Web & AI Solutions Cloudflare's New Default Went Live Yesterday - Check If Your Site Now Blocks AI Agents

**What Changed on September 15**

Cloudflare flipped its AI crawler defaults yesterday, and the change can quietly reduce how often ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini pull from your website. Cloudflare now sorts AI bot traffic into three buckets: search indexing, agent retrieval, and model training. On pages that carry advertising, search bots stay allowed while training and agent crawlers get blocked by default.

**Who Inherits the New Setting**

The new default applies to domains that join Cloudflare from now on, new sites added by existing customers, and every free-plan site that has not changed its dashboard settings. Paid customers with existing configurations keep what they already had. Many Michigan small business sites sit on the free Cloudflare plan through a host or a developer, so owners may never receive a notice about the switch.

**Why the Setting Matters for AI Visibility**

Answer engines cite pages they can fetch. If your service pages, pricing pages, or FAQ pages sit behind an agent block, competitors get quoted in AI answers while your business stays invisible. Blocking training while allowing agent retrieval is a reasonable middle ground for most local businesses that want AI referrals.

**Check Your Settings Today**

- Log in to Cloudflare and open Security, then review the AI crawler controls.
- Confirm search crawlers remain allowed so Google and Bing indexing continues.
- Decide separately on agent retrieval, which drives ChatGPT and Perplexity citations.
- Ask your host or developer which plan your domain uses, since free-tier sites inherit the new default.
- Review your robots.txt file for older blanket AI bot blocks that may still be active.

**Your Next Step**

Open your Cloudflare dashboard today and verify that agent crawlers can reach your main service pages, then test a few buyer questions in ChatGPT to see whether your business appears.

If you are unsure which crawlers to allow, book a free consultation at https://appwt.com/schedule or call +1 (888) 565-0171.