Cloudflare plans to launch an AI marketplace audit tool next year, granting AI model providers access in exchange for compensation.

This initiative aims to empower publishers with greater control over AI web scraping, addressing concerns that smaller publishers’ content is increasingly utilized without compensation.

In tandem with the marketplace, Cloudflare has unveiled a tool called AI Audit, which delivers analytics on AI model scraping. This tool enables website owners to track how often their sites are crawled by AI models and selectively block unwanted bots.

Although specifics are still being finalized, Cloudflare’s CEO indicated that website owners could set access fees based on scraping rates or consider credit arrangements.

The need for such tools arises from reports of AI bots scraping websites without prior consent, raising concerns about sustainability practices that leave smaller publishers uncompensated.