Coinbase, AWS enable Bedrock AI agents to pay in USDC

Coinbase and Amazon Web Services announced an integration that lets AI agents running on Amazon Bedrock make autonomous micropayments in USDC. The integration adds Coinbase’s wallet infrastructure and the open x402 protocol to Bedrock’s AgentCore Payments service.

Developers can give agents budgets and permissions so agents can discover services, request access and pay for APIs, data feeds or cloud resources without human intervention. Payments can settle near real time on networks such as Base and Solana.

The x402 protocol uses the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” response as a machine-actionable trigger. Transactions typically settle in about 200 milliseconds and cost a fraction of a cent, enabling high-frequency, low-value payments.

A single API call can initiate a payment. The integration performs wallet authentication, transaction signing and settlement, reducing the payment infrastructure teams must build.

Agents do not control private keys. Custody and key management remain with enterprise-controlled wallets, a design the companies described as intended to limit unauthorized spending.

Enterprise features include strict spending limits, time-bound budgets and permissions for individual agents. The integration provides compliance tools that screen transactions and produce logs and dashboards for audit and monitoring.

The arrangement lets agents pay per use for occasional services instead of relying on persistent subscriptions or manual workflows. Agents can stop payments when tasks are finished.

Amazon Bedrock’s AgentCore Payments hosts the capability, using Coinbase’s settlement infrastructure and x402. Coinbase and AWS described the offering as aimed at enterprise customers that require controls and auditability.