Cloudflare's Matthew Prince predicts agent traffic will be 1,000x human traffic in five years, forcing micropayments and ads aimed at agents

On TBPN on 22 October, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said that if current trends continue, agent traffic will be 1,000 times human traffic within five years, noting the internet almost collapsed when traffic doubled during COVID. Because an agent might check a thousand menus but send its user to one restaurant, he expects micropayments of 'a ten-thousandth of a penny' per page, cheaper or free access for agents that reveal what they want, and a new form of advertising aimed at agents. Prince has said Cloudflare's data showed automated traffic overtaking human traffic in early 2026, well ahead of his own forecasts, and that a pay-per-request system could need about 10 million transactions per second.