Cloudflare has put Pay Per Use into beta to let publishers earn money when AI products use their content. A buyer offers a price for a defined use, publishers choose whether to accept, and the buyer reports each use through one API. Cloudflare records usage, bills buyers, pays publishers monthly, and displays offers, usage, and earnings in its dashboard. The company says the model addresses a problem with AI answer engines: they can summarize a publisher’s page without sending a visit or the revenue that might come with it. Most publishers are unlikely to negotiate individual licensing deals with AI companies, Cloudflare says.

Pay Per Use charges for content use rather than every crawl. Cloudflare says AI products fetch more material than they ultimately use, so charging for each crawl makes buyers pay before knowing what they need. Its earlier Pay Per Crawl service, launched in 2025, charges for access; publishers can choose either model. For buyers, Pay Per Use can cover material behind blocks or paywalls, including news, research, and specialist trade publications. Buyers make offers and pay only for content their products use, identify themselves to publishers as verified buyers, and connect to participating sites through one API instead of thousands of integrations or individual contracts.

Each AI company defines a paid use and its price. A search service might pay when it returns an excerpt from an enrolled page; a shopping agent might pay when a review shapes a recommendation, even if the shopper never reads it. Publishers can accept different offers for different uses of the same article. They review the company, use definition, and price in Cloudflare’s dashboard, can stop participating, and do not need to change their website’s origin or integrate separately with each AI company. Program terms also specify permitted content uses, including any training restrictions. Participating AI companies identify crawlers with Verified bots and may access and index content subject to publisher controls.

To report a use, buyers retrieve the domains that accepted their offers and send a line of JSON (a structured data format) containing the time, source URL, and event ID. Reporting is self-reported; program terms require complete reports, and Cloudflare checks each reported use against an enrolled publisher. Cloudflare aggregates the reports, charges buyers, and pays publishers monthly through connected payment accounts. Its dashboard shows reported uses and estimated earnings over time by buyer and domain.

Cloudflare says publishers can compare what crawlers take, tracked in its Business Insights product, with whether content was later used and what it earned through Pay Per Use. The company is working with AI buyers to provide more context, such as keywords leading to a citation, request topics, or the product powered, without exchanging personal data. Its Answer Engine Optimization tool shows how assistants answer questions about a publisher’s work; Pay Per Use records reported uses and earnings. Cloudflare says the information can inform commercial choices about which content and uses earn money and editorial choices about coverage, updates, and making content easier for agents to find.

During the beta, Cloudflare is working directly with buyers and publishers who opt in to assess whether both sides want to continue. Buyers need useful content at a workable price; publishers need worthwhile returns, trusted reporting, and timely payments. Cloudflare wants future buyers to onboard their own products and payment models without rebuilding enrollment, reporting, and settlement for each publisher. It says publishers should eventually be able to accept or decline offers, counter prices, and charge different amounts by use; recent reporting may be worth more to an AI product than a ten-year-old archive page.

Cloudflare describes Pay Per Use as a commercial arrangement for content that becomes part of another product, such as a cited search answer, shopping recommendation, or agent report. For APIs, tools, and data, where each request is the use, its separate Monetization Gateway is also in beta and lets sellers charge agents per request using the open x402 protocol. Both products use the same foundations: identity, metering, pricing, and analytics.

Cloudflare has put Pay Per Use into beta to let publishers earn money when AI products use their content. A buyer offers a price for a defined use, publishers choose whether to accept, and the buyer reports each use through one API. Cloudflare records usage, bills buyers, pays publishers monthly, and displays offers, usage, and earnings in its dashboard. The company says the model addresses a problem with AI answer engines: they can summarize a publisher’s page without sending a visit or the revenue that might come with it. Most publishers are unlikely to negotiate individual licensing deals with AI companies, Cloudflare says.

Pay Per Use charges for content use rather than every crawl. Cloudflare says AI products fetch more material than they ultimately use, so charging for each crawl makes buyers pay before knowing what they need. Its earlier Pay Per Crawl service, launched in 2025, charges for access; publishers can choose either model. For buyers, Pay Per Use can cover material behind blocks or paywalls, including news, research, and specialist trade publications. Buyers make offers and pay only for content their products use, identify themselves to publishers as verified buyers, and connect to participating sites through one API instead of thousands of integrations or individual contracts.

Each AI company defines a paid use and its price. A search service might pay when it returns an excerpt from an enrolled page; a shopping agent might pay when a review shapes a recommendation, even if the shopper never reads it. Publishers can accept different offers for different uses of the same article. They review the company, use definition, and price in Cloudflare’s dashboard, can stop participating, and do not need to change their website’s origin or integrate separately with each AI company. Program terms also specify permitted content uses, including any training restrictions. Participating AI companies identify crawlers with Verified bots and may access and index content subject to publisher controls.

To report a use, buyers retrieve the domains that accepted their offers and send a line of JSON (a structured data format) containing the time, source URL, and event ID. Reporting is self-reported; program terms require complete reports, and Cloudflare checks each reported use against an enrolled publisher. Cloudflare aggregates the reports, charges buyers, and pays publishers monthly through connected payment accounts. Its dashboard shows reported uses and estimated earnings over time by buyer and domain.

Cloudflare says publishers can compare what crawlers take, tracked in its Business Insights product, with whether content was later used and what it earned through Pay Per Use. The company is working with AI buyers to provide more context, such as keywords leading to a citation, request topics, or the product powered, without exchanging personal data. Its Answer Engine Optimization tool shows how assistants answer questions about a publisher’s work; Pay Per Use records reported uses and earnings. Cloudflare says the information can inform commercial choices about which content and uses earn money and editorial choices about coverage, updates, and making content easier for agents to find.

During the beta, Cloudflare is working directly with buyers and publishers who opt in to assess whether both sides want to continue. Buyers need useful content at a workable price; publishers need worthwhile returns, trusted reporting, and timely payments. Cloudflare wants future buyers to onboard their own products and payment models without rebuilding enrollment, reporting, and settlement for each publisher. It says publishers should eventually be able to accept or decline offers, counter prices, and charge different amounts by use; recent reporting may be worth more to an AI product than a ten-year-old archive page.

Cloudflare describes Pay Per Use as a commercial arrangement for content that becomes part of another product, such as a cited search answer, shopping recommendation, or agent report. For APIs, tools, and data, where each request is the use, its separate Monetization Gateway is also in beta and lets sellers charge agents per request using the open x402 protocol. Both products use the same foundations: identity, metering, pricing, and analytics.