdown when AI agents request them, potentially changing how newsrooms publish content for AI-powered search and discovery.
