About PayAI

PayAI builds payment infrastructure for software that transacts without a human in the loop.

What we build

PayAI operates a production facilitator for the x402 protocol. x402 turns the long-dormant HTTP 402 Payment Required status code into a working payment handshake: a server answers an unpaid request with 402 and machine-readable terms, the client signs a stablecoin payment, and a facilitator verifies and settles it on-chain. The whole exchange is two HTTP round trips, and neither side needs an account with the other.

The facilitator is the part that touches the chain. PayAI verifies signed payment payloads, broadcasts settlements, sponsors gas where the chain allows it, screens for compliance, and returns a structured result — so a merchant integrates payments as middleware rather than as a blockchain project.

Why this matters

Existing payment rails assume a human: a card to enter, an account to create, a checkout to complete, a chargeback window to wait out. Autonomous software has none of those. It needs to pay for a single API call, immediately, for a fraction of a cent, without onboarding.

That is the gap PayAI fills. An agent that hits a paywalled endpoint can settle in under a second and continue. A service that wants to sell to agents can price per request instead of negotiating contracts.

How we are different

Solana-first, multi-chain in practice. PayAI settles on Solana, Base, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Sei, X Layer, and SKALE. Solana carries the majority of production volume because it is the cheapest and fastest place to settle a sub-cent payment.
Gasless for the payer. On Solana, PayAI sponsors the network fee. A payer holds USDC and nothing else — no native token, no top-up ritual.
No accounts on the critical path. A buyer needs no PayAI relationship to pay a PayAI-backed merchant. An API key is optional, and only affects credit accounting and rate lanes.
Open and inspectable. The SDKs, integrations, and examples are open source at https://github.com/PayAINetwork, and the facilitator API is fully described at https://payai.network/openapi.json.

Who it is for

Merchants selling API calls, MCP tools, inference, data, or compute to software buyers. Agent developers whose agents need to pay for things at runtime. Platforms that want usage-based pricing without building settlement infrastructure.

The company

PayAI Network, LLC is registered in Delaware, United States. The team works remotely. Reach us at https://payai.network/contact.