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The upgrade from flat fees to variable pricing is designed to support the use of AI agents for LLM inference, compute and data queries.Coinbase has announced an upgrade for the x402 protocol, enabling usage-based pricing for agentic AI compute requests, which replaces the former flat fee model.
In a post on X on Thursday, Coinbase Developer Platform announced the"Upto" scheme has gone live, adding it will help open up"variable-cost services" for agentic AI such as large language model inference, compute and data queries. "Until now, x402 only supported exact, fixed-price payments. That works great for deterministic APIs. But it blocked an entire category of services where the cost depends on usage, such as token count, compute time, or query complexity," Coinbase Developer Platform said. The Upto scheme allows sellers to configure maximum prices, while buyers will be able to authorize prices up to a specific amount. On the server end, where costs fluctuate, the server will charge only for how much it actually takes to complete the task, meaning users won't be overcharged and may even pay less than the specified maximum price. Previously, simple and complex requests cost the same amount, resulting in some users either overpaying or underpaying for tasks done by AI agents. This upgrade will help users set prices they are willing to pay before a task instead of guessing how much they think the task will cost for an agent to complete.Developed by Coinbase, the protocol's ownership was handed over to the nonprofit Linux Foundation earlier this month, with big tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services having a stake in the protocol Despite the hype surrounding x402, the network has seen declining adoption rates in 2026 after hitting peak levels in November,to Dune Analytics data. Between Nov. 4 and Nov. 10, the protocol saw 13.7 million transactions, its biggest week on record. However, it has been on a steep decline since then, with weekly transaction volume dropping below 1 million in early January and continuing to plunge further over the first quarter. As of the last week in March, x402 saw just 112,708 transactions.Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy
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Yohan Yun's articles on CointelegraphYohan (Hyoseop) Yun is a staff writer and editor at Cointelegraph. He is a multimedia journalist who has covered blockchain-related topics since 2017. His background includes roles as an assignment editor and producer at Forkast, as well as reporting on technology and policy for Forbes and Bloomberg BNA.
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