---
title: "Fastly lets publishers bill each AI crawler by company, chasing Cloudflare's pay-per-crawl"
description: "Supertab Connect, live on Fastly Compute, lets publishers allow, block or bill each AI crawler by company, weeks after Cloudflare began blocking mixed-use crawlers by default on its own network. The new products have earned nothing yet, and the first revenue reading lands November 4."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Platforms"
published: 2026-10-20T23:29:40.128Z
modified: 2026-10-20T23:29:40.128Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/fastly-lets-publishers-bill-each-ai-crawler-by-company-chasing-cloudflare-s-pay-per-crawl
language: en
keywords: "Fastly, Cloudflare, AI Crawlers, Publishing, Edge Computing, Earnings"
---

# Fastly lets publishers bill each AI crawler by company, chasing Cloudflare's pay-per-crawl

> Supertab Connect, live on Fastly Compute, lets publishers allow, block or bill each AI crawler by company, weeks after Cloudflare began blocking mixed-use crawlers by default on its own network. The new products have earned nothing yet, and the first revenue reading lands November 4.

## A toll booth per crawler, live in three hours

A publisher on [Fastly](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/fastly)'s network can now quote one price to [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai)'s crawler, block [Anthropic](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anthropic)'s and let Google's through, decided at the edge before the request reaches the publisher's own servers. Supertab Connect, from Supertab, a startup that meters and bills machine consumption of content, [went live on Fastly Compute, Fastly's edge cloud platform, on October 12, 2026](https://fortune.com/press-releases/supertab-connect-ai-bot-classification-fastly-compute-2026-10-12/) [1].

It names the company behind each bot, checks its license token under the Crawler Authorization Protocol, and posts machine-readable terms under RSL 1.0, the open Really Simple Licensing standard; setup takes two to three hours and no DNS changes [1]. A day later, Fastly announced the enterprise half of the same thesis, AI Runtime Control, AI Firewall and API Security for agent traffic, which reached general availability in September, plus an expanded JioCDN partnership in India [2][3][4].

## The meter rides on sunk capital

Bots make up more than 49% of all traffic, Fastly's Threat Insights 2026 report finds, and on Fastly's own network machine-generated traffic crossed half in July and August; AI traffic grew 6.5 times faster than human traffic from January through May [1][2]. The 622 Tbps network already handles more than five trillion requests a day, and Fastly charges largely on traffic volume, so agent requests that used to be pure cost now carry a price [2][5].

Oppenheimer analyst Param Singh [upgraded the stock to Outperform on October 9, 2026, with a $35 target](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/09/fastly-spikes-15-as-oppenheimer-upgrades-to-outperform-with-35-target-datadog-rises-4-cloudflare-gains-2/); the shares rose almost 16% to $29.30 [4][5]. His call rests on products that reached general availability in September and had yet to contribute significant revenue [5]. The third-quarter guide of $184–190M follows a Q2 beat: revenue of $183.32M, up 23.3% and 5.4% above consensus, with the 2026 outlook raised to $732–746M [6].

*Chart: **Fastly's revenue run steepened into the AI launches, and guidance extends it** Column chart of Fastly quarterly revenue from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 plus the Q3 2026 guidance midpoint, rising from $137.21M to $187M with growth steepening through 2026.*

*Quarterly revenue in USD millions from Fastly's SEC filings; the final bar is the midpoint of management's Q3 2026 guidance. [6][8]*

## Cloudflare set this market's rules first

[Cloudflare](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/cloudflare), the larger rival, has run a pay-per-crawl marketplace, and [from September 15, 2026, its defaults block mixed-use crawlers](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/01/cloudflares-new-policy-pushes-ai-companies-to-pay-for-publishers-content/), the ones blending search, agent use and training, from any page that hosts ads; Pay Per Crawl is also evolving into Pay Per Use [7]. Supertab's launch FAQ courts "publishers who aren't on Cloudflare" [1]. Fastly serves a large share of the world's media companies and publishers [1].

