Cloudflare and beehiiv Introduce AI Crawl Controls to Help Independent Publishers Navigate the AI Era

New integration embeds Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control technology into beehiiv, allowing newsletter operators to seamlessly manage bot traffic, optimize for AI search discovery and protect their content archive

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, and beehiiv, the newsletter-first publishing platform that helps publishers and businesses own, grow, and monetize their audience, today announced a strategic partnership to redefine the creator economy and how independent creators interact with AI. By integrating Cloudflare’s advanced Crawl Control technology directly into the beehiiv platform, the partnership equips creators with clear visibility and granular control over how AI models use their work.

As AI models evolve to offer new forms of search and discovery, independent creators are looking for flexible ways to understand and manage how their content is accessed. This integration simplifies the process by letting beehiiv users manage their digital footprint through two clear choices: publishers can either opt-in to maximum discovery to allow AI search engines and agents to crawl their work freely for broader distribution, or choose content protection, blocking AI scraping to preserve their archives for future monetization and licensing opportunities.

"Cloudflare is dedicated to protecting and enabling content creators, from independent bloggers to the world’s largest publishers," said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. "As the Internet evolves, our commitment remains the same: ensuring creators have the tools they need to thrive. This partnership with beehiiv is the next logical step in that mission, giving newsletter operators the transparency and control to navigate the AI era on their own terms, whether they are optimizing for discovery or preserving their work for future opportunities."

"beehiiv was built to support creator independence," said Tyler Denk, co-founder and CEO of beehiiv. "As AI changes how people find and consume content, publishers need real leverage. Our partnership with Cloudflare gives creators the data and controls they need to either maximize discovery and distribution, or protect their writing and dictate their own terms."

Managing AI bots historically required complex technical engagement, like manual robots.txt updates or firewalls. This partnership removes those technical hurdles, giving publishers of all sizes – from large media outlets to individual creators – the ability to easily set automated preferences. Key features of the integration include:

• Personalized Analytics: Creators get an on-platform dashboard powered by Cloudflare APIs. This shows exactly which AI crawlers are attempting to access their content, which ones are being blocked, and the referral traffic those crawlers send back to the newsletter.
• One-Click Toggle Permissions: The ability to block or allow specific AI models based on the creator's business goals.
• Future-Proof Rights Management: Automatic updates that adapt to new AI crawlers as they emerge on the web, ensuring creators have the most up-to-date control without needing to update code.

AI Crawl Control will be available to all beehiiv users in beta, giving every publisher visibility into how AI services interact with their content and the traffic they generate. beehiiv Max customers will also have access to AI Crawl Control, enabling them to block AI crawlers and decide how their content is used across the AI ecosystem.

The new AI control features are rolling out today and will be available through the platform's standard dashboard settings. For more information about the partnership, please visit cloudflare.com or beehiiv.com.

About beehiiv

beehiiv is the platform creators and brands use to publish, grow, and monetize their owned audiences. More than 135,000 publishers run their newsletters, websites, and podcasts on beehiiv, keeping 100% of their subscription revenue and full ownership of their audience. The platform brings newsletter publishing, podcast hosting, a website builder, and digital product sales together in one place, with built-in monetization, deep analytics, and a suite of integrations and AI-tools. beehiiv's mission is to help the next million creators and brands to build direct relationships with their audience and turn those relationships into sustainable revenue. Learn more at beehiiv.com.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud company. It empowers organizations to make their employees, applications and networks faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and cost. Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud delivers the most full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need to work, develop, and accelerate their business.

Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations – from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the globe.

Learn more about Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud at cloudflare.com/connectivity-cloud. Learn more about the latest Internet trends and insights at radar.cloudflare.com.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “explores,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and effectiveness of Cloudflare’s Crawl Control and Cloudflare’s other products and technology, the benefits to Cloudflare’s customers from using Cloudflare’s Crawl Control and Cloudflare’s other products and technology, Cloudflare’s partnership with beehiiv and the potential resulting benefits to Cloudflare customers, the potential benefits to customers of integrating Cloudflare and beehiiv’s products, the potential opportunity for Cloudflare to attract additional customers and to expand sales to existing customers through Cloudflare’s partnership and product integrations with beehiiv, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 8, 2026, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.

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