--- title: "Cloudflare vs AWS WAF Bot Control | Agent Ready Crawlers" description: "Cloudflare vs AWS WAF Bot Control: rubric grades side by side, the sourced difference and verdicts by reader type. Read 2026-11-04." canonical: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/compare/cloudflare-vs-aws-waf-bot-control site: "Agent Ready Crawlers" last_updated: 2026-11-04 section: "Comparisons" --- # Cloudflare vs AWS WAF Bot Control | Agent Ready Crawlers > Cloudflare vs AWS WAF Bot Control: rubric grades side by side, the sourced difference and verdicts by reader type. Read 2026-11-04. Source: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/compare/cloudflare-vs-aws-waf-bot-control Site: Agent Ready Crawlers Last reviewed: 2026-11-04 Head-to-head # Cloudflare vs AWS WAF Bot Control In short AWS WAF charges AI bots with an x402 HTTP 402 and settles in stablecoins through Coinbase (since 2026-06-15, CloudFront only); Cloudflare charges through pay per crawl with itself as Merchant of Record. For a security engineer: Both verify Web Bot Auth (AWS needs rule set Version\_4.0 or later selected). ## The sourced difference AWS WAF charges AI bots with an x402 HTTP 402 and settles in stablecoins through Coinbase (since 2026-06-15, CloudFront only); Cloudflare charges through pay per crawl with itself as Merchant of Record. [Source](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/06/aws-waf-ai-traffic-monetization), read 2026-11-04. ## Side by side | Question | Cloudflare | AWS WAF Bot Control | | --- | --- | --- | | Tells a verified agent from a spoof | Yes; Web Bot Auth signatures, IP validation, verified bot and signed agent directory (BotBase) | Yes; Web Bot Auth (rule set Version_4.0+), verified self-identifying bots | | Per-purpose policy (train, search, answer, act) | Yes; separate Search, Training and Agent controls on all plans, plus Disallow AI Training since 2026-09-15 | Yes; rules on bot category and name labels; prices can differ by bot identity and verification status | | Charging for access | Partial; Pay per crawl with HTTP 402, Cloudflare as Merchant of Record, private beta | Yes; HTTP 402 x402 monetization on CloudFront, Coinbase x402 settlement in stablecoins | | Lets signed commerce agents through | Partial; Visa TAP and Mastercard Agent Pay built on Web Bot Auth, managed rulesets announced Oct 2025; current rule name not confirmed in docs (checked 2026-11-04) | Not published; Visa TAP or Mastercard Agent Pay support (checked 2026-11-04) | | Cost | free tier covers AI Crawl Control; Pro from USD 20/month; Bot Management and BotBase are Enterprise and sales-led | published: USD 10/month per web ACL plus USD 1 or USD 10 per million requests after free allowance | | Reporting | Yes; AI Crawl Control analytics on crawler activity, request patterns and robots.txt compliance | Yes; Bot Control console dashboard, AI activity dashboard, CloudWatch metrics and logs | | Where it runs | edge: enforced on Cloudflare's reverse proxy, no app code needed | edge or regional: CloudFront edge and regional resources such as load balancers and API Gateway | | Points, rank | 8 of 10, rank 1 (tied) | 8 of 10, rank 1 (tied) | | Price read 2026-11-04 | AI Crawl Control and the Search, Training and Agent controls are on all plans including Free (USD 0). Pro USD 20/month billed annually or USD 25 monthly; Business USD 200/month annually or USD 250 monthly; Enterprise Bot Management and BotBase are sales-led. Pay per crawl prices are set by the site owner (private beta). | Bot Control USD 10/month per web ACL. Common level: first 10M requests/month free, then USD 1.00 per million. Targeted level: first 1M requests/month free, then USD 10.00 per million. Standard AWS WAF web ACL and rule charges also apply; AI traffic monetization has no extra charge. | ## Verdicts by reader Platform engineer On AWS, Bot Control is USD 10 a month per web ACL plus per-request fees; Cloudflare AI Crawl Control is on the free plan. Security engineer Both verify Web Bot Auth (AWS needs rule set Version\_4.0 or later selected). Publisher operations AWS charging is generally available with Test mode; Cloudflare pay per crawl is in private beta. ## What each does not do ### Cloudflare - BotBase does not block traffic itself; mitigation needs Security rules or AI traffic options (BotBase docs, updated 2026-10-08). - Disallow AI Training cannot pass a no-training preference to Bing until Microsoft ships robots.txt support, targeted early 2027 (Cloudflare blog, 2026-09-15). - Web Bot Auth verification does no nonce validation today; Cloudflare relies on short expires values (Web Bot Auth docs). - Pay per crawl is not self-serve: the docs (updated 2026-07-28) tell site owners to reach out to Cloudflare to join the beta. ### AWS WAF Bot Control - Monetize only works with CloudFront-associated web ACLs, not regional resources (Bot Control docs). - Stripe payouts and Machine Payments Protocol are not live yet; settlement is via Coinbase x402 in stablecoins (what's new, 2026-06-15). - Web Bot Auth is off unless the rule group version is pinned to Version\_4.0 or later (Bot Control docs). More: [alternatives to Cloudflare](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/cloudflare/alternatives/), [alternatives to AWS WAF Bot Control](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/aws-waf-bot-control/alternatives/). ## Sources - [aws.amazon.com: aws waf ai traffic monetization](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/06/aws-waf-ai-traffic-monetization) read 2026-11-04 - [cloudflare.com: network cdn.md](https://www.cloudflare.com/plans/network-cdn.md) read 2026-11-04 - [aws.amazon.com: pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/waf/pricing/) read 2026-11-04 - [developers.cloudflare.com: verified bots](https://developers.cloudflare.com/bots/concepts/bot/verified-bots/) read 2026-11-04 - [docs.aws.amazon.com: waf bot control](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/waf/latest/developerguide/waf-bot-control.html) read 2026-11-04 - [Have it both ways: stay discoverable in search while disallowing AI training](https://blog.cloudflare.com/accountable-mixed-use-ai-crawlers/) read 2026-11-04 - [developers.cloudflare.com: what is pay per crawl](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-crawl-control/features/pay-per-crawl/what-is-pay-per-crawl/) read 2026-11-04 - [Securing agentic commerce: helping AI Agents transact with Visa and Mastercard](https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-agentic-commerce/) read 2026-11-04 Last reviewed 2026-11-04