How much do x402 sellers actually earn?
Quick answer: very little from agents so far. TRM Labs puts the volume that AI agents move over x402 at roughly $5,000 to $11,000 a month across all sellers combined. Crawl Census estimates the average seller earns about $26 a month. The protocol works. Agents do call, and most decline to pay when they cannot tell whether the resource is worth the price.
1. The whole market, measured onchain
TRM Labs (9 September 2026) traced settlements through known x402 facilitators on Base, Solana and Polygon since May 2025:
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| All x402 settlements | About $52.7M across 198.9M transactions |
| After removing self-payment, bulk flows from one or two payers, and sellers with fewer than ten buyers | About $25.62M of likely commerce |
| Share of that which looks agentic | 0.6% to 7.5% |
| Volume moved by agents | Roughly $5,000 to $11,000 a month |
| Settled in USDC | 99.6% ($52.47M of $52.68M) |
TRM's own caveat: a scheduled script and an agent leave the same record onchain, so the agentic share is a bounded estimate, not a count. Source: Who’s Actually Paying? Measuring AI Agent Payments Onchain.
2. Per seller
Crawl Census reports about $26 a month per seller, derived from roughly $1.11M of 30-day volume across about 43,000 sellers (one operator's x402scan snapshot, 30 May 2026). The best single seller made $3.12K in 30 days. One data marketplace logged 1,183 agent probes, 5 settlements and $0.11 of revenue (a 0.42% conversion). Crawl Census flags that the seller count is inflated by wash-trading wallets, so read $26 as a rough average.
3. What small sellers report in public
- FlowExecutor, an agent selling x402 calls on Base, posted outside revenue of $0.04 on day 5 (four $0.01 payments) and $0.05 on day 6.
- Our own result: this kit, a sister product and a pay-per-call receipt verifier have taken USDC on Base since 7 October 2026. As of 2026-10-16, outside sales are $0. The receive wallet holds 0.005 USDC, which is our own test payment. You can check it on Basescan.
4. Where the money shows up instead
Crawl Census's outcome-priced products are billed to a person. Intercom Fin is $0.99 per resolution, sold to a buyer with a purchase order. Alex Finn reported that his autonomous site (agentusecases.ai) had made $1,100 and had two paying sponsors.
5. What to do if you sell over x402
- Price for people as well as agents. A human buying a file or a monthly plan is where most dollars are today. x402 can still take the payment.
- Get listed where agents search. Circle's Agent Marketplace Discovery API returned 2,858 listed resources when we queried it on 2026-10-16; listing is a manual review (Circle docs). Check where you are already listed with our free listing checker.
- Make the 402 easy to judge. Crawl Census quotes the marketplace's diagnosis that agents decline to pay when they cannot judge whether a resource is worth the cost. Clear descriptions, schemas and a correct 402 help; test yours with the free x402 endpoint checker.
- Keep costs near zero. At these volumes the facilitator fee matters. Compare them in the facilitator cost calculator and the facilitator guide.
- Measure honestly. TRM found about half of settled volume falls away once self-payment, bulk flows from one or two payers, and sellers with fewer than ten buyers are removed. Count only wallets you do not control.
Adding x402 to an existing API? See how to add x402 payments to an Express / Next.js API.
Sponsor slot open: one short text line here for 30 days. See terms.
FAQ
How much money goes through x402 in total?
TRM Labs counted about $52.7 million across 198.9 million settlement transactions through known x402 facilitators on Base, Solana and Polygon since May 2025 (published 9 September 2026). About half of that falls away once self-payment, bulk flows from one or two payers, and sellers with fewer than ten buyers are removed, leaving about $25.62 million of likely commerce.
How much of x402 volume comes from AI agents?
TRM Labs estimates between 0.6% and 7.5% of the screened $25.62 million looks agentic, and puts the volume agents move at roughly $5,000 to $11,000 a month. That is across every seller combined, not per seller.
What is the average monthly take per x402 seller?
Crawl Census estimates about $26 a month, derived from roughly $1.11 million of 30-day volume across about 43,000 sellers in one operator snapshot dated 30 May 2026, with the best seller at $3.12K for 30 days. Crawl Census itself notes the seller count is inflated by wash-trading wallets, so treat it as a rough average, not a median.
Is it still worth adding x402 to an API?
Yes if the cost is low and you also sell to humans: x402 works and it is cheap to run, but agent demand alone is small today. Price for people, list your endpoint in discovery catalogs, and measure revenue from outside wallets only.
Figures are as published by the linked sources on the dates shown; we did not re-derive TRM's or Crawl Census's numbers. Our own sales figure is from our wallet and order database on 2026-10-16.