Adam Hafez
Key takeaways
- Monetization Gateway is in closed beta for sellers and buyers based in the United States, and charges agents per request using the HTTP 402 status code and the x402 protocol.
- Sellers write rules that set the domain, URL, price and audience, and payments settle in USDC on the Base blockchain through Coinbase's x402 Facilitator.
- In Pay Per Use, each AI company defines the use it will pay for and sets a price, and publishers choose which offers to accept.
- Pay Per Use depends on buyers reporting each use themselves, and Cloudflare checks only that every reported use maps to an enrolled publisher.
- Neither Cloudflare post names the AI companies buying through Pay Per Use or reports payout figures.
Cloudflare put two AI payment products into beta on 30 September 2026, according to its own Monetization Gateway and Pay Per Use posts. Search Engine Journal reported the move on 1 October. Both are aimed at getting paid when AI systems use what you publish or run.
What is Monetization Gateway?
It lets a seller charge an AI agent for each request to an API, MCP tool, dataset or site behind Cloudflare. When an agent asks for a protected resource, it receives payment terms over HTTP 402, signs a payment authorization and retries. Cloudflare’s docs say payment is verified before the seller’s origin responds.
Each rule sets a domain, URL, price and audience: everyone, or only verified bots identified through BotBase. Fixed prices charge the same amount per request, while variable prices authorize a maximum and the origin reports the actual amount. The documented minimum settlement is $0.001 and the maximum price is $100. Payments use USDC on the Base blockchain.
Who can use the Gateway now?
Only US-based sellers and buyers, in a closed beta where access is requested in the dashboard. The eligibility page also asks for a credit card on file, a verified email, an account older than 60 days, and a zone that is proxied through Cloudflare and older than 30 days. Cloudflare says support for new geographies is on the way.
How does Pay Per Use work?
An AI company sets up a program, names the use it will pay for and sets a price. Publishers review offers under Monetize, Pay Per Use in the dashboard and accept or decline, and each program’s terms define what the buyer may do with the content, including any training restrictions.
The buyer then reports each use with a timestamp, the source URL and an event ID. Cloudflare says usage is self-reported, checks that each use maps to an enrolled publisher, charges the buyer and pays publishers monthly.
What is still unknown?
During the beta, Cloudflare is working directly with each buyer and with publishers who opt in, and it does not name the buyers. Neither post reports transaction counts or payouts. Ideas such as countering a buyer’s price or pricing by use are described as things the beta will help it work out.
For a publisher, the practical first step is knowing which AI crawlers you currently allow. Our robots.txt and llms.txt generator shows those rules, and the AI contribution pilot report covers a comparable payment program from Google.
The evidence
- Type
- announcement
- Impact
- medium
- Affects
- Cloudflare, AI agents, Pay Per Use, Publisher revenue
Sources
- 1.Monetization Gateway beta: charge AI agents for consumption with HTTP 402 - Cloudflare Blog, September 30, 2026Primary
- 2.Pay Per Use: when AI uses your work, you should get paid - Cloudflare Blog, September 30, 2026Primary
- 3.Monetization rules - Cloudflare Docs, September 30, 2026Primary
- 4.Eligibility - Cloudflare Docs, September 30, 2026Primary
- 5.Cloudflare Moves Monetization Gateway & Pay Per Use Into Beta - Search Engine Journal, October 1, 2026
Frequently asked questions
What is Cloudflare Monetization Gateway?
A product that lets sellers charge AI agents per request for APIs, MCP tools, datasets and sites behind Cloudflare. It is in closed beta for US-based sellers and buyers.
How does Pay Per Use pay publishers?
An AI company offers a price for a defined use of your content, you accept or decline, and the buyer reports each use. Cloudflare bills the buyer and pays publishers monthly.
Is Pay Per Use the same as Pay Per Crawl?
No. Cloudflare says Pay Per Crawl charges for access, while Pay Per Use pays for what happens next, such as a cited answer in AI search. Publishers can choose the model that suits them.
About the author
Founder, UpgradIQ FZC LLC
Adam Hafez works on technical SEO and search measurement: how pages get crawled, indexed, ranked and now quoted by answer engines. He founded UpgradIQ, which reads Google Search Console and GA4 to tie ranking movement back to the changes that caused it. He publishes what the data supports and states the limits of it.
- Technical SEO
- Search Console and GA4 measurement
- Answer engine optimization
- Structured data
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