Brave Search API adds pay-per-request agentic payments via x402

Brave announced that its Search API now supports pay-as-you-go payments through x402, an open payment protocol, so developers and autonomous AI agents can query Brave's search index without an API key or an account plan. Requests without payment get an HTTP 402 response stating the price; the agent signs a USDC payment on the Base blockchain and retries, receiving results plus a transaction receipt. Brave runs its own facilitator and is covering Base gas fees for a limited time. Brave points developers to the Stripe-developed Purl CLI wallet to get started.