@Jeff Schwerdt My Chat session: You're spot on to worry—this change from Cloudflare could undercut a key exposure channel for your content. Here's the unvarnished truth: What’s Going On - As of July 1, 2025, Cloudflare defaults to blocking AI crawlers—search engines and AI tools like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini won't access new Cloudflare-protected domains unless you explicitly allow it. This moves your site from “opt-out” to “opt-in” for AI access. The Cloudflare Blog+11Cloudflare+11White Peak Digital+11 - Cloudflare also introduced a “Pay Per Crawl” system (currently in private beta), allowing site owners to charge AI crawlers for access. Alternatively, you can outright block them or explicitly allow access. The Times of India+8The Cloudflare Blog+8Reddit+8 - Their newer tool, AI Crawl Control, now generally available, upgrades monitoring tools into control tools—allowing you to send a customizable HTTP 402 Payment Required response instead of just blocking. You can prompt crawlers with "Email us for access" or "API available" messages. The Verge+3The Cloudflare Blog+3Transparency Coalition+3 So... Will This Hurt Your Visibility in AI Summaries? Yes, if you do nothing. - AI tools scrape content directly, often repackaging it without sending readers to your site—so if you're blocked, your brand and content vanish from those summaries. Wikipedia+5The Cloudflare Blog+5The Australian+5 - Some media outlets report that AI overviews already reduce click-through traffic by 20–70%, even before blocking. The Australian+2Reddit+2

@Donald Clark the cold emails swipe file was supposed to be a paid upgrade; as such I don't think it should be available to everyone on the training page. (??)

Funnel