preferred on
Points of Focus
- Cloudflare’s Monetization Gateway lets sellers charge AI agents per request in USDC through x402.
- The gateway currently supports four use cases — search, PDF generation, market signals, and AI inference.
- Cloudflare supports both x402 and MPP, while the Gateway remains US-only ahead of its planned broader rollout.
Cloudflare opened a closed beta of its Monetization Gateway on Sept. 30, letting sellers charge AI agents in USDC (USDC). Sellers can price websites, APIs, MCP tools, and data sets per request over x402, with payment built into the HTTP exchange.
Today, we’re making the Cloudflare Monetization Gateway available as part of a closed beta, and showcasing four customer use cases that are in production today. https://t.co/FeiXo5FBJL #BirthdayWeek
— Cloudflare (@Cloudflare) September 30, 2026
Cloudflare argues that subscriptions and prepaid credits fit agents poorly because agents consume services per request, search, or token. The launch follows Cloudflare Wallets, announced on Aug. 4, whose virtual wallets let agents spend within owner-set limits.
How the gateway prices and settles agent requests
Sellers create pricing rules that match a request’s URL, headers, or query parameters. Buyers sign a payment authorization and receive the resource after settlement without a checkout redirect or separate payment API call.
Coinbase’s x402 Facilitator verifies and settles payments on Base in USDC, while Cloudflare handles failures, retries, and analytics. Fixed pricing settles the signed amount, while variable pricing settles the actual amount reported by the origin server.
The gateway has four customer use cases: Ceramic.ai offers search at 0.001 USDC per query; API2PDF charges for actual PDF consumption; Stocktwits provides market signals through an agent-facing path; and Cloudflare AI Gateway accepts x402 payments for inference on four open models through “/ai/run.” US customers must add a “Payment-Method” header, and each request cannot exceed the amount authorized by the wallet signature.
Cloudflare said API2PDF’s service saw conversion fall by more than 50% after requiring cards following its first month.
x402 payments are expanding to more areas of the internet.
26% of websites run on @Cloudflare. Its new Monetization Gateway lets sellers charge agents per request. Now live in closed beta.
Payments run through the Coinbase x402 Facilitator and settle in USDC on @base. https://t.co/u5OQz1Y55g
— Coinbase Developer Platform🛡️ (@CoinbaseDev) September 30, 2026
Cloudflare’s agent stack supports two HTTP payment approaches
Cloudflare’s Agents SDK supports x402 and the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), with both using HTTP 402 to put payment into the request flow. X402 uses onchain stablecoins, while MPP is payment-method agnostic and supports stablecoins, Stripe cards, and custom methods.
One MPP service can offer multiple methods, while the Gateway beta settles in USDC on Base. Cloudflare plans additional payment rails to the gateway over time. It says MPP is backwards-compatible with x402, so clients can use existing x402 services unchanged.
US-only access, card requirements, and x402 volume data
The gateway is limited to US-based buyers and sellers. Sellers need a credit card on file, a verified email, an account older than 60 days, and a Cloudflare-proxied zone older than 30 days. Cloudflare said more geographies are planned.
Chainalysis reported on June 3 that x402 transactions on Base topped 100 million cumulatively through Q1 2026. It said Q4 2025 transaction volumes surged largely on memecoin activity, particularly PING. PING, which charged 1 USDC per mint through an HTTP 402 response, handled over 150,000 transactions in its first month.
AI agents operate in milliseconds, but traditional payment rails slow them down. Enter x402 on Base. In the final preview chapter of our upcoming "The New Rails" report, we explore how agentic, machine-to-machine payments just crossed 100 million transactions. With transactions… pic.twitter.com/5EM0dIOvgA
— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) June 3, 2026
Chainalysis said economic weight has shifted toward larger transfers, though the protocol still processes many sub-cent transactions. Transactions of $1 or more made up 95% of volume by early 2026, versus 49% in early 2025.
Cloudflare product manager Rohin Lohe reportedly said features and users will expand through 2026, with broad availability targeted for early 2027.
Share
Most read articles
