PayRoute

PayRoute is a protocol-native AI marketplace and autonomous payment infrastructure that enables frictionless pay-per-use monetization of APIs and Generative AI agents. Built on the emerging x402 payment standard, PayRoute reimagines how digital services are discovered, consumed, and paid for by both humans and autonomous AI agents—without subscriptions, upfront commitments, or centralized billing.

At its core, PayRoute transforms web services and AI intelligence into economic primitives that can be seamlessly executed and settled at the protocol layer, unlocking a new era of machine-driven commerce and monetization.

Problem Statement

Existing monetization models for APIs and AI services are traditionally locked behind:

• Subscription billing

• Paywalls and API keys

• Manual invoicing and reconciliation

These models are not optimized for:

• Micropayments (low-value, high-frequency usage)

• Autonomous AI consumption

• Flexible monetization for independent creators

Creators with domain-specific knowledge or data often lack simple ways to monetize their APIs or intelligence without building complex billing infrastructure. Meanwhile, AI agents that could consume these services cannot pay or transact autonomously in existing ecosystems.

What is PayRoute?

PayRoute addresses these gaps with:

• Endpoint API Marketplace: A discoverable catalog of payable APIs with transparent pricing.

• Generative AI Agent Marketplace: On-demand AI agents powered by configurable LLMs.

• Creator Dashboard: Intuitive tools to wrap, publish, and monetize APIs and AI agents.

• @payroute/x402-sdk: A developer-friendly SDK to integrate protocol-native payments quickly.

• x402 Payments Integration: Automatic pay-per-use settlement that executes within standard HTTP flows.

By combining marketplace discovery with x402 protocol payments, PayRoute enables services to be invoked and paid for with zero friction, allowing consumers and autonomous systems to pay only for what they use.

Deployment

PayRoute is deployed on the Mantle Testnet, while the payment flow and usage simulation are designed to reflect real-world API and AI consumption patterns. This setup enables rapid development and safe experimentation in a test environment, while preserving realistic economic behavior aligned with production-ready x402 payment flows.

Workflow & Features

Users can:

1. Explore the marketplace to find API endpoints and GenAI agents.

2. View detailed pricing and service metadata before using.

3. Test endpoints or AI prompts in real time.

4. Execute paid requests with costs handled via the x402 flow.

5. Developers and AI agents can integrate consumption into workflows programmatically.

Creators can:

• Deploy payable endpoints without building payment infrastructure.

• Publish AI agents powered by LLMs of their choice.

• Track real-time usage and earnings via a dashboard.

• Keep the majority of revenue while PayRoute handles settlement.

Agentic Use Case: Autonomous Smart Contract Risk Analyst

Overview

An autonomous AI agent is tasked with performing on-demand smart contract risk analysis for developers before deployment.
Instead of relying on a monolithic AI system or static subscriptions, the agent dynamically discovers, pays for, and composes multiple paid services through the PayRoute marketplace—executing each step autonomously using x402 payments.

This use case demonstrates how PayRoute enables agent-to-service commerce in real time.

Step-by-Step Flow

1. Discovery via Marketplace

From the PayRoute landing page, the AI agent navigates to the API Marketplace and discovers:

• Smart Contract Metadata API (bytecode & ABI analysis)

• On-chain Risk Signals API (historical exploit patterns)

• Vulnerability Pattern Database API

Each endpoint clearly displays:

• Pricing per request

• Supported chains

• Latency and reliability metrics

2. Pay-Per-Use API Consumption (x402 + SDK)

Using the @payroute/x402-sdk, the agent autonomously invokes selected endpoints.

• Each request triggers an x402 payment handshake

• Payments are settled instantly per successful response

• No subscriptions, API keys, or invoices required

The agent aggregates raw risk signals in real time.

3. GenAI Marketplace Composition

Next, the agent moves to the GenAI Marketplace and selects:

• A Security-Focused GenAI Agent fine-tuned on exploit datasets

• Powered by a selectable LLM (e.g., GPT-4 / Gemini / Claude)

The agent submits the aggregated data as a prompt input and pays per inference using x402.

4. Autonomous Decision & Output

The GenAI agent returns:

• A structured risk score

• Vulnerability explanations

• Recommended mitigation steps

The autonomous agent compiles the final report and delivers it to the developer—within seconds.

5. Creator Monetization via Dashboard

Behind the scenes:

• API creators earn revenue for each request

• GenAI creators earn per inference

• All earnings and usage metrics are visible in the Creator Dashboard

Creators:

• Set pricing dynamically

• Monitor request volume

• Track revenue in real time

PayRoute takes a small transaction fee automatically.

Why PayRoute Is Essential Here

Without PayRoute:

• Each API would require custom billing

• The AI agent could not transact autonomously

• Micropayments would be impractical

• Creators would struggle to monetize niche intelligence

With PayRoute:

• Services are discoverable

• Payments are protocol-native

• AI agents act as economic participants

Smart Contract

• Mock MUSD = 0x4dABf45C8cF333Ef1e874c3FDFC3C86799af80c8

• Escrow = 0x3EF7d600DB474F1a544602Bd7dA33c53d98B7B1b

Technology Stack

• Web Technologies: Node.js, React, Next.js

• Payment Protocol: x402 request/response payment flow

• Blockchain/Settlement: On-chain wallets, stablecoins, and facilitator models

• AI Integration: LLM providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini

• SDK: @payroute/x402-sdk (npm)

Important Link

Website: https://payroute-x402.vercel.app/

One-pager proposal: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/19ePcwSVKrzcG8RfccaCIDCnR6pk8UxlE

Gitbook: https://payroute.gitbook.io/payroute-docs

NPM Link : https://www.npmjs.com/package/@payroute/x402-sdk

Future Plans

• Expand agent discoverability and composition tooling.

• Enable autonomous agent-to-agent commerce.

• Integrate cross-chain settlement and on-chain escrow for increased trust and decentralization.

• Grow marketplace liquidity with more creators and microservices.