Cloudflare launches Monetization Gateway in closed beta to enable agent-native payments via HTTP 402

Cloudflare has made its Monetization Gateway available in closed beta to eligible U.S.-based sellers and buyers. The gateway enables sellers to charge agents for resources behind Cloudflare’s network, such as APIs, tools, and data, priced per use. It utilizes the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code to allow buyers to offer payment inline with the resource request, eliminating the need for redirects to payment pages or separate payment APIs. Payments are settled on the Base blockchain using USDC, with verification and settlement handled through Coinbase's x402 Facilitator.

The gateway supports flexible pricing rules based on request attributes like URLs, headers, or query parameters. Four initial partners are using the gateway in production:

1. Cloudflare AI Gateway: Allows U.S. customers to pay for inference at request time by adding the PAYMENT-METHOD: x402 header, removing the need for pre-funded credit balances.
2. Ceramic.ai: Uses the gateway to allow agents to pay per web search query, enabling elastic spending based on task complexity.
3. Stocktwits: Exposes real-time market signals (sentiment, volume, followers) to agents via a separate path, allowing developers to pay for individual requests without enterprise licenses.
4. API2PDF: Implements variable pricing for PDF generation services, charging for compute and bandwidth per request to reduce conversion drop-offs associated with account creation.