$NET - Cloudflare as a game changer for content creators
Hey folks,
I received a very exciting shareholder letter today at 12 noon, which is of interest to anyone who creates or operates content on the Internet - large or small.
With "pay-per-crawl", Cloudflare ($NET) is introducing a model that could change the rules of the game on the Internet in the long term. I myself run a content-based website with a focus on SEO, organic reach and advertising revenue (e.g. via AdSense) - and what's happening here is potentially a real game changer.
🔍 What is "pay-per-crawl"?
Cloudflare announced on July 1, 2025 that publishers will be able to decide for themselves what happens to their content in the future - at least when it comes to AI crawlers.
Instead of ChatGPT & Co. simply "taking" content, there will be three options in future:
✅ Allow crawl
💰 Allow crawl only against payment
🚫 Block crawl completely
💡 The whole thing is based on the HTTP status code 402 - Payment Required (never used before). The highlight: Cloudflare handles the payment processing between AI companies and website operators. So you don't have to negotiate yourself, but can centrally control who gets access - and who has to pay.
💡 Why is this so important?
The classical logic was:
Content = SEO traffic = advertising revenue.
But: AI crawlers like those from OpenAI or Anthropic fetch content without sending users back.
The result? More and more "crawling", but less and less real traffic.
A few figures from the Cloudflare blog:
- Google: ratio of crawl to visitors used to be 2:1, now 18:1
- OpenAI: 1,500:1
- Anthropic: 60,000:1 (!)
👉 Means: Content is used massively - but the publisher sees none of it.
Pay-per-crawl could change exactly that.
💸 Three key advantages for publishers
1. protection against "content theft" by AI
Crawling is no longer automatically allowed - you have control again.
2. new source of income
Instead of relying on advertising alone, there is direct cash per AI access.
3. compensate for traffic losses
Fewer visitors? No problem if you get paid for machine usage.
📌 My reference to this
I run a content-curated website myself with a focus on regional data, location information and manually maintained content.
I've been using Cloudflare for a long time - CDN, security features, R2 storage - everything works.
Now the new feature also gives me the opportunity to protect my content AND monetize it at the same time - without having to set up my own license agreements. That's powerful.
🤝 Who else is behind this?
The initiative is supported by real big names such as:
🗞 Condé Nast
📚 TIME
📰 The Associated Press
and many more...
Publishers no longer want to give their content away, they want to make money from the AI economy. Roger Lynch (CEO of Condé Nast) puts it in a nutshell:
"When AI companies can no longer take everything for free, it opens the door for sustainable innovation."
📈 Outlook for $NET (Cloudflare)
According to Cloudflare, this model could generate over USD 500 million in revenue in the first year alone.
For $NET, this would not only be an additional revenue stream - but the positioning as the infrastructure of the AI era.
After all, Cloudflare has a view of around 20% of global internet traffic, making it a gatekeeper that AI companies cannot ignore.
🔮 My conclusion
Pay-per-crawl could:
- make the web fairer again,
- decommercialize AI usage,
- open up new opportunities for publishers and creators.
For me, it's a glimmer of hope.
If this model really takes hold, even smaller content operators - without direct deals with OpenAI & Co - will have a voice and a price tag.
I'm keeping a close eye on the beta - and will be ready as soon as it goes live.
🗣 What do you think?
Are we seeing the birth of a fair web AI economy - or will it be taken over by the big players again?
https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-pay-per-crawl/
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