Cloudflare just announced a tool that lets businesses charge AI agents in stablecoins

Cloudflare announced the Monetization Gateway on Wednesday, a tool that lets businesses charge AI agents in USDC, Circle's dollar-pegged stablecoin, with the system now in closed beta for eligible U.S.-based buyers and sellers. The gateway acts as an intermediary between websites and visiting AI agents, presenting a price and granting access once payment clears via Coinbase's x402 payment standard, with USDC transactions settled on Coinbase's Base network. Cloudflare product manager Rohin Lohe said the company plans to ramp up features and users through the rest of the year and be widely available by early 2027.

Cloudflare https://fortune.com/company/cloudfare/ is giving AI agents a stablecoin expense account. On Wednesday, the cloud security firm announced tools—not yet available to the broader public—that will let businesses charge AI agents in USDC, Circle’s dollar-pegged stablecoin. The news is part of Cloudflare’s broader push to build a payment system for AI agents. The initiative, called the Monetization Gateway, lets an agent automatically pay a small fee each time it accesses an online service, rather than requiring a human to sign up for a monthly subscription or enter a credit card number. It is now in closed beta for eligible U.S.-based buyers and sellers. The move also builds on an August rollout https://fortune.com/2026/08/04/cloudflare-ai-agents-wallets-id/?utm source=search&utm medium=suggested search&utm campaign=search link clicks of cloudflare.pay, which lets AI agents prove they are acting on a user’s behalf and spend from a linked wallet. “We’ll be ramping up features and users through the rest of the year, with plans to be widely available by early 2027,” Rohin Lohe, product manager at Cloudflare, told Fortune in an email. Agentic commerce—the idea of using AI agents to search for products, make purchases, and handle payments for users—has gained momentum over the past year as more companies build the tools to support it. At the same time, many are touting stablecoins as a natural option for powering those payments. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has been one of the idea’s most vocal proponents https://fortune.com/2026/07/20/agentic-commerce-stablecoins-infrastructure-circle-ceo-jeremy-allaire/?utm source=search&utm medium=suggested search&utm campaign=search link clicks . In “The Agentic Economy,” a roughly 18,000-word essay published in July, Allaire envisioned a future in which AI agents increasingly carry out transactions for people and businesses, using stablecoins as programmable money. Cloudflare’s new tool will work as an intermediary between websites and the AI agents that visit them. When an agent requests information or a service, Cloudflare will present a price and grant access once the agent’s payment clears. The process happens automatically, without a person entering card details or signing up for a monthly plan. Behind the scenes, it uses Coinbase’s x402 system—a payment standard that lets websites charge software for access—to verify payments. USDC transactions are settled on Base, Coinbase’s native blockchain network. Other crypto and payments companies have rolled out similar products. Last month, MoonPay integrated https://fortune.com/2026/08/31/x-ai-tool-grok-users-crypto-moonpay-integration/?utm source=search&utm medium=suggested search&utm campaign=search link clicks its AI-enabled payment and wallet tool into Grok, X’s chatbot. In May, Robinhood said customers could use AI agents to make purchases on their behalf with the Robinhood Gold credit card. Circle, Stripe, and Tempo have also announced tools intended to let AI agents hold funds or make payments. Credit card networks have also joined the push into AI shopping. In April 2025, Visa https://fortune.com/company/visa/ unveiled tools that let AI agents shop and pay for users without giving merchants their actual card numbers. That same month, Mastercard https://fortune.com/company/mastercard/ announced a program that lets verified agents make purchases within limits set by users. breaks the traditional barrier between audience and newsroom. The show transforms Fortune Daily Fortune ’s trusted reporting into actionable, conversational, and entertaining insights for an emerging class of business leaders. Watch here.