Comment by alexwrich

Prince’s argument works because each extra free user costs Cloudflare almost nothing. It falls apart for products where every free user runs up metered AI costs.

We charged for our product for years (over a million people have paid for it since 2016) and have now made it free for individuals. Before we could, we had to work out what it was going to cost us in server, staffing and some form of a profit. What still decides who pays is those that can afford and get the most value at scale from our solutions. So now, 50 million users get a canva and adobe replacement for free, while 13000+ businesses with more than 1 user pay - and individuals get the choice to pay for AI on top if they wish or extra our of fair use consumption.