Venice x402 (wallet credits)

x402 is Venice's wallet-based payment flow. Pay per request with USDC on Base, no account required. Three admin endpoints plus the protocol-level 402 response returned by every inference endpoint.

| Endpoint | Auth | Purpose | |---|---|---| | POST /x402/top-up | None (discovery) / X-402-Payment (settlement) | Discover payment requirements, then settle a signed USDC transfer. | | GET /x402/balance/{walletAddress} | SIWE (X-Sign-In-With-X) | Current USD balance for a wallet. | | GET /x402/transactions/{walletAddress} | SIWE | Paginated ledger: TOP_UP, CHARGE, REFUND. |

For the SIWE header format itself, see venice-auth.

Pay with a wallet: end-to-end

1. Call an inference endpoint with no balance → 402

Any inference endpoint (e.g. POST /chat/completions) returns a 402 with structured topUpInstructions and siwxChallenge when the wallet balance is too low. The PAYMENT-REQUIRED response header carries the x402 v2 paymentRequired object (base64-encoded JSON containing x402Version, error, resource, accepts[], and optional extensions) — it is not the same payload as the 402 body, which is a richer balance/top-up document.

json
{
  "error": "Payment required",
  "code": "PAYMENT_REQUIRED",
  "message": "Insufficient x402 balance",
  "suggestedTopUpUsd": 10,
  "minimumTopUpUsd": 5,
  "supportedTokens": ["USDC"],
  "supportedChains": ["base"],
  "topUpInstructions": {
    "step1": "POST /api/v1/x402/top-up with no payment header to get payment requirements",
    "step2": "Sign a USDC transfer authorization using the x402 SDK (createPaymentHeader)",
    "step3": "POST /api/v1/x402/top-up with the signed X-402-Payment header",
    "receiverWallet": "<RECEIVER_WALLET_ADDRESS>",
    "tokenAddress": "<USDC_TOKEN_ADDRESS>",
    "tokenDecimals": 6,
    "network": "eip155:8453",
    "minimumAmountUsd": 5
  },
  "siwxChallenge": {
    "info": { "domain": "api.venice.ai", "statement": "Sign in to Venice AI", ... },
    "supportedChains": ["eip155:8453"]
  }
}

2. Discover payment requirements — POST /x402/top-up (no header)

bash
curl -X POST https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/x402/top-up

Response 402:

json
{
  "x402Version": 2,
  "accepts": [{
    "protocol": "x402",
    "version": 2,
    "network": "eip155:8453",
    "asset": "<USDC_TOKEN_ADDRESS>",
    "amount": "5000000",          // base units; USDC = 6 decimals → 5 USDC
    "payTo": "<RECEIVER_WALLET_ADDRESS>"
  }]
}

3. Sign a USDC transfer → POST /x402/top-up with X-402-Payment

The x402 SDK does the EIP-712 USDC transferWithAuthorization signing for you:

bash
npm install x402

ts
import { createPaymentHeader } from 'x402'
import { Wallet } from 'ethers'

const wallet = new Wallet(process.env.WALLET_KEY!)
// 1. Discover
const discover = await fetch(`${base}/x402/top-up`, { method: 'POST' })
const { accepts: [req] } = await discover.json()

// 2. Sign payment for $10 (write your own amount in base units)
const amount = '10000000' // $10
const header = await createPaymentHeader({ ...req, amount }, wallet)

// 3. Settle
const settle = await fetch(`${base}/x402/top-up`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'X-402-Payment': header },
})
const { data } = await settle.json()
console.log(data.newBalance, data.amountCredited, data.paymentId)

200 response:

json
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "walletAddress": "0x...",
    "amountCredited": 10,
    "newBalance": 22.5,
    "paymentId": "payment_01HZ..."
  }
}

4. Call inference again — credits are now debited from the wallet

The venice-x402-client SDK wraps steps 1–4: it catches 402, auto-tops-up to a configured amount, and retries.

GET /x402/balance/{walletAddress}

bash
curl "https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/x402/balance/0xYOUR_WALLET" \
  -H "X-Sign-In-With-X: <base64 siwe>"

json
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "walletAddress": "0x...",
    "balanceUsd": 12.5,
    "canConsume": true,
    "minimumTopUpUsd": 5,
    "suggestedTopUpUsd": 10,
    "diemBalanceUsd": 5.25    // optional — present if the wallet is linked to a Venice account with DIEM
  }
}

The SIWE signer must match the path wallet — 403 otherwise.

