Linux Foundation Launches x402 Foundation to Develop Pay-per-Request Payment Protocol for AI Agents

To meet the automated transaction needs of AI agents, the Linux Foundation has launched the x402 Foundation, which aims to develop a universal payment standard that can be embedded into web interaction workflows.

Members include companies from cloud computing, payment, and finance sectors such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Mastercard, Visa, and Shopify, and the organization will operate in an open-source manner.

The foundation plans to create a new protocol that integrates payment capabilities directly into HTTP requests. This supports a "pay-per-request" model, enabling AI agents, APIs, and applications to complete transactions when making requests, thus providing a basis for machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions.