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Sep 11, 2025
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AI Crawl Control: Reflect Dashboard Changes and Update Pay Per Crawl Site Owner Onboarding #25081

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4c5ceb3
AI Crawl Control: updated to reflect dash changes and pay per crawl o…
CameronWhiteside Sep 11, 2025
e86e041
Setting up redirects, PCX review.
Oxyjun Sep 11, 2025
250727a
Nit fix
Oxyjun Sep 11, 2025
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8 changes: 7 additions & 1 deletion public/__redirects
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Expand Up @@ -153,6 +153,12 @@
/ai-audit/features/enforce-robots-txt/ /ai-crawl-control/features/analyze-ai-crawlers/ 301
/ai-audit/features/analyze-ai-crawlers/ /ai-crawl-control/features/analyze-ai-traffic/ 301

# ai crawl control
/ai-crawl-control/reference/faq/ /ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/faq/ 301
/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-site-owner/set-up-cloudflare-account/ /ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-site-owner/enable-in-account-settings/ 301
/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-site-owner/connect-to-stripe/ /ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-site-owner/manage-payouts/ 301
/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-site-owner/monitor-metrics/ /ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-site-owner/monitor-activity/ 301

# AI Gateway
/ai-gateway/get-started/configuring-settings/ /ai-gateway/get-started/ 301
/ai-gateway/get-started/connecting-applications/ /ai-gateway/get-started/ 301
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -209,7 +215,7 @@
/analytics/analytics-integrations/google-cloud/ /analytics/analytics-integrations/ 301
/analytics/dashboards/ /log-explorer/custom-dashboards/ 301
/analytics/analytics-integrations/looker/ /analytics/analytics-integrations/ 301
/analytics/network-analytics/reference/network-analytics-v1/ /analytics/graphql-api/migration-guides/network-analytics-v2/ 301
/analytics/network-analytics/reference/network-analytics-v1/ /analytics/graphql-api/migration-guides/network-analytics-v2/ 301

# email-security
/email-security/reporting/search/detection-search/ /email-security/reporting/search/ 301
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35 changes: 14 additions & 21 deletions src/content/docs/ai-crawl-control/features/analyze-ai-traffic.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -16,38 +16,31 @@ To view AI Crawl Control metrics:
1. Log in to the [Cloudflare dashboard](https://dash.cloudflare.com/), and select your account and domain.
2. Go to **AI Crawl Control**.

You can find meaningful information across both **AI Crawlers** and **Metrics** tabs.
You can find meaningful information across both **Crawlers** and **Metrics** tabs.

## View AI crawler activity

The **AI Crawlers** tab provides you with the following information:
The **Crawlers** tab provides you with the following information:

- Complete list of detected AI crawlers and their operators
- Total number of requests to crawl your website from common AI crawlers
- Number of requests made by each AI crawler
- Number of `robots.txt` violations for each crawler

## View AI Crawl Control metrics

The **Metrics** tab provides you with the following metrics to help you understand how AI crawlers are interacting with your website.

| Metric | Description |
| ------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Total requests | The total number of requests to crawl your website, from all AI crawlers |
| Blocked requests | The number of crawler requests you have blocked, from any rule |
| Allowed requests | The number of crawler requests you have allowed |
| Hosts | The owner of the AI crawler |
| Overall popular paths | The most popular pages crawled by AI crawlers, from all AI crawlers |
| Most active AI crawlers by operators | The AI crawler owners with the highest number of requests to access your site |
| Request by AI crawlers | A graph which displays the number of crawl requests from each AI crawler |
| Most popular paths by AI crawlers | The most popular pages crawled by AI crawlers, for each AI crawler |
| Referrals | A graph which displays the number of referrals from each AI operator |
| Referers | The list of referers who directed traffic to your site |

:::note[Requests in AI Crawl Control metrics]
The number of requests in AI Crawl Control metrics are specifically requests which were met with HTTP code 200 (the request was successfully served, with actual content).

AI Crawl Control metrics filter all other HTTP codes.
:::
| Metric | Description |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Total requests | The total number of requests to crawl your website, from all AI crawlers |
| Allowed requests | The number of crawler requests that received a successful response from your site |
| Unsuccessful requests | The number of crawler requests that failed (HTTP 4xx or 5xx) as a result of a blocked request, other security rules, or website errors such as a crawler attempting to access a non-existent page |
| Overall popular paths | The most popular pages crawled by AI crawlers, from all AI crawlers |
| Most active AI crawlers by operators | The AI crawler owners with the highest number of requests to access your site |
| Request by AI crawlers | A graph which displays the number of crawl requests from each AI crawler |
| Most popular paths by AI crawlers | The most popular pages crawled by AI crawlers, for each AI crawler |
| Referrals | A graph which displays the number of visits that were directed to your site from each AI operator |
| Referers | The list of referers who directed visits to your site |

## Filter date range

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75 changes: 40 additions & 35 deletions src/content/docs/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -13,22 +13,22 @@ To manage AI crawlers:

1. Log in to the [Cloudflare dashboard](https://dash.cloudflare.com/), and select your account and domain.
2. Go to **AI Crawl Control**.
3. Go to the **AI Crawlers** tab.
3. Go to the **Crawlers** tab.

