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Understanding x402

In May 2025, Coinbase announced two things:

x402 - The Protocol

A specification for how crypto payments can use HTTP 402

x402 - The Framework

A coding framework built to demonstrate x402 (the Protocol)
Yes, they are both called x402. Yes, it is confusing.

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x402 - The Protocol

This x402 refers to the way crypto payments are created, verified, and settled on any crypto network via HTTP 402.

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x402 - The Framework

This x402 refers to the coding framework built and maintained by Coinbase to demonstrate the x402 Protocol working. Coinbase X402 Github

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How Faremeter is different

Faremeter is a new, open-source framework for agentic commerce. It is fully conformant with the x402 Protocol and offers new capabilities by being modular and composable.

Dynamic Pricing

With Faremeter, new payment schematics like Dynamic Pricing are possible. This enables businesses to create their own, unique logic for accepting payment.Examples include subscriptions, deferred payments, top-up models, streaming payments, credit systems, and more.
The single best thing that Faremeter has done is make the payment plugins self contained. Adding a new scheme or network is done in one place, and immediately works with everything else in Faremeter.

Lightweight Deployments

Because of its modular design Faremeter is capable of being deployed just about anywhere. If your team is looking to optimize for the best performance possible, this framework gets you there.

Ship Faster

Adding support for x402 should not take days. With Faremeter everything is built faster.
FeatureTime to deploy
First x402 payment10 seconds
Adding a new service2 minutes
Adding a new chain6 minutes
Shipping a new plugin2 hours

One-size Fits All

The future is multichain and frameworks should be compatible out of the box. With Faremeter flows are standardized and multiple networks are supported out the box ensuring your codebase is cleaner and more resilient.