Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has officially announced a significant policy shift: as of today, the company will automatically block AI crawlers from scraping websites unless explicit authorization or payment is provided.
This update represents more than a technical adjustment. Cloudflare's "Content Independence Day" initiative marks an industry-wide transformation. Over one million websites have already opted to restrict AI crawlers since last autumn, and now this setting becomes the default for all new domains on the Cloudflare platform. Major media conglomerates including Associated Press, Time, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Reddit, Quora, and Universal Music Group have already joined the initiative.
The decision has received widespread support on social platforms, with investors and SEO professionals applauding the move. "This is exactly the right direction," said former Stability AI audio VP Ed Newton-Rex. "Cloudflare is once again addressing the core issue," noted anonymous content creator Romano RNR under his trading alias. "It's essential to restore balance," remarked former Google employee and current SEO consultant Pedro Dias.
However, dissenting voices remain. Critics argue the policy might inadvertently harm businesses that don't appear in AI search results.
Prince counters this concern with historical context: a decade ago, Google crawled two pages for every visit it sent to publishers. With internet adoption nearing global saturation, publishers should logically benefit - yet they haven't. "For every 18 pages Google takes from you, you get just one visitor," Prince explained.
The imbalance has become extreme for AI companies. "Six months ago OpenAI's ratio was 250:1. Today it's 1500:1," Prince revealed. Anthropic's figures show even greater disparity: "6000:1 six months ago... and 60000:1 today."
"For the web to survive in the AI era, we must give creators control and establish an economic model that works for everyone - from creators and consumers to future AI innovators and the web itself," Prince asserted. "If people don't have incentive to create content, they won't," he added bluntly. "We must return this power to them, or the internet will perish."
Paying Per Crawl - Or No Crawl
To force AI companies to pay or exit, Cloudflare is launching a new AI content access model: a permission-based, pay-per-crawl marketplace. Publishers can now set their own rates for AI crawlers using the rarely used HTTP 402 "Payment Required" code as a digital tollbooth.
Publishers retain flexibility to allow free access, charge per crawl, or block completely. The program currently offers early access to top content creators but aims to scale the system across the platform.
This initiative arrives as major content providers seek leverage against AI companies after years of free content harvesting. "When AI firms can't freely access anything they want, it opens doors for sustainable innovation through licensing and collaboration," said Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch.
Prince emphasizes the need for collective action. "Without scarcity, there can't be healthy markets - hence this requires industry-wide cooperation," he warned. He cautioned that standalone licensing agreements without active blocking measures could prove insufficient.
Research confirms the initiative's tangible impact. According to Originality.AI and Reuters Institute studies, 48% of top global websites already block AI crawlers. After Cloudflare introduced an AI crawler blocking option last year, over one million clients activated the feature. New Cloudflare domains now receive a prompt about AI crawler permissions at registration, with blocking as the default setting. Existing clients can modify their configurations at any time.
