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LATHICAI Glossary

Model Serving & Economics

Pay-per-crawl

A commercial arrangement in which automated crawlers pay to access website content.

Example

A publisher sets terms for a crawler to retrieve selected pages.

Why people use it

It gives publishers a possible way to charge for automated access to their pages.

What you'll hear

“The crawler needs to pay to fetch this content.”

What this means for you

Check access terms and permitted uses rather than assuming payment settles everything.

Can you control it?

Sometimes

Sometimes. Your choices depend on the tool and your access. The settings available to an everyday user may differ from those available to the people running it.

Common questions

Does pay-per-crawl automatically grant every possible reuse right?
No. Payment and license scope are separate contractual questions.
Does a payment prove the crawler used the page?
No. Paying for access is different from showing how the information was later used.
Can the terms differ between publishers?
Yes. Access prices and allowed uses can vary by arrangement.

Related terms

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