Solana and Google Cloud Team Up for Stablecoin-Powered AI Agent Payments

The Solana Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to launch Pay.sh, a platform that allows AI agents to use and pay for API services using stablecoins on Solana. The two built the payment gateway service to solve a common problem in software development, where even advanced AI systems still need human intervention to create accounts, manage credentials, and handle billing processes. Solana’s AI Agent-Driven Payment Layer The firm shared in a May 5 announcement that Pay.sh introduces a system where AI agents can independently discover, access, and pay for APIs on a per-request basis without needing accounts, keys, or subscriptions. Vibhu Norby, chief product officer at the Solana Foundation, said the product was partly developed to address the growing issue of unregulated machine payments, with the collaboration aiming to legitimize the growing agent-driven economy through a compliant solution. “Most agentic payments are being done through gray or black market facilitation, which means they can be disabled or banned without notice by the underlying provider,” he wrote. The Solana Foundation explained that the platform functions as an API proxy built on Google Cloud infrastructure, handling payments while still applying proper security controls like rate limits and access permissions. Pay.sh works by linking a Solana wallet to popular AI tools like Gemini, Claude Code, and Codex, allowing users to fund them in about 60 seconds with stablecoins or a credit card, after which the agent can immediately begin accessing several paid Google Cloud API services like BigQuery, Vertex AI and Cloud Run. Transactions on the gateway service are processed quickly using stablecoins on Solana and then converted into fiat currency for the service providers. This also means that developers only pay for what they use, while providers receive funds reliably without managing subscriptions or billing systems. The product also offers a one-stop marketplace where agents can get over 50...