Firecrawl Brings Autonomous Web Search and Extraction Onchain with x402

AI agents can now search and scrape the web, paying instantly in USDC on Base.

Background

Off the heels of their Series A raise, Firecrawl builds powerful tools for searching and scraping the web in one simple operation, helping developers and AI agents access real-time information at scale.

Challenge

Before x402, most AI agents could only use free-tier search APIs - often limited by rate caps, reduced content access, and the need for manual billing setups. Firecrawl wanted to open full-featured search to any onchain agent without requiring API keys, prepaid credits, or human-in-the-loop onboarding.

Solution

Using the x402 payment standard, Firecrawl added a new x402-enabled endpoint : https://api.firecrawl.dev/v1/x402/search, making it possible for any wallet-equipped agent to perform web searches and optionally scrape results. Pricing is quoted via HTTP 402, payment is settled onchain, and results are returned automatically - no custom billing system required.

Results

With this new way to search and pay, Firecrawl agents could now:

• Search without limits — agents can access paid, full-quality results on demand.

• Onchain monetization — developers get direct USDC payments without managing accounts or credits.

• Composability — x402 search can chain with other paid AI services for fully autonomous workflows.

“x402 makes it possible for any API to quote a price, take a payment, and fulfill a request, all in one automated flow. By enabling our APIs to accept payments from agents directly, Firecrawl is aiming to be an early mover around agentic commerce, showing how this can work at internet scale.” — Eric Ciarla, Co-founder, Firecrawl

About Firecrawl

Firecrawl provides developer-friendly APIs for searching and scraping the web in one call, with support for advanced features like location-aware search, time-based filtering, structured data extraction, and PDF parsing.

Try It Out

Developers can start integrating today:

• Endpoint: https://api.firecrawl.dev/v1/x402/search

• X402 Github: https://github.com/coinbase/x402/

• Docs: Firecrawl Search API Reference

With x402, Firecrawl’s search becomes a true on-demand, pay-as-you-go capability for any agent with a wallet. The open web is now just a transaction away.