# Agent Payment Rails (x402) x402 is not just a developer convenience: it is the economic layer that makes AI agents self-sufficient. An agent with a USDC wallet on Base can: 1. Discover Cluster's inference API 2. Receive a 402 Payment Required response with pricing 3. Autonomously sign a payment and resubmit 4. Receive inference results 5. Use those results to take further on-chain actions No human needs to create an account, generate an API key, or approve a transaction. The agent operates as an independent economic entity: earning, spending, and transacting on its own. Combined with ERC-8004 identity, agents on Cluster are: * **Identifiable**: verifiable on-chain identity * **Economically autonomous**: pay for services via x402 * **Auditable**: all transactions settled on Base, fully traceable --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://cluster-protocol.gitbook.io/whitepaper/agentic-infrastructure/agent-payment-rails-x402.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.