The payment layer for the
agentic economy
Stilebase lets AI agents pay for any API with USDC on Base. On-chain verification. Instant access. You get fiat.
APIs were built for humans.
AI agents need a new way to pay.
Agents don’t have credit cards. They can’t fill out forms or sign contracts. But they can sign transactions. Stilebase bridges that gap — any API becomes agent-accessible with a single endpoint.
The agentic economy is already paying
The rails for AI agents to pay are being built right now. What’s missing is a simple way for websites to get paid by them.
Agents already pay
AI agents made about 176 million on-chain payments, worth over $73M, between May 2025 and April 2026. 98.6% settled in USDC.
Source: BeInCrypto ↗Paying per request is becoming a standard
x402, the open standard for paying over HTTP 402, moved to the x402 Foundation under the Linux Foundation in April 2026. Stilebase uses the same 402 pattern.
Source: Crypto Briefing ↗Payment networks are shipping for agents
XDC Network launched XDC AI in July 2026: agents find services and pay per request in USDC, with gasless settlement.
Source: GNcrypto ↗Who's behind the agent is answerable
Agents can now carry an on-chain badge proving a verified person or business stands behind them, e.g. Concordium for XDC AI (October 2026).
Source: The Next Web ↗The web is already closing the door
We checked more than 11,000 websites, including over 6,000 listings, jobs, cars, travel and price-comparison sites. About a quarter already keep AI agents out.
Already telling the major AI crawlers to stay out
Each blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot in its own robots.txt
- Amazon
- The New York Times
- CNN
- X
- REUTERSReuters
- WSJThe Wall Street Journal
- IMDb
Logos are trademarks of their owners, shown to illustrate their public robots.txt policies. No affiliation or endorsement.
Bigger sites block more often
Sites grouped by popularity rank (#1 = most visited site on the web)
| Site size | Sites checked | Block AI agents |
|---|---|---|
| Very large (top 10K) | 5,947 | 39% |
| Large (10K–50K) | 513 | 39% |
| Mid-size (50K–250K) | 3,018 | 29% |
| Smaller (250K–500K) | 4,166 | 21% |
| Small (500K–1M) | 1,897 | 19% |
Blocking is a yes-or-no switch: the agents that would pay leave, and the scrapers that get through take it for free. Stilebase adds a third option — let agents in, and get paid for every request.
Stilebase scans, October 2026: 11,741 domains, mostly listings, jobs, travel and price sites (9,784 answered), plus all of the 10,000 most visited domains: 5,947 websites once CDN, ad and API hosts are excluded, counting sites that ban all unknown bots while letting search engines in (36% counting only the 5,683 sites we could open). Named sites: their own robots.txt blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot, as checked 13 Oct 2026. “Block” means bot protection on content pages or AI crawlers disallowed in robots.txt. Category figures: 1,308 car sites and 103 classifieds sites. Popularity rank from the Tranco list; the top-10K row covers all 5,947 websites.
How It Works
Three steps. No crypto operations on your end.
Register your API
Point us at your origin URL. Set your price per request. We give you a Stilebase endpoint. Zero code changes to your service.
Agents pay on-chain
AI agents send USDC on Base to your endpoint. Stilebase verifies the transfer on-chain in real time and proxies the request through.
You get paid
Every verified payment is logged in your ledger. We handle the crypto. You receive USD. No wallets, no token management.
Built for both sides
Whether you’re building AI agents or monetizing APIs, Stilebase works for you.
For API providers
Unlock a new revenue stream from AI agents without changing your API.
- Set your own price per request
- No code changes to your existing service
- Full transaction ledger and analytics
- Fiat payouts, no crypto ops
For agent builders
Give your agents access to any API behind Stilebase with a simple protocol.
GETthe endpoint to discover price and wallet- Send USDC, get a tx hash
POSTwithX-Paymentheader to access the API- No API keys, no OAuth, no contracts
The Protocol
One redirect. One on-chain transfer. That’s it.
# 1. Your site redirects AI agents, keeping the path
GET api.yoursite.com/listings?city=x
Response: 307 → /to/api.yoursite.com/listings?city=x
# 2. Stilebase asks for payment
Response: 402 { address, amount, chain_id, usdc_contract }
# 3. Agent pays USDC on Base, then repeats the request
GET /to/api.yoursite.com/listings?city=x
X-Payment: 0x{tx_hash}
X-Payment-Signature: 0x{signed by the paying wallet}
Response: { your site's response }The Crawler Tax
AI scrapers hit your API for free, and you pay AWS for every byte they take. See what that costs you, and what the same traffic earns behind an HTTP 402.
$ configure --traffic
Assumes AWS data transfer out at $0.09/GB and a 30-day month. 1 GB = 1,024 MB.
$ crawler-tax --report
Start earning from AI agents
Create a free account, register your API and get your gateway URL in minutes.