BotCost.dev is a free, client-side log analyzer that identifies AI bot traffic across 18 fingerprints and generates one-line WAF block rules.
Key Takeaways
Supports Nginx, Apache, Cloudflare CSV, and Vercel JSON log formats; all analysis runs in-browser, nothing uploaded.
Matches requests against 18 known AI bot fingerprints including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Bytespider, and CCBot.
Outputs ready-to-paste block rules for Cloudflare WAF, Nginx, Next.js, and robots.txt.
Claims $180/month estimated bandwidth cost from AI scrapers for a typical 50k visitor/mo site; 38% of web traffic is non-human per their framing.
Verification runs at Cloudflare edge with under 10ms latency, no impact on real users.
Hacker News Comment Review
No substantive HN discussion yet. The thread is early and shallow, with a question about cost calculation methodology unanswered by the tool builder so far.
Notable Comments
@plaintosapp: Author published a Dev.to writeup with additional background on how the tool works.
