Friday, 3 July, 2026
Cloudflare Flips the Switch: AI Bots Must Now Pay to Crawl
By TechShots Studio
Cloudflare launched AI Crawl Control (formerly AI Audit) and a "Pay per Crawl" marketplace to protect website owners from data scraping. Instead of letting bots harvest content for free without returning search traffic, publishers can now use detailed analytics to track AI activity, block specific scrapers, or use HTTP 402 codes to demand direct payments via Stripe or stablecoins.
Read full story at CIO ECONOMIC TIMES