The MCP Billing Landscape — 6 Approaches Compared
There are 10,000+ MCP servers. Most are hobby-quality because developers can't earn from them. Six companies are trying to fix this. Here's how they compare — and what none of them have built yet.
x402 / xpay — Crypto-Native Proxy
Revives HTTP 402 'Payment Required' for agent payments. Wrap your API with x402 middleware, agents auto-pay with USDC on Base/Polygon. Instant settlement in ~2 seconds.
True micropayments without aggregation. Sub-cent transactions actually work on L2. Backed by Coinbase facilitator infrastructure. Clean protocol-level design.
Requires crypto wallets on both sides. No marketplace, no discovery, no trust primitives. If your users aren't crypto-native, this adds friction they won't tolerate.
TollBit — Closed Agent Network
JWT-authenticated network where publishers expose content and tools. Agents get one token for everything. TollBit handles metering and settlement behind the scenes.
Publisher relationships (NYT, etc.), demand-side advantage, multi-protocol support (MCP, NLWeb, web access). Strong business development team.
Closed network — lock-in by design. Billing isn't actually live yet — still 'coming next.' Publisher-centric model may not attract pure tool providers.
Moesif — API Analytics → MCP Billing
Extend existing API analytics infrastructure to meter MCP server traffic. Plug into your gateway (Kong, AWS, WSO2), define billing meters, connect to Stripe.
Enterprise-proven. Works alongside existing API infrastructure. Sophisticated per-method, per-token, and per-outcome billing models. Real customers.
Not a marketplace — you need to already have an MCP server and customers. Pure infrastructure play. Not building ecosystem or discovery.
Kong Konnect — Gateway → MCP
All-in-one platform: API gateway + MCP proxy + metering + billing + developer portal. Powered by OpenMeter acquisition for real-time usage metering.
Massive distribution — every company with a Kong gateway is a potential customer. Enterprise-grade reliability. Real-time metering at scale.
Enterprise-focused, heavy infrastructure. Not for indie MCP developers building weekend projects. Gateway-centric, not marketplace-centric.
Nevermined — Sub-Cent L2 Payments
Agent-to-agent payment rails on L2. Claims 35,000% transaction growth. Handles the payment primitive that other platforms can build on top of.
Solved the micropayment problem at the protocol level. Could become foundational infrastructure that marketplaces use under the hood.
Payment rail, not a marketplace. Complementary to platforms like Bazaar — they solve settlement, not discovery or trust.
MCP Hive — Marketplace + Monetization
Marketplace connecting AI agents with 'commercial-grade' MCP servers. Per-request and subscription pricing. Solo developer. Launching March 8, 2026.
Clear marketplace positioning. Content provider angle — 'brands your users already trust.' Founding community program building early network effects.
Not launched yet. No visible trust infrastructure. No published SDK or API spec. Single developer without published technical architecture.
What's Missing From All of Them
We analyzed every competitor's public documentation, APIs, and SDKs. None of these six have built the trust primitives that convert “hobby MCP servers” into “commercial-grade infrastructure.”
Proof that a tool provider is who they claim to be — email, domain, and code-level verification
Cryptographic proof (HMAC-SHA256) of every tool invocation — who called what, when, what it cost
30-day uptime, latency, and error rate tracking per provider — the data agents need to choose
A structured way to contest charges when tools fail or deliver wrong results
A composite signal combining verification, SLA, and dispute history — so agents can make autonomous purchasing decisions
A standard schema anyone can implement, preventing ecosystem fragmentation
These are the primitives we built at Agent Bazaar v0.4.0. And we published the MCP Billing Spec (MIT licensed) so anyone — including our competitors — can implement the same schema.
We'd rather be the reference implementation of a universal standard than a walled garden that fragments the ecosystem.
Disclosure: This analysis is based on publicly available information as of February 2026. We respect all teams building in this space. The MCP ecosystem needs multiple approaches — we're building the trust layer.