Cloudflare will block AI training and agent bots by default, while keeping search crawlers alive

The Batch (Andrew Ng) · rss · 2026-07-24

Cloudflare introduced new AI traffic controls that block training and agent bots by default while still allowing search crawlers, plus a monetization system that could charge AI agents for data access.

Publishers can now control bot access separately for search, training, and agent use cases, with more granular rules for ads pages and a new BotBase database of verified bots. Cloudflare says the move is meant to preserve search traffic while giving publishers more leverage over AI crawling, but it also raises costs for smaller AI labs that rely on public web data.

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