CrawlerToll

Settlement rails

CrawlerToll emits the 402 with a structured payment offer. Actual settlement happens on whichever rail you chose. Six options today:

| Rail | What | Best for | Adapter | |---|---|---|---| | x402 | Coinbase + LF stablecoin rail (USDC on Base etc.) | Agent-native, no human-tier vendor | @crawlertoll/x402 | | tollbit | TollBit hosted paywall, 15-25% commission | Established publisher network | Coming (partnership-gated) | | skyfire | Skyfire KYAPay token rail | KYC-friendly agent payments | Coming (partnership-gated) | | cloudflare-ppc | Cloudflare Pay Per Crawl edge enforcement | If you already run on CF Enterprise | Coming (partnership-gated) | | stripe-acp | Stripe Agentic Commerce Protocol | Fiat-native commerce, EUR/USD/GBP | Coming (partnership-gated) | | context-license | Per the publisher's /.well-known/context-license.json offer | The publisher publishes their own quote | Built in via the spec | | custom | Bring your own | When none of the above fit | — |

Picking a rail

Pick x402 if:

  • You want agent-native, settled in seconds — no human payment portal in the loop
  • Stablecoin denomination (USDC) is acceptable
  • You want maximum vendor-neutrality — x402 is LF-governed, no single company owns it
  • This is the default the playbook recommends as "likely the dominant settlement rail for paid crawls over the next 12-18 months"

Pick tollbit if:

  • You're already a TollBit publisher
  • You want the hosted-paywall convenience + their 7,000+ publisher BD relationships
  • 15-25% commission is acceptable in exchange for managed integration

Pick skyfire if:

  • You need KYC on the agent side (KYAPay)
  • You want a token rail without committing to a specific stablecoin

Pick cloudflare-ppc if:

  • You're on Cloudflare Enterprise + already in the PPC closed beta
  • You want edge-level enforcement and application-tier policy (use CrawlerToll + PPC together)

Pick stripe-acp if:

  • Your buyers are AI agents tied to a Stripe-managed wallet (Link, Agentic Commerce Suite)
  • Fiat-native settlement matters more than stablecoin throughput

Pick context-license if:

  • You publish your own /.well-known/context-license.json with a custom payment URL
  • The buyer SDK should read pricing + payout from your file rather than your 402 response

Pick custom if:

  • None of the above fit
  • You want to signal "contact us" via the paymentUrl

They can coexist

A single publisher can run multiple rails simultaneously. The 402 response sets one preferred rail in the Crawler-Price-Rail header, but the body's offer object can declare a separate accepts[] array (x402-style) listing multiple options.

Cloudflare PPC + CrawlerToll is a particularly clean compose: PPC runs at the edge for the unauthenticated case, CrawlerToll runs at the app layer for finer-grained per-route policy.

What changes per rail in practice

Just the offer.rail value (and optionally offer.paymentUrl). The Crawler-Price header still announces <micros> <currency>. The body still carries error: "payment_required". The Link rel="payment" still points at the settlement URL when applicable. Switching rails is a one-line config change, not a re-integration.

Stability + governance

| Rail | Stability | Governance | |---|---|---| | x402 | High — v2 spec (Dec 2025), LF foundation (Apr 2026) | Linux Foundation x402 Foundation | | TollBit | Established product (Lightspeed-backed, Series A) | Private company | | Skyfire | Funded but earlier-stage ($9.5M) | Private company | | Cloudflare PPC | Closed beta as of Q2 2026 | Cloudflare | | Stripe ACP | Launched Stripe Sessions 2026 | Stripe |

See also