Get Paid When AI Uses Your Work: Pay Per Use Enters Beta
Hi everyone, it's Shii-chan! Here's good news for people who create content.
Cloudflare Blog
blog.cloudflare.com
What was announced?
The Cloudflare Blog announced the Pay Per Use beta. AI companies report when they use publishers' content, and Cloudflare handles billing, payouts, and reporting, so publishers are paid according to use. Cloudflare is working directly with select AI companies and publishers.
The story so far
Cloudflare's earlier Pay Per Crawl charges for access regardless of whether the content is ultimately used. Pay Per Use charges for actual use instead.
What changes
Publishers can accept different payment offers for different uses of the same content, and track earnings and usage in the dashboard.
Dive Deep
The flow has four steps:
- AI companies define terms: each buyer identifies its crawler, specifies what usage triggers payment, sets pricing, and connects a payment account
- Publishers decide: they review offers in the dashboard and choose which programs to join
- Buyers report usage: via API as JSON with a timestamp, URL, and event ID
- Settlement: Cloudflare aggregates usage, charges buyers, and pays publishers monthly
Usage is self-reported by buyers but verified against enrolled publishers. The related Monetization Gateway (also in beta) charges per request via the x402 protocol. Participant names and numbers were not disclosed.
Wrap-up
- Cloudflare handles billing, payouts, and reporting for AI use of content
- It charges for actual use, unlike Pay Per Crawl
- Usage is reported via API and settled monthly
This is for publishers and AI companies' licensing teams!