Cloudflare Sparks SEO Debate With New AI Crawler Payment System

Cloudflare’s new “pay per crawl” initiative has sparked a debate among SEO professionals and digital marketers.

The company has introduced a default AI crawler-blocking system alongside new monetization options for publishers.

This enables publishers to charge AI companies for access, which could impact how web content is consumed and valued in the age of generative search.

Cloudflare’s New Default: Block AI Crawlers

The system, now in private beta, blocks known AI crawlers by default for new Cloudflare domains.

Publishers can choose one of…