Solana and Google teach artificial intelligence to pay online

The Solana Foundation and Google Cloud have jointly launched Pay. sh, a payment gateway that allows AI agents to independently find and pay for API access using stablecoins on the Solana network. The service provides agents with access to Google cloud products, including Gemini, BigQuery, and Vertex AI, as well as more than 50 API providers from the community.

Technically, Pay. sh operates as a proxy server on Google Cloud Platform and interacts with backend services via the x402 protocol, an open AI payment standard that originated in the bowels of Coinbase and is now managed by the Linux Foundation. Additionally, the platform supports the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) developed by Tempo and Stripe.

The main advantage of the service is the on-demand payment model instead of monthly subscriptions. Agents pay fractions of a cent for each API call, which eliminates the need for minimum costs or long-term commitments. Supported services include Claude Code from Anthropic, Codex from OpenAI, OpenClaw, Hermes, as well as blockchain infrastructure from Helius and Alchemy and analytics platforms from Dune Analytics and Nansen.

Pay.sh has emerged amidst the intensifying competition between tech and cryptocurrency companies for dominance in the payment infrastructure for autonomous AI systems. A month ago, Coinbase introduced its own x402 app store for agents, part of a larger industry campaign aimed at demonstrating the practical value of blockchain beyond trading.

Google is actively building its presence in the crypto payment sector: earlier this year, the company announced a payment protocol for AI agents that was supported by Coinbase and the Ethereum Foundation. At the same time, Stripe and MoonPay have also taken their own steps to enable AI agents to conduct transactions with stablecoins on behalf of users.

The target audience of such platforms is corporate developers looking for programmable financial instruments for new business models that go beyond the capabilities of traditional payment systems.