## Review AI crawler activity

The **Crawlers** tab displays a table of AI crawlers that are requesting access to your content, and how they interact with your pages. The table provides the following information.

| Column | Details |
| --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Crawler | The name of the AI crawler and the operator that owns it. |
| Category | The category of the AI crawler. Refer to [Verified bot categories](/bots/concepts/bot/verified-bots/#categories). |
| Requests | Total allowed and blocked requests with trend chart. Blocked requests may come from any configured rule, not just the actions shown here. |
| Robots.txt violations | The number of times the AI crawler has violated your <GlossaryTooltip term="robots.txt">`robots.txt`</GlossaryTooltip> file. |
| Action | The action you wish to take for the AI crawler. Refer to [Take action for each AI crawler](/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers/#take-action-for-each-ai-crawler). |
| Column | Details |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Crawler | The name of the AI crawler and the operator that owns it. |
| Category | The category of the AI crawler. Refer to [Verified bot categories](/bots/concepts/bot/verified-bots/#categories). |
| Requests | The total number of allowed and unsuccessful requests, with trend chart. Unsuccessful requests may come from any rule or response error, not just the block action in AI Crawl Control. |
| Robots.txt violations | The number of times the AI crawler has violated your <GlossaryTooltip term="robots.txt">`robots.txt`</GlossaryTooltip> file. |
| Action | The action you wish to take for the AI crawler. Refer to [Take action for each AI crawler](/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers/#take-action-for-each-ai-crawler). |

:::note[Quality of AI crawler detection]
On the free plan, AI Crawl Control identifies AI crawlers based on their [user agent strings](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/User-Agent). This enables AI Crawl Control to detect easy-to-detect (well-known) AI crawlers.
On the free plan, AI Crawl Control identifies AI crawlers based on their [user agent strings](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/User-Agent). This enables AI Crawl Control to detect well-known, self-identifying AI crawlers.

Upgrade your plan to enable a more thorough detection using Cloudflare's [Bot Management detection ID](/bots/reference/bot-management-variables/#ruleset-engine-fields) field.
:::
Expand All @@ -46,31 +46,21 @@ The values of the table will update according to your filter.
## Take action for each AI crawler

<Tabs>
<TabItem label="With pay per crawl">

:::note[Pay per crawl closed beta]
Pay per crawl is currently in closed beta.

To find out how to join the beta program, reach out to us at [Pay per crawl signup](http://www.cloudflare.com/paypercrawl-signup/), or contact your account executive if you are an existing Enterprise customer.

To learn more about pay per crawl, refer to Cloudflare blog: [Introducing pay per crawl: enabling content owners to charge AI crawlers for access](https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-pay-per-crawl/).
:::
<TabItem label="Without pay per crawl">

For each AI crawler, you can take one of three actions: allow, charge, or block.
For each AI crawler, you can choose to allow or block access.

<Example title="Allow access">

- **Summary:** You can allow an AI crawler to scrape your content.
- **When to use:** Allow AI crawlers that offer services which provide value through citations, referrals, or existing agreements.
- **Implementation:** From the **Actions** column, select **Allow**.
Note that you can still choose to [Enforce `robots.txt`](/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers/#take-action-for-each-ai-crawler).

For more details on how this rule interacts with other Cloudflare settings, refer to [How it works](/bots/concepts/bot/#how-it-works).
Note that you can still choose to [Enforce `robots.txt`](/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers/#take-action-for-each-ai-crawler).

</Example>

<Example title="Block access">

- **Summary:** You can block an AI crawler to completely stop the AI crawler from scraping your webpage.
- **When to use:** Block AI crawlers when their behavior do not align with your content strategy, or violate your policies.
- **Implementation:** From the **Actions** column, select **Block**.
Expand All @@ -79,32 +69,32 @@ Note that you can configure the response that gets returned when blocking an AI

</Example>

<Example title="Charge for crawl (private beta)">

- **Summary:** You can charge the owner of the AI crawler for each crawl request.
- **When to use:** Charge AI crawlers when your content has training value, and you want to explore monetization options
- **Implementation:** From the **Actions** column, select **Charge**.
</TabItem>
<TabItem label="With pay per crawl">

For more information, refer to [What is Pay Per Crawl?](/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/what-is-pay-per-crawl/).
:::note[Pay per crawl closed beta]
Pay per crawl is currently in closed beta.

