Coinbase and CloudFlare have created the X402 Foundation, an industry group that builds open standards for machine-to-machine payments.
The effort, announced on September 23rd, aims to provide AI systems and digital agents with a seamless way to directly trade value across the Internet.
CloudFlare, which supplies almost five-fifths of all websites, said that new frameworks define browsing behavior when embedding payments into web interactions in the same way as error codes such as “404 Not Found.”
According to the company:
“Every day, CloudFlare’s site sends a 1 billion HTTP 402 response code to bots and crawlers trying to access content and e-commerce stores. This response code comes with a simple message saying “Payment is required.” ”
With X402, an “need payment required” response allows an AI agent, API, or application to pay for the service at the exact moment, whether it’s research data, storage or media.
Coinbase added that the foundation was formed and established to address the limitations of legacy infrastructure. The X402 is designed to support agent-driven commercial transactions on the Internet by enabling real-time Stablecoin-based payments.
Regarding the initiative, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said:
“We’ve been thinking about how internet payments work over the years. More specifically, we need to improve how they aren’t working and how they need to be improved. The X402 is a huge step forward. AI agents are now able to trade value, not just exchange information.”
Why X402 foundation?
The X402 Foundation focuses on governance and interoperability to promote adoption across the industry.
Coinbase said developers will receive grants, tools and resources and resources to experiment with applications such as spending AI models, creator micropayments and on-demand ID services.
For the standard to remain entrenched, Coinbase emphasized that it must remain neutral and open. The principle argued that X402 became portable across platforms, jurisdictions and economic sectors, preventing fragmentation as machinery commerce expands.
CloudFlare pilots deferred payment options within Crawl Beta’s pay.
This feature allows your website to bill an AI agent that scrapes pages, turning automated data access into a revenue stream without relying on advertising models or subscription fees.
addition:
“This new scheme is specifically designed for payments for agents that do not require immediate payments and can be processed through either traditional payment methods or stubcoin. By proposing this addition, we guarantee that compliant servers can optionally separate encryption handshakes from the payment settlement itself, allowing agents and servers to use license agreements, or subcrictors.
