What's Changing

Until now, the PayAI facilitator has been completely free to use. Starting February 16, 2026, we're introducing pricing for settlements beyond the free tier.

The short version: your first 1,000 settlements per month are still free. After that, it's $0.001 per transaction. Credits never expire.

How Pricing Works

There are two tiers, and both are simple.

Free tier: Up to 1,000 settlements per month. No API key required. No setup. This is the default for every merchant using PayAI.

Beyond free: $0.001 per settled transaction. You purchase credits through the Merchant Portal, and each credit covers one settlement. Credits never expire, so you only buy what you need and use them at your own pace.

To put that in perspective:

Transactions

Cost

1

$0.001

1,000

$1

100,000

$100

If you pay with $PAYAI tokens, you get a 10% discount on all credit purchases.

The Merchant Portal

We've launched a Merchant Portal where you can manage everything in one place. You can purchase credits, create and manage API keys for programmatic access, and track your usage and transaction history through the Analytics tab.

PayAI Merchant Portal for x402 Payments

Sign in with your wallet or email. Your API keys are never stored in plaintext.

What Hasn't Changed

Everything else about the PayAI facilitator works exactly as before.

No API keys are required to get started. You still point your server at https://facilitator.payai.network, pick your network, and ship.

The facilitator still covers network (gas) fees for both buyers and merchants. 

Multi-chain support remains the same: Solana, Base, Avalanche, Polygon, Sei, IoTeX, Peaq, XLayer, SKALE, and their respective testnets. 

Auto-discovery through the x402 Bazaar, built-in OFAC compliance screening, and support for any ERC-3009, SPL, or Token-2022 token all remain included.

The two-minute setup is still a two-minute setup! 

The only difference is that high-volume merchants now purchase credits once they exceed 1,000 settlements in a month.

Why We Priced It This Way

We wanted pricing that reflects how the facilitator is actually used: per settlement, with no subscriptions, no minimums, and no surprise fees. 

If you're building something small or testing in production, the free tier covers you. 

If you're processing tens of thousands of transactions like HoloWorld, the cost stays negligible relative to the volume you're moving.

At $0.001 per transaction, a project processing $150,000 in volume (like HoloWorld's FIGHT Pass mint) would pay $3 in facilitator fees. That's the kind of pricing we think infrastructure should have.

Getting Started

If you're already using PayAI, nothing breaks. The free tier applies automatically, and you only need to purchase credits if you go beyond 1,000 monthly settlements.

If you're new, the setup is the same as it's always been:

  1. Set FACILITATOR_URL=https://facilitator.payai.network in your server.
  2. Choose your network.
  3. Ship.

Visit the Merchant Portal to manage credits and API keys, or check out the docs to get started.

Questions? Reach out to our support on Discord.