New turn in Cloudflare and OpenAI deal as CEO says OpenAI pays

The deal gives OpenAI a signal when a web page changes. The crawler of OpenAI does not fetch the page again. Cloudflare published it on July 8 as a research pilot.

On the third quarter earnings call, Cloudflare chief executive Matthew Prince said that OpenAI pays Cloudflare for hints. The hints tell the crawler when a web page changes. Cloudflare reported revenue of $782.5 million, 39% more than one year before. Prince gave no figure for the new Act 4 revenue. Prince did not say the quantity that OpenAI pays or when the payments started.

How it works

Cloudflare tells OpenAI when a page changes, for example when a restaurant updates its prices. The crawler, software that reads web pages, does not fetch the same page again. Prince puts this in Act 4, the products for a new business model for the internet.

The numbers

Cloudflare gave no figure for Act 4 revenue. Prince said that the company recognizes much revenue from its work with agents. On 30 September, Cloudflare moved 2 payment products to beta, a test step.

What is not known

The payment quantity and the start date are not known. Prince did not say if the sites in the pilot get a share. Prince said that some customers want many agents and other customers want to stop them.

Insight: Cloudflare earns on both sides of agent traffic

Cloudflare is paid by OpenAI for hints. It also stops agents for sites that want them out. A related report says that about 5% of the web chose its content protection since 1 July. This reads as a toll gate: Cloudflare is between agents and sites and collects from the side that wants access. Look for other AI companies that pay, and for a share for sites.