---
title: "Monetization Gateway beta: charge AI agents for consumption with HTTP 402"
description: "Cloudflare announced the Monetization Gateway closed beta, enabling domain owners to charge AI agents per request for websites, APIs, MCP tools, or datasets. The gateway uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code to allow inline payment without redirects or separate payment APIs. Sellers define pricing rules matching request parts and choose from several schemes, with settlement on the Base blockchain using USDC via Coinbase’s x402 Facilitator. Customer use cases include Cloudflare AI Gateway for inference, Ceramic.ai for web search, Stocktwits for stock signals, and API2PDF for document conversion. The beta is available to eligible U.S.-based sellers and buyers, with plans to support additional geographies and payment rails over time."
---

# Monetization Gateway beta: charge AI agents for consumption with HTTP 402

[Cloudflare](https://yomu.fyi/company/cloudflare) · Isaac Bremseth · Sep 30, 2026

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

Cloudflare announced the Monetization Gateway closed beta, enabling domain owners to charge AI agents per request for websites, APIs, MCP tools, or datasets. The gateway uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code to allow inline payment without redirects or separate payment APIs. Sellers define pricing rules matching request parts and choose from several schemes, with settlement on the Base blockchain using USDC via Coinbase’s x402 Facilitator. Customer use cases include Cloudflare AI Gateway for inference, Ceramic.ai for web search, Stocktwits for stock signals, and API2PDF for document conversion. The beta is available to eligible U.S.-based sellers and buyers, with plans to support additional geographies and payment rails over time.

## Context

The Monetization Gateway is a closed beta from Cloudflare that allows domain owners to charge AI agents for access to websites, APIs, MCP tools, or datasets. It addresses the mismatch between traditional subscription/prepaid credit business models and agent consumption patterns, where agents need cheap, fast, and reliable per-use payments. The gateway uses stablecoin transactions on blockchain networks to support these requirements.

## Approach / What changed

The Monetization Gateway uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code to let sellers charge agents per request for resources behind Cloudflare’s network. Sellers define pricing rules matching request parts (URL, headers, query parameters) and choose from several pricing schemes. Payment verification and settlement occur through Coinbase’s x402 Facilitator on the Base blockchain using USDC. Sellers can go live with a few clicks in the Cloudflare Dashboard, and buyers receive payment instructions inline with the resource request, with no redirect or separate payment API.

## Takeaways

- The Monetization Gateway uses HTTP 402 to let agents pay for resources inline with the request, eliminating redirects or separate payment APIs.
- Sellers can define pricing rules based on request attributes (URL, headers, query parameters) and choose from multiple pricing schemes, with settlement on Base blockchain using USDC.
- Customer use cases include Cloudflare AI Gateway for per-request inference, Ceramic.ai for agent-native web search, Stocktwits for stock signals, and API2PDF for document conversion.

## FAQ

### How does the Monetization Gateway handle payments inline with requests?

The Monetization Gateway uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code so buyers can offer payment for a resource over HTTP, inline with the request for the resource itself. There is no redirect to a checkout page and no separate payment API to call.

### What payment rail does the Monetization Gateway use for settlement?

Payments settle on the Base blockchain using USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, through Coinbase's x402 Facilitator. The gateway handles payment verification, settlement, failures, retries, and analytics.

### How do sellers define pricing for their resources?

Sellers can write pricing rules that match any part of a request, such as the URL, headers, or query parameters, and choose from several pricing schemes. For origin-controlled pricing, the gateway can request pricing information directly from the seller's existing pricing module.

**Tags:** [AI Agents](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-agents), [API](https://yomu.fyi/topic/api), [Blockchain](https://yomu.fyi/topic/blockchain), [Cloudflare](https://yomu.fyi/topic/cloudflare), [Payments](https://yomu.fyi/topic/payments)

- Source: [Cloudflare](https://blog.cloudflare.com/monetization-gateway-beta)
- Source URL: https://blog.cloudflare.com/monetization-gateway-beta
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-30T15:00:12.021Z

[Read original post](https://blog.cloudflare.com/monetization-gateway-beta)