Cloudflare announced the beta of Pay Per Use on September 30, 2026. An AI company defines which use of content it will pay for and offers a price. A publisher decides whether to join that program. Cloudflare handles the usage records, billing and payout, while publishers can inspect activity and earnings in its dashboard. Source
The event that triggers payment
The proposal centers on use after a page has been accessed. One buyer might pay when an excerpt appears in an AI search answer; another might define a different downstream use. Buyers set the definition and price for their programs, and publishers can review offers separately. The announcement describes a choice to participate, rather than a universal payment automatically attached to every AI visit. Source
How it differs from crawl pricing
Cloudflare already offers Pay Per Crawl, which charges for access to a page. Pay Per Use addresses a later step, when content contributes to an AI product. A publisher evaluating the beta should check the named buyer, the paid-use definition and the offered rate in the Monetize area of the dashboard. Those terms determine what a particular program covers. Source