An independent developer launched LLM402.ai on March 25th. This is a service that allows you to browse artificial intelligence (AI) models by paying exclusively in Bitcoin (BTC) via the Lightning Network (LN).
No account, email, or API key required. The only requirement is that you pay a Lightning bill per query. According to the developer’s publication, the service is operational as of today.
among them, 32 models By AI available DeepSeek-R1, Llama (various versions), Qwen, Mistral, and more, all of which can be accessed via: endpoint Compatible with OpenAI and Ollama formats, the most used standards.
Fees for each consultation Dynamic and charged per request (pay per request). This primarily depends on the model selected, the number of input tokens (text sent in prompts and contexts), and the maximum output tokens configured (max_tokens). That cost is converted to SATOSHI using the current Bitcoin price.
As such, the value of the dollar tends to be very stable, but the exact amount of satsis depends on the BTC price at the time. According to the creators, the cheapest consultation is about 10 satoshis, or the equivalent of cents on the current dollar.
How does LLM402.ai work?
The LLM402.ai service uses the L402 protocol, a standard created by Lightning Labs, which combines the HTTP code 402 (“Payment Required”) with a Lightning invoice and an authentication token called .macarons‘, prove your payment on LLM402.ai.
AI agents using LLM402.ai send requests to this system and receive Lightning invoices along with their tokens. macarons, Pay your bill and resubmit your request with proof of payment.
This test causes the service to provide a response for the model. There is no prior registration or identity verification, and payment serves as the only authentication information.
This service is specifically designed for autonomous AI agents, programs that operate alone without a human approving each action.
For its uses, the author indicates that LLM402.ai is compatible with lnget. This is a Lightning Labs tool that automates the entire L402 flow to discover, pay, and resubmit requests without human intervention.
The service is also listed in the 402 Index, a directory launched on March 22 this year. Over 15,000 endpoint Number of paid APIs for AI agentsmakes it easier for other agents to automatically discover you.
Bitcoin Lightning as AI Infrastructure: Background
As reported by CriptoNoticias, the launch of LLM402.ai comes at a time when AI agents and Bitcoin Lightning micropayments are converging.
On January 31st, the Lightning Enable team released an open source tool that allows AI agents to make payments in Lightning via the Nostr Wallet Connect protocol. This limits programmable spending limits and payments to BOLT11 invoices, which are standard Lightning formats with recipient signatures and fixed amounts.
This tool is also built on L402 and targets the same model. Agents who autonomously pay for digital servicesthere is no human intervention in each transaction.
LLM402.ai differs from the Lightning Enable kit and Lightning Labs L402 protocol in that LLM402.ai is not a tool or technical specification for building agents, but rather aA service that allows AI agents to query language modelspay with Satoshis and receive a response without a single line of additional configuration.
While Lightning Enable and Lightning Labs built the infrastructure, LLM402.ai uses it to deliver artificial intelligence as a commodity paid for with microtransactions. Each query is a complete Bitcoin transaction and is settled in seconds, without any banks, accounts or intermediaries.
(Tag Translation)Bitcoin (BTC)