## Losses and insider selling sit under the rally

Fastly has posted a GAAP net loss in every quarter since late 2023, even as operating cash flow has stayed positive for eight straight quarters, reaching $39.[3M](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/3m) in Q2 2026 [8]. Insiders sold $89.7M of stock over the past year with no buying; GuruFocus, a stock-research site, [puts fair value at $10.71 against a $22.47 close](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9128622/fastly-inc-fsly-shares-fall-104-what-gf-score-of-54-tells-investors) after a 10.4% drop on October 16, and Wall Street stands at six buys, six holds and one sell [9][4].

*Chart: **Positive cash for eight quarters, but the GAAP loss never closed** Column chart of Fastly's operating cash flow against GAAP net income from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026, cash flow positive and rising while net losses narrow.*

*Operating cash flow and GAAP net income in USD millions, from Fastly's SEC filings. Cash flow has been positive for eight straight quarters while GAAP losses narrowed to $15.59M in Q2 2026. [8][10]*

## November 4 is the first reading

[Singh expects revenue at the top of the guide, a raised 2026 outlook](https://en.oninvest.com/article/oppenheimer-upgrades-fastly-to-outperform-ahead-of-3q-earnings-and-gta-vi-launch), and almost $10M from Grand Theft Auto VI downloads due November 19 [4]. The stock is up 188% this year against an average analyst target of $28.55, below the last close [4]. Fastly reports on November 4 [4]; that report is the first chance to see whether crawler tolls show up as revenue.

## Takeaway

Fastly and Supertab are building the billing layer for AI crawler traffic that Cloudflare's pay-per-crawl opened, but Fastly's first chance to show the revenue is its November 4 report, under a stock that already trades above its average analyst target.

## Sources

1. [Fortune press releases (Supertab via EZ Newswire), Supertab Connect Brings AI Bot Classification and RSL Licensing to Fastly Compute, 12 October 2026](https://fortune.com/press-releases/supertab-connect-ai-bot-classification-fastly-compute-2026-10-12/)
2. [TechTravelMonitor, Fastly extends real-time edge control to AI, 13 October 2026](https://techtravelmonitor.com/2026/10/13/fastly-extends-real-time-edge-control-to-ai/)
3. [Business Wire, Fastly Expands Partnership with Jio Platforms to Power the Next Generation of India's Digital Economy, 13 October 2026](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261013147203/en/Fastly-Expands-Partnership-with-Jio-Platforms-to-Power-the-Next-Generation-of-Indias-Digital-Economy)
4. [Oninvest, Oppenheimer upgrades Fastly to 'outperform' ahead of 3Q earnings and GTA VI launch, October 2026](https://en.oninvest.com/article/oppenheimer-upgrades-fastly-to-outperform-ahead-of-3q-earnings-and-gta-vi-launch)
5. [24/7 Wall St., Fastly Spikes 15% as Oppenheimer Upgrades to Outperform With $35 Target, 9 October 2026](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/09/fastly-spikes-15-as-oppenheimer-upgrades-to-outperform-with-35-target-datadog-rises-4-cloudflare-gains-2/)
6. [Ad Hoc News, Fastly stock slips after revenue and guidance gains, 5 September 2026](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/nebenwerte/fastly-stock-slips-after-revenue-and-guidance-gains/70057481)
7. [TechCrunch, Cloudflare's new policy pushes AI companies to pay for publishers' content, 1 July 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/01/cloudflares-new-policy-pushes-ai-companies-to-pay-for-publishers-content/)
8. [Fastly, Inc., quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 20 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001517413)
9. [GuruFocus, Fastly Inc (FSLY) Shares Fall 10.4% -- What GF Score of 54 Tells Investors, 16 October 2026](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9128622/fastly-inc-fsly-shares-fall-104-what-gf-score-of-54-tells-investors)
10. [Fastly, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 20 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001517413)


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Fastly lets publishers bill each AI crawler by company, chasing Cloudflare's pay-per-crawl — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/fastly-lets-publishers-bill-each-ai-crawler-by-company-chasing-cloudflare-s-pay-per-crawl