Agent402 / faq

Frequently asked questions

Agent402 is the open-source, self-hostable x402 + MCP server: pay-per-call web tools for AI agents, free via proof-of-work or paid in USDC on Base.

Do I need an account or API key?

No. Nothing here has a signup. Payment — USDC or proof-of-work — is the only credential, charged per call.

What does it cost?

Flat per-call prices, $0.001–$0.02, published in /api/pricing and quoted exactly in every HTTP 402 response. No subscriptions or tiers.

Can I use it without any money or a wallet?

Yes. Most pure-CPU tools accept proof-of-work — a sub-second sha256 puzzle solved by your own CPU — and the hosted MCP connector runs that same set for free (rate-limited).

What is x402?

An open HTTP payment standard built on the 402 Payment Required status code, for machine-to-machine pay-per-call payments in stablecoins, with settlement infrastructure from Coinbase.

Which blockchain and asset does it use?

USDC on Base mainnet (eip155:8453). The buyer needs only USDC — gas is sponsored by the facilitator.

Does using this spend my AI tokens?

No. There is no LLM anywhere in the serving path — every tool is deterministic code. Proof-of-work spends your CPU; x402 spends USDC.

Is my data stored?

Tool inputs are processed in memory and not persisted — except the memory tools, whose purpose is storage (wallet-keyed, owner-deletable, with optional TTL). Full policy: /privacy.

How do I know the service is honest?

It is fully open source; CI re-tests every endpoint against its own documented example before each deploy; and revenue settles on-chain to agent402.base.eth (the named public receiving wallet), auditable by anyone on Basescan.

What happens if a tool fails after I pay?

x402 settles before the handler runs, so the operating principle is that anything which can't be served reliably is removed from the catalog rather than left to charge-and-fail. Failure rates are watched by CI and a 15-minute production heartbeat.

Is Agent402 self-hostable and open source?

Yes — it is open source under the MIT license. Clone the repo and run it yourself for free, with or without payments enabled. It also ships agent402-tollbooth, an open-source pay-per-crawl gate for charging AI crawlers on your own site.

Who runs Agent402?

Mikey Petrillo, a named maintainer — which most x402 sellers (anonymous wallets) do not offer.