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Circle offers two facilitators for the x402 payment protocol. Both let sellers accept USDC payments from x402 clients (such as AI agents), but they settle differently and serve different integration needs. For more information about the protocol, see What is x402?.

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Choose a facilitator

Facilitator Service

Circle’s hosted x402 facilitator. Point your seller at Facilitator Service and Circle verifies each buyer signature and submits the USDC transfer onchain through a Circle relayer. Runs on Arc, Base, and Polygon PoS.

Gateway Nanopayments

Gas-free USDC nanopayments down to $0.000001 per payment, batched by Circle Gateway. Buyers pre-fund a Gateway wallet once. Circle aggregates signed authorizations and settles net positions onchain in bulk.

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When to use which

Both facilitators speak the same x402 protocol, so a client that pays one can pay the other with no code change. The differences are in settlement mechanics and buyer setup.