Thread by @CoinbaseDev

We are excited to introduce x402–a new open source payments protocol built on HTTP rails.

Let’s break it down:

x402 is fixing the internet’s first mistake.

Onchain payments are now easy and frictionless, opening new use cases for agentic commerce for API providers, context retrieval protocols, content creators, and more.

First, a little history:

HTTP 402 “Payment Required” has been a part of the internet’s blueprint for decades, but it was never used.

x402 turns this 402 status code into a real payment layer—letting any server request payment, and any client (human or agent) respond with digital dollars, i.e. stablecoins like USDC.

Research shows that agents that have access to external APIs, context, and tools consistently outperform models who only have access to internal reasoning or websearch.

Today, giving agents access to external context and APIs is a high-friction process, with lots of manual configuration that prevents agents from autonomously accessing external services.

By enabling the API and context providers to monetize without requiring human-in the loop configuration, x402 removes a key bottleneck to agentic autonomy.

Agents can now pay per API call—no human intervention, and no more managing payments for each integration. Make your AI agents fully autonomous with x402.

x402.org/x402-whitepape…

For API providers and developers, subscription models are outdated, UX-heavy, and cumbersome for agents to navigate. Pay-per-use APIs without subscriptions are now possible with x402.

Pay-per-use API microtransactions have the potential to “kill the API key” and replace it with a paradigm where an API request is simply bundled with an onchain payment signature to authorize a request.

This approach is more scalable, more efficient, and (finally) economically viable, – and it opens up a new onchain business model for content and cloud service providers.

Content creators, you can now monetize your content as model context without the need for blanket subscriptions or credit card minimums and enjoy near-zero fees and nearly instant payments.

Imagine unlocking your content for your audience by letting them pay by article read, second watched or minute streamed.

For service providers, CDP can help you with:

→ Easy x402 integration
→ No chargebacks or middlemen
→ Built-in compliance and security
→ Real time revenue, balance, and transaction dashboards

All with a few lines of code.

Get Started with Coinbase x402 Facilitator service:
docs.cdp.coinbase.com/x402/docs/welc…

We’re excited to build out x402 alongside our community and create an open standard to drive forward agentic finance. We’re open to any contributions to the open-source x402 protocol repo, and plan to decentralize our roadmap soon.

Want to learn more about x402?

→ Check out:
x402.org
→ GitHub Repo:
github.com/coinbase/x402/
→ Read our blog:
coinbase.com/developer-plat…

A huge thank you to our x402 launch collaborators:
@AnthropicAI, @awscloud, @base, @calcom, @chainlink, @circle, @fewsats, @hyperbolic_labs, and @NEARProtocol.