Enable AI Agents to Pay for Your API
Give AI a wallet. Set a budget. Let it work. Lightning Enable lets AI agents pay for premium APIs, data, and content automatically. No credit cards. No subscriptions. No human in the loop.
How AI Payments Work
AI Requests Access
Your AI agent tries to access a premium API endpoint.
Invoice Generated
The API returns a Lightning invoice for the exact cost.
AI Pays Instantly
Using MCP tools, the AI pays the invoice automatically.
Access Granted
Payment confirmed in milliseconds. AI gets the data it needs.
Calculate Your Savings
The Problem with Credit Cards
| Transaction | Stripe Fee | Lightning Fee |
|---|---|---|
| $0.10 API call | $0.055 (55%) | $0.001 (1%) |
| $0.50 API call | $0.315 (63%) | $0.005 (1%) |
| $1.00 API call | $0.329 (33%) | $0.010 (1%) |
| 100,000 x $0.10 | $32,900 | $199 (flat) |
Note: Stripe charges $0.30 + 2.9% per transaction, killing micropayment economics. Lightning Enable charges a flat $199/month regardless of volume.
Built for AI-Powered API Monetization
Claude MCP Integration
Native support for Claude's Model Context Protocol. AI agents can pay invoices, manage budgets, and access your paywalled API automatically.
Pay-Per-Request Access
Charge per API call instead of monthly subscriptions. AI agents pay only for what they use. Paywalls that don't stop AI anymore.
Instant Settlements
Payments settle in under 1 second. No chargebacks, no fraud, no waiting 2-3 business days for your money.
Global Access
Accept payments from anywhere in the world without worrying about currency conversion, international fees, or payment processor availability.
Developer-Friendly API
Clean REST API with code examples in multiple languages. Get up and running in minutes with comprehensive documentation.
Usage Analytics Dashboard
Real-time analytics on API usage, revenue, and customer behavior. Track which endpoints generate the most value.
Built-In Tools for AI Agents
Lightning Enable provides a complete MCP server with constrained payment tools. AI agents execute payments within boundaries you define.
Available MCP Tools
pay_invoice
Pay any Lightning invoice directly
access_l402_resource
Access paywalled APIs automatically
configure_budget
Set spending limits per session
check_wallet_balance
Monitor available funds
get_payment_history
Review past transactions
Example: AI Research Assistant
"Find me the latest research on quantum computing and summarize the key findings."
- AI searches for relevant papers
- Encounters paywall on premium database
- Uses
access_l402_resourceto pay $0.25 - Downloads and summarizes the paper
- Continues research without human intervention
Real-World Use Cases
🧠 AI Model Inference APIs
Challenge: Running GPT-4 or other large language models costs $0.03-$0.60 per API call. Stripe's $0.30 fixed fee makes small transactions unprofitable.
Solution: Charge exactly what the API call costs plus margin. With Lightning, a $0.10 call costs you $0.001 in fees (1%), leaving $0.099 profit vs. losing money with Stripe.
📸 Image Generation APIs
Challenge: Stable Diffusion API calls cost $0.02-$0.10 each. Credit cards charge more in fees than the service costs.
Solution: Enable pay-per-image pricing. AI agents pay 10 cents, you keep 99% of it. Scale to millions of requests without worrying about payment processor costs.
🔍 Premium Data APIs
Challenge: Providing real-time data (stock prices, research reports, analytics) requires frequent small payments that traditional processors can't handle.
Solution: Charge per API request ($0.01-$0.50). AI agents access your data, pay automatically, and continue their work without human intervention.
🎨 Content Transformation APIs
Challenge: PDF generation, video transcoding, or audio processing costs vary by file size. Usage-based pricing is essential but impossible with credit cards.
Solution: Charge based on actual compute time and resource usage. Lightning's sub-cent transaction capability makes granular billing viable.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Budget caps that cannot be bypassed at runtime
- Per-request limits preventing runaway spending
- Session-level controls for total spend per task
- Non-custodial architecture keeping you in control of funds
configure_budget tool lets you set per-session and per-request spending limits. Default limits are 1000 sats per request and 10000 sats per session. Critically, these limits are enforced by hard caps configured in your environment—the AI cannot modify or bypass these boundaries, even if instructed to do so. This is constraint-based design: humans set the rules, AI operates within them.
Ready to Accept AI Payments?
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