Cloudflare evaluates verified bots by how they respond to site limits

Cloudflare is assessing verified bots by sustained behavior, including whether they respect robots.txt preferences and slow down after HTTP 429 responses. Identity verification alone does not establish responsible crawling. The system currently runs internally; public scores on Radar and customer-selected trust thresholds are planned. Bot operators can already use the underlying lesson: handle explicit site feedback rather than relying on a verified badge.

Cloudflare · Oct 16, 2026

Why it matters

A bot’s identity and its behavior answer different operational questions.

More context

Watch for public availability before planning an integration. For an existing crawler, inspect backoff and preference handling now; the proposed trust bands emphasize repeated patterns over isolated mistakes.

Keep in mind

Public scores and customer controls are future capabilities, not available features established by this announcement.

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