How can I charge a few cents online without card fees eating it?

Short answer: Card payments have a fixed fee per transaction, so a €0.05 charge loses most or all of it. Micropayments work with stablecoins on low-cost blockchains: with x402 each request is paid separately, the network cost is a fraction of a cent, and a facilitator such as Penni charges a fixed €0.002.

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Selling something for a few cents online sounds simple: one article, one API call, one download, one image. In practice it almost never works with normal payment methods. Here is why, and what does.

Why card payments fail for small amounts

Card and wallet payments (Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, PayPal) charge a percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction, typically tens of cents in Europe. On a €0.05 sale that fixed part is larger than the sale itself. That is why the web ended up with subscriptions, prepaid bundles and ads: they exist to turn many small purchases into one payment big enough to be worth the fee.

Subscriptions also need accounts, logins and card details, which AI agents and scripts can't sensibly fill in for a single request.

The usual workarounds

• Prepaid credits or wallets: the buyer tops up €10 and spends it in small steps. Works, but the buyer has to sign up first and trust you with the balance.
• Monthly invoicing on usage: fine for business customers with a contract, not for strangers or software.
• Bundling: sell 100 credits instead of one. Changes what you sell.

What works: stablecoins and x402

Stablecoins are digital euros and dollars (such as Circle's EURC and USDC) that move on blockchains like Base and Solana, where sending a payment costs a fraction of a cent. That makes a €0.01 payment practical.

x402 puts that into the web itself. The server answers 402 Payment Required with a price; the client signs a payment for exactly that amount and sends the request again; the server serves the content once the payment is settled. No account, no checkout, no minimum. See how it works step by step.

• Each request is its own payment, from €0.001 up.
• The money arrives within seconds, in your own wallet, not after a payout cycle.
• No chargebacks: a settled payment is final.

What it costs with Penni

Penni is the facilitator that checks and settles the payments. It charges a fixed €0.002 per payment, not a percentage, and pays the network cost itself. At €0.05 a request you keep 96% of the price; at €0.01, 80%. Test mode is free. See pricing and why Penni.

Who pays this way today?

Mostly software: AI agents, apps and scripts with a wallet. People can pay too, with a browser wallet such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or Phantom, but for human readers a free tier plus a subscription is often still the better fit. Many sites use both: people read free or subscribe, machines pay per request.