Patreon is now blocking known AI training crawlers using Cloudflare.
Why it matters: The move gives creators a more direct layer of protection against unauthorized AI training on paid work. It also signals how publisher-style access controls could spread across platforms that host original content.
- Patreon said it is shifting from warnings to blocking known AI training crawlers at the network level.
- The company says the new controls use Cloudflare's AI Crawl Control technology.
- Patreon said protections introduced in 2023 were no longer enough as scraping tactics evolved.
- Discovery crawlers that send users back to Patreon will still be allowed.
Patreon says it is moving beyond robots.txt and other warning signs to stop known AI training bots from accessing creator work. In a post on its site, the company said its earlier protections, first put in place in 2023, were no longer sufficient. Patreon to Expand AI Scraping Protections for Creators with Cloudflare
The company said the new setup will keep allowing crawlers used for discovery and routing users back to Patreon, but will block known AI training crawlers. Patreon said the change is meant to give creators a real say in whether their work is used to train models. Patreon to Expand AI Scraping Protections for Creators with Cloudflare
Cloudflare said its AI Crawl Control tools are designed to help publishers identify AI traffic and set access rules. Cloudflare also announced earlier this month that customers could block AI crawlers by default, part of a broader push to give sites more control over how their content is used. AI Crawl Control overview Cloudflare Allows the Agentic Internet to Flourish with a Simple Philosophy: Your Content, Your Rules
TechCrunch reported July 17 that Patreon was working with Cloudflare to directly block AI bots trained on creators' work without permission, rather than relying on robots.txt alone. Patreon stops asking AI bots not to scrape - and starts blocking them
Yes, but: Patreon is still relying on platform-level controls, not a universal fix. The company said discovery crawlers will remain allowed, and the change applies to known AI training bots rather than every form of automated access.