Pay for AI APIs with USDC: fund an OpenAny balance through x402

If you hold USDC and want to use model and data APIs without a separate card-funded account for every provider, OpenAny offers a shared-balance funding path. The important distinction is that funding the balance and calling a resource are two separate operations.

USDC payment through the supported x402 top-up flow
  -> confirmed balance credit to the intended OpenAny account
  -> API-key-authenticated model or data API requests
  -> usage deducted from the shared balance

This guide does not claim that every resource accepts direct x402 payment, that all networks are enabled, or that your local configuration proves a deployed payment service is available.

Start with the account, not the signature

Open the OpenAny funding information and the account's Credits area. Confirm which account receives the credit and that your API key belongs to it. A connected payment wallet is not automatically the account whose resources your application uses.

For manual funding, inspect the available USDC network, quoted payment and credit before signing in your wallet. Keep private keys in the wallet. Use only the network and asset specified by the current payment requirement; do not send a token transfer to an address copied from an unrelated example.

The published CLI distinguishes wallet and email identities. Supported networks depend on that identity and the current service configuration. Base is identified as eip155:8453; do not generalize an EVM example to Solana signing or assume every EVM chain is enabled.

Read the quote as three amounts

Quote field	Meaning
payAmountMicroUsd	Amount actually paid, expressed in micro-USD
feeAmountMicroUsd	Quoted fee in micro-USD
creditAmountMicroUsd	Amount added to the OpenAny balance in micro-USD
inputAmountMeaning	Whether the entered amount has fees added or deducted from credit

Under add_on, entering $10 can credit $10 while requiring an additional fee. Under deduct_from_credit, a $10 payment credits less after the fee. These describe quote semantics, not a live fee estimate. Read the actual quote rather than silently increasing a payment to force a chosen net credit.

Wallet, network or funding fees can affect the total cost; this is not a promise of fee-free USDC funding.

Agent-assisted funding needs explicit limits

An agent needs permission for the target identity, network, per-payment maximum, total maximum, purpose and expiration. A low balance is not permission to recharge. The CLI's topups authorize records authorization already given; it does not create user consent.

The current sequence, only after those approvals and identity checks, is authorization, payment preflight, intent creation, payment and status checking. For example, the following illustrates creation and status commands; it is not an instruction to execute them now:

# Prerequisites: approved policy, correct account login and passing payment preflight.
# Choose one unique intent, and retain it across status checks.
openany topups create --scope approved-task --intent unique-approved-intent \
  --amount-usd 10 --network eip155:8453 -j
# Inspect the locked quote and obtain any required final approval before paying.
openany topups pay --intent unique-approved-intent -j
openany topups get --intent unique-approved-intent -j

The amounts, scope and intent above are illustrative. Follow the complete current skill instructions, including authorization and login prerequisites, rather than copying a partial payment sequence into an autonomous loop.

Recover without paying twice

Keep the original intent, order ID and quote. After a submitted payment times out or has an unknown result, use topups get for that intent. Do not pay again, create a replacement intent, change the amount or bypass the CLI's idempotency handling.

Report funds as credited only after paymentStatus=paid and creditStatus=credited; for wallet identity also require accountUsable=true. Signing, transaction submission and payment confirmation are not interchangeable with a usable account balance.

Use the balance for a complete task

After credit is confirmed, choose an OpenAny model or API and approve the resource-call budget separately. A research workflow can spend on both source retrieval and synthesis without treating either step as unlimited.

Use with your Agent

This task prepares a funding plan only. Copying it does not authorize a payment.

Read https://openany.si/AGENT.md and follow its setup and credential-safety instructions.

Task: Help plan OpenAny balance funding for this goal: Review a $10 USDC top-up on Base; do not pay yet. Read the current OpenAny AGENT.md, AUTH.md and SKILL.md. Determine the target account identity, supported network and the authorized signer without scanning for credentials or asking for private keys in chat. Clarify the maximum payment, total limit, scope and expiration before any authorization or quote that creates an intent. Explain payAmountMicroUsd, feeAmountMicroUsd, creditAmountMicroUsd and inputAmountMeaning. Do not authorize, create a payment intent, sign, pay, recharge or call a paid API in this planning task. Return manual and agent-assisted steps, account-matching checks, a proposed intent naming policy and recovery instructions. Explain that an uncertain submitted payment is checked with topups get, not paid again. Distinguish paymentStatus paid, creditStatus credited and wallet accountUsable true.

Guide: https://openany.si/guides/usdc-x402-ai-api-top-up/
Ask for a budget and approval before billable requests. Never request credentials in chat. Do not substitute providers or execute other actions without approval. Preserve sources and timestamps; report missing data and actual results honestly.

Estimate inference first with Qwen pricing or Claude pricing.

Sources

• OpenAny x402 funding information
• OpenAny payment and execution instructions
• OpenAny authentication instructions