</Example>
To find out how to join the beta program, reach out to us at [Pay per crawl signup](http://www.cloudflare.com/paypercrawl-signup/), or contact your account executive if you are an existing Enterprise customer.

</TabItem>
<TabItem label="Without pay per crawl">
To learn more about pay per crawl, refer to Cloudflare blog: [Introducing pay per crawl: enabling content owners to charge AI crawlers for access](https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-pay-per-crawl/).
:::

For each AI crawler, you can choose to allow or block access.
For each AI crawler, you can take one of three actions: allow, charge, or block.

<Example title="Allow access">

- **Summary:** You can allow an AI crawler to scrape your content.
- **When to use:** Allow AI crawlers that offer services which provide value through citations, referrals, or existing agreements.
- **Implementation:** From the **Actions** column, select **Allow**.
Note that you can still choose to [Enforce `robots.txt`](/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers/#take-action-for-each-ai-crawler).

Note that you can still choose to [Enforce `robots.txt`](/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers/#take-action-for-each-ai-crawler).
For more details on how this rule interacts with other Cloudflare settings, refer to [How it works](/bots/concepts/bot/#how-it-works).

</Example>

<Example title="Block access">

- **Summary:** You can block an AI crawler to completely stop the AI crawler from scraping your webpage.
- **When to use:** Block AI crawlers when their behavior do not align with your content strategy, or violate your policies.
- **Implementation:** From the **Actions** column, select **Block**.
Expand All @@ -113,9 +103,24 @@ Note that you can configure the response that gets returned when blocking an AI

</Example>

<Example title="Charge for crawl (private beta)">

- **Summary:** You can charge the owner of the AI crawler for each successful crawl request.
- **When to use:** Charge AI crawlers when your content has training value, and you want to explore monetization options.
- **Implementation:** From the **Actions** column, select **Charge**.

For more information, refer to [What is Pay Per Crawl?](/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/what-is-pay-per-crawl/).

</Example>

</TabItem>

</Tabs>

:::tip[Need more advanced control?]
You can also create more complex rules when taking action on AI crawlers, using [Cloudflare WAF](/waf/). For more information on creating more specific rules, refer to [Create a custom rule in the dashboard](/waf/custom-rules/create-dashboard/).
:::

## Configure block response

<Plan type="paid" />
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -147,8 +152,8 @@ You can choose which HTTP response code to return when blocking an AI crawler.

Use the dropdown menu to select the desired response code. You can choose from:

- `403 Forbidden`: Use this option if you wish to indicate that you do not want the AI crawler to access your content.
- `402 Payment Required`: Use this option if you wish to indicate that the AI crawler must pay to access your content.
- `403 Forbidden`: Use this option if you wish to indicate that you do not want the AI crawler to access your content.
- `402 Payment Required`: Use this option if you wish to indicate that the AI crawler must pay to access your content.

:::note
Behind the scenes, AI Crawl Control uses [Cloudflare WAF](/waf/) to return custom block responses.
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28 changes: 28 additions & 0 deletions src/content/docs/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/faq.mdx
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@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
---
title: Pay Per Crawl FAQ
pcx_content_type: concept
sidebar:
order: 4
---

import { Steps } from "~/components";

## Frequently asked questions for site owners

### Can I set different prices for different AI crawlers?

No. Pay per crawl allows you to configure different actions (Block, Charge, or Allow) for each crawler, but you can only set a single price that applies to all crawlers configured with the "Charge" option.

## Frequently asked questions for AI bot operators

### Will I be charged for re-crawling the same page?

Yes. Every time your AI crawler accesses content on a website protected with pay per crawl, it will incur the cost set by the site owner. You should implement mechanisms within your crawler to track expenditure and enforce any spending limits you want to set.

### Am I charged for error responses?

No. Charging events are only triggered for successful HTTP response codes. Error responses are not billed, even if you have sent the `crawler-exact-price` or `crawler-max-price` headers.

### What user agent should I use?

Use the standard user agents associated with your AI crawler that you have onboarded to Cloudflare and identified through Web Bot Auth.
2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion ...wl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-ai-owner/crawl-pages.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -85,4 +85,4 @@ Cloudflare strongly recommends tracking and saving these values to keep an accur

You may wish to refer to the following resources.

- [AI Crawl Control FAQs](/ai-crawl-control/reference/faq/).
- [Pay Per Crawl FAQs](/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/faq).
2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion ...ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/use-pay-per-crawl-as-ai-owner/index.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ pcx_content_type: navigation
sidebar:
group:
hideIndex: true
order: 5
order: 3
---

import { DirectoryListing } from "~/components";
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