Cloudflare opens betas to bill AI agents and content use

Cloudflare opened Monetization Gateway and Pay Per Use betas so site owners and publishers can charge AI agents and products.

On September 30, 2026, Cloudflare announced two separate betas for charging AI systems. Monetization Gateway, in closed beta, lets domain owners charge AI agents for websites, APIs, MCP tools, or datasets using HTTP 402 Payment Required, with inline buyer authorization and settlement in USDC on the Base blockchain through Coinbase's x402 Facilitator. Sellers write pricing rules that match URL, headers, or query parameters, and U.S.-based Cloudflare customers can also pay for selected AI Gateway inference at request time with a Payment-Method: x402 header, illustrated with a request to z-ai/glm-4.7-flash. Separately, Pay Per Use, in beta, lets publishers accept paid offers when identified AI products use their content: a buyer defines the paid use, sets a price, and reports each use as JSON through a single API, after which Cloudflare bills the buyer and pays the publisher monthly. Unlike Pay Per Crawl, which charges for access, Pay Per Use ties payment to downstream use such as a cited answer or a review that shapes a recommendation. The reports do not conflict; they describe different products, and publishers retain crawler controls, can leave a program or reject offers, and may restrict model training in program terms.

• On 2026-09-30 Cloudflare opened Monetization Gateway in closed beta and Pay Per Use in beta.
• Monetization Gateway lets domain owners charge AI agents for websites, APIs, MCP tools, or datasets via HTTP 402 Payment Required.
• Buyers authorize payment inline; settlement is in USDC on Base through Coinbase's x402 Facilitator.
• Sellers set pricing rules that match URL, headers, or query parameters.
• U.S.-based Cloudflare customers can pay for selected AI Gateway inference per request with a Payment-Method: x402 header; an example request targets z-ai/glm-4.7-flash.
• Pay Per Use lets publishers accept paid offers when identified AI products use their content; buyers define the use, set a price, and self-report each use as JSON through one API.
• Cloudflare bills Pay Per Use buyers and pays publishers monthly; unlike Pay Per Crawl, payment follows downstream use rather than the crawl.
• Publishers keep crawler controls, can leave a program or reject offers, and may restrict model training in program terms.