Why we charge per settlement, and not a percentage
A fixed €0.002 from prepaid credits, gas included, and no free tier. Here's how we got there.
Every x402 payment that Penni settles is a real transaction on Base, and every transaction costs gas. Somebody has to pay for it. When we designed our pricing, we looked at three ways to do that.
Option 1: take a cut of each payment
The classic payment-provider model: keep a percentage and forward the rest. It would mean routing your money through a contract or wallet we control, and it punishes higher prices: a 2% fee on a €1 payment is ten times the fee on €0.10, while the work is identical. We didn't want to touch your money, so this was out.
Option 2: free, with the bill hidden somewhere
Some facilitators settle for free today. That's generous, but gas doesn't disappear: it's paid by investors, by a token, or by prices that change later. A free tier has the same problem on a smaller scale. We'd rather tell you the cost up front and keep it stable.
Option 3: a fixed fee, paid in advance
That's what we chose. Each successful settlement costs €0.002, taken from credits you buy ahead of time. It has a few nice properties:
- Your payments arrive in full. The payer's transfer goes straight to your wallet. Our fee never comes out of it.
- It's predictable. 10,000 paid requests cost €20, whatever you charge for them.
- You only pay for success. Verifications and failed settlements are free.
- No surprise when you run low. We email you in time, and when credits run out we stop verifying new payments, so you never serve content you can't get paid for.
What about small payments?
At €0.002, a €0.01 request still leaves 80% for you, and anything from €0.05 up costs you 4% or less. If you sell very cheap calls at very high volume, talk to us about volume pricing.
You can play with the numbers in the pricing calculator.