GET /x402/transactions/{walletAddress}

bash
curl "https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/x402/transactions/0xYOUR_WALLET?limit=50&offset=0" \
  -H "X-Sign-In-With-X: <base64 siwe>"

json
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "walletAddress": "0x...",
    "currentBalance": 12.35,
    "transactions": [
      {
        "id": "ledger_01H...",
        "amount": -0.15,
        "balanceAfter": 12.35,
        "type": "CHARGE",
        "createdAt": "2026-04-03T12:34:56.000Z",
        "requestId": "chatcmpl-...",
        "modelId": "zai-org-glm-5-1"
      },
      {
        "id": "ledger_01H...",
        "amount": 10,
        "balanceAfter": 12.5,
        "type": "TOP_UP",
        "createdAt": "2026-04-03T12:00:00.000Z",
        "requestId": null,
        "modelId": null
      }
    ],
    "pagination": { "limit": 50, "offset": 0, "hasMore": false }
  }
}

Transaction types

| type | Sign of amount | Meaning | |---|---|---| | TOP_UP | positive | /x402/top-up settlement. | | CHARGE | negative | Inference debit. requestId / modelId link back to the call. | | REFUND | positive | Failed request refund or manual adjustment. |

Query parameters

/x402/transactions/{walletAddress}

| Param | Notes | |---|---| | limit | 1–100. Default 50. | | offset | Number of entries to skip. Default 0. |

Use offset + limit and pagination.hasMore for paging.

Constants

• Chain — Base mainnet, chain ID 8453 (eip155:8453).
• Token — USDC (6 decimals). Native USDC on Base; not USDbC.
• Minimum top-up — $5 by default. A small number of allow-listed wallets (e.g. internal test wallets) may have a lower per-wallet override — always use the minimumTopUpUsd returned in topUpInstructions / /x402/balance rather than hardcoding 5.
• x402 SDK — npm install x402 for raw payment header signing, or venice-x402-client for the managed Venice flow.
• Receiver wallet + token contract are returned in topUpInstructions; don't hardcode them.

Errors

| Code | Meaning | |---|---| | 400 | Below minimum top-up, invalid wallet format, or other validation. | | 401 | X-Sign-In-With-X header is present but invalid (bad signature, expired, nonce reuse, unsupported chain) — returned as X402_SIGN_IN_* error codes. | | 402 | Expected discovery response on /x402/top-up (no payment header), on /x402/balance and /x402/transactions when the SIWE header is absent, and on any inference endpoint when the wallet balance is insufficient. Settlement errors use INVALID_PAYMENT / INVALID_PAYMENT_FORMAT / INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS / EXPIRED_PAYMENT codes. | | 403 | SIWE wallet ≠ path wallet. | | 429 | Too many top-ups/balance checks. | | 500 | Settlement failure; retry with a fresh nonce. |

Gotchas

• Use the x402 SDK (npm install x402) for signing. Hand-rolling the EIP-712 transferWithAuthorization is risky — nonce reuse ⇒ INVALID_PAYMENT.
• The SIWE signer wallet must match the walletAddress path param on balance / transactions. Separate wallets can't inspect each other.
• /x402/top-up is unauthenticated on the discovery call — auth is implicit via the signed X-402-Payment header on settlement.
• balanceUsd on /x402/balance is the USDC credit balance only. diemBalanceUsd, when present, is a separate linked-account number — sum them yourself if you need a combined figure.
• PAYMENT-REQUIRED (uppercase, hyphens) is the header with base64-encoded x402 paymentRequired object; don't confuse it with the body field code: "PAYMENT_REQUIRED" (which only appears on insufficient-balance bodies, not on auth-style 402s).
• On /x402/balance and /x402/transactions, missing the SIWE header returns 402 (not 401). Only a present-but-invalid header returns 401 with a X402_SIGN_IN_* code.
• The x402 v2 accepts[].amount is in base units (e.g. "5000000" = 5 USDC). Don't multiply by decimals again.
• DIEM, BUNDLED_CREDITS, and Bearer-account USD are independent from wallet credits. For account balance, use venice-billing.