What is x402? The HTTP-402 payments standard powering AI agents, explained

An API that prices for queries has all the time been awkward. Subscription tiers and month-to-month billing break down when autonomous brokers make hundreds of microtransactions per hour throughout new providers. x402 is Coinbase’s guess that the lacking piece is a cost primitive wired instantly into HTTP.

The mechanism revives HTTP standing code 402 “Cost Required.” When a consumer requests a useful resource, the server responds with 402 plus machine-readable cost phrases: quantity, asset, community, and recipient.

The consumer pays in USDC and retries with a cryptographic cost proof in an HTTP header. The server verifies settlement on-chain and serves the useful resource.

Coinbase launched x402 in Could 2025. By December, it had processed 75 million transactions value $24 million for paid APIs and AI brokers. V2 provides modularity: network-agnostic identifiers, pluggable facilitators, pockets hooks, and a “Bazaar” discovery layer.

Cloudflare introduced it is going to combine x402 and co-launch the x402 Basis. Google Cloud’s Agent Funds Protocol makes use of x402 for on-chain settlement. CryptoSlate will combine it quickly. Solana and Base are the manufacturing networks, with Solana reportedly flipping Base in quantity by late 2025.

Facilitators as cost gateways

The complexity lies within the “facilitator,” which displays blockchain networks, verifies funds, generates signed authorizations, and exposes an HTTP interface so web sites can keep away from working nodes.

Coinbase’s hosted facilitator presents fee-free USDC funds on Base and Solana with high-throughput settlement. The protocol helps a number of unbiased operators, however whether or not that portability survives when Coinbase’s facilitator is free and deeply built-in is an open query.

Refunds work otherwise from card networks. x402 has no network-level reversal. Retailers ship a compensating switch and replace the order state. Fee limiting is an application-layer characteristic: the 402 response encodes metering guidelines, and facilitators implement per-wallet limits.

That makes x402 nearer to money than reversible card funds, a characteristic for high-frequency API calls the place chargebacks could be ruinous, however a legal responsibility for client flows that want purchaser safety.

Ecosystem gravity

Cloudflare’s alignment alerts x402 is infrastructure, not only a Coinbase undertaking.

Integrating x402 into Cloudflare’s edge compute and CDN stack permits cost requests to suit into on a regular basis net workflows. The Basis framing of open governance and a number of implementers positions the protocol as shared plumbing.

Google Cloud’s AP2 makes use of x402 for agent-to-agent settlement, tying it into hyperscaler AI stacks. Wallets like OneKey, Sahara, and Transak have built-in x402 as a default primitive.

Case research point out AEON settling AI-initiated funds to thousands and thousands of retailers throughout Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Throughput is small, simply $24 million over seven months, however the trajectory issues. If autonomous brokers have to pay per name reasonably than per 30 days, x402 turns into vital plumbing. The guess is that embedding funds in HTTP reduces friction sufficient to unlock new transaction courses.

Dangers and management

Probably the most appreciable threat is that Coinbase’s CDP service is essentially the most mature.

Cloudflare and AP2 scale back protocol-level focus, however early site visitors flows by means of Coinbase infrastructure. Coinbase shapes adoption by deciding which chains to prioritize and the way aggressively to subsidize charges.

The facilitator is free immediately, however that not often lasts as soon as community results lock in.

Compliance is baked into facilitators. x402 itself is impartial, however hosted facilitators plug into KYT and sanctions screening, and political stress concentrates on facilitator operators.

Token confusion is endemic, as exchanges record speculative tokens branded “x402,” conflating the protocol with unrelated property. The group stresses the protocol has no native token, however that message competes with itemizing bulletins.

For Solana and Base, x402 is a guess that high-throughput, low-cost chains win the agent economic system. If the modal cost is $0.01 for an API name, Ethereum mainnet is out, and L2s with multi-cent charges battle.

Solana’s flip of Base in quantity suggests sooner finality and decrease fuel prices, giving it a structural benefit when brokers hammer APIs hundreds of occasions per second.

The constraint is that x402 solves coordination, not liquidity. An agent paying for an API name wants USDC in a sizzling pockets: custodying keys, managing balances, dealing with threat.

For builders, it’s manageable, however for enterprises deploying agent fleets, it turns into a compliance nightmare. The protocol makes funds manageable, however it doesn’t guarantee the encircling infrastructure is secure.

x402 is just not the primary try and wire funds into HTTP. What’s totally different is the mixture of stablecoins, low cost blockchains, and a reputable use case in autonomous brokers.

Whether or not that overcomes coordination issues and regulatory friction will decide whether or not x402 turns into foundational plumbing or one other experiment that by no means escapes the lab.