the problem with agent payments

AI agents are increasingly autonomous. They browse the web, call APIs, and orchestrate complex workflows. But when it comes to paying for services, everything breaks down.

Today, if your agent needs to use a paid API, you have three bad options:

• pre-register everywhere — sign up for every service your agent might need, manage API keys, handle billing for each one
• build payment logic — implement Stripe, handle webhooks, manage customer billing yourself
• avoid paid services — limit your agent to free APIs and self-hosted tools

None of these scale. Agents need to pay for things the way humans do: encounter a price, decide it's worth it, pay, and get access.

how x402 works

x402 is an open protocol that makes payments native to HTTP. It uses the long-dormant HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code to create a simple flow:

1. request — agent calls an API endpoint
2. 402 response — server responds with price and payment details
3. pay — agent makes payment via the x402 protocol
4. retry — agent retries the original request with payment proof
5. access — server validates payment and returns the response

No accounts. No API keys. No pre-registration. The agent discovers the price, pays it, and gets access—all in a single request flow.

what inference.sh provides

x402 is an open protocol. You could implement it yourself. But there's a lot of complexity in handling wallets, managing budgets, and ensuring security. inference.sh handles all of it:

managed wallets

Each agent gets a wallet that can make autonomous payments. You fund the wallet, set spending limits, and the agent handles the rest. No crypto UX exposed to your users.

controllable budgets

Set limits per agent, per task, per time period. Define policies for what services agents can pay for. Get alerts when spending approaches limits. Full control without micromanagement.

no signup required

Agents can pay for services on-demand without pre-registering. This unlocks a long tail of useful APIs that would otherwise require manual integration.

http-native

x402 works with standard HTTP. No special client libraries required. If your agent can make HTTP requests, it can make payments.

use cases

research agents — pay for premium data sources, academic papers, proprietary databases as needed during research tasks.

content agents — access stock photos, licensed music, premium fonts without pre-purchasing credits.

automation agents — pay for API calls to services you haven't pre-integrated, enabling more flexible automation.

multi-tenant agents — let your users' agents pay for services using their own budgets, not your API keys.

interested in x402?

x402 is still emerging, and we're working with early adopters to refine the integration. If you're building agents that need to pay for services, or building services you want agents to pay for, we'd love to talk.