# x402 on Base: Inside the Directory's Default Chain Base is where x402 commerce happens in practice: 87 of the 100 services in this directory settle their payments on it. Base is an Ethereum layer-2 network, which means it inherits Ethereum's security model while keeping transaction fees low enough that a fraction-of-a-cent payment clears without the fee dwarfing the payment. This page looks at what the Base listings actually are — their categories, their prices, and who settles them — and then walks through how a payment on Base flows at a high level. The [Base chain hub](https://x402looker.com/chain/base/) lists all 87 services individually. ## What the Base listings look like The Base slice of the directory is dominated by financial data. [Finance and trading](https://x402looker.com/category/finance-trading/) accounts for 60 of the 87 listings — market data, signals, and analytics endpoints aimed at autonomous trading agents. [Data APIs](https://x402looker.com/category/data-apis/) contribute 14, and the remainder is a long tail: three infrastructure and facilitator services, three uncategorized services, two each in [commerce](https://x402looker.com/category/commerce/) and [media generation](https://x402looker.com/category/media-generation/), and one each in MCP tools, [search and retrieval](https://x402looker.com/category/search-retrieval/), and content paywalls. Every one of the 87 charges per request and accepts USDC. There is no Base listing with a subscription, a tiered plan, or a fiat price — the chain hub is a uniform catalog of pay-per-call endpoints. For a buyer, that uniformity is the point: an agent that can pay one Base listing already holds the right currency, the right credential format, and the right network for every other Base listing in the catalog. ## Prices on Base: the full spread Base hosts the widest price range in the directory, from $0.0001 to $10 for a single request, and it spans all four published price bands: - [**Micro** ($0.01 or less)](https://x402looker.com/price-band/micro/): 26 Base listings — commodity lookups and lightweight data calls. - [**Low** (up to $0.10)](https://x402looker.com/price-band/low/): 5 listings. - [**Moderate** (up to $1.00)](https://x402looker.com/price-band/moderate/): 27 listings, weighted toward market data and analytics. - [**Premium** (over $1.00)](https://x402looker.com/price-band/premium/): 28 listings — every premium listing in the directory settles on Base, 24 of them finance and trading endpoints. One further Base listing prices itself as "varies" rather than a fixed dollar amount, so it falls outside the band pages. The pattern to note is that Base carries both ends of the market at once: the cheapest routine calls and the most expensive single requests in the catalog. ## Who settles Base payments Facilitator adoption on Base is concentrated. The [coinbase facilitator](https://x402looker.com/facilitator/coinbase/) settles 79 of the 87 Base listings — consistent with Coinbase having originated both the protocol and the network. [codenut](https://x402looker.com/facilitator/codenut/) settles 5 Base listings, its entire footprint in the directory, and payai, daydreams, and mogami settle one each. For a seller, that means Base buyers are overwhelmingly reachable through a single integration; for the ecosystem, it means Base settlement reliability and the coinbase facilitator's reliability are tightly coupled. The [facilitator landscape comparison](https://x402looker.com/guides/x402-facilitators-compared/) puts these counts side by side with the other operators. ## How a Base payment flows 1. The client — usually an AI agent — sends an ordinary HTTP request to a paid endpoint. 2. The server answers `402 Payment Required` with terms naming Base as the network, USDC as the asset, a price, and a recipient address. 3. The client signs a transfer authorization for exactly that amount of USDC from a wallet that holds USDC on Base. 4. The client retries the identical request with the signed payload attached. 5. The server's facilitator verifies the payload against the terms and settles the transfer on Base — the server runs no node and pays no gas. 6. The server returns the resource with a normal `200` response. From the agent's perspective the whole negotiation is one extra round trip, and the [protocol walkthrough](https://x402looker.com/guides/how-does-x402-work/) covers each step in more detail. ## When Base is the right chain Base is the default choice for reach: it is where the large majority of listed services and, by extension, funded agent wallets already operate. A seller who can only integrate one chain reaches 87% of the directory's precedent on Base. The counterpoint is cost and crowding at the margins — [x402 on Solana](https://x402looker.com/guides/x402-on-solana/) covers the smaller, cheaper-priced slice of the catalog that chose the other chain. The pragmatic rule is to settle where your buyers already hold USDC, and the directory data says that is usually Base. Browse all [87 x402 services on Base](https://x402looker.com/chain/base/), or compare the [Solana listings](https://x402looker.com/chain/solana/) to see how the two chains differ. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many x402 services run on Base? 87 of the 100 services in the x402 Looker directory settle payments on Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network. ### What do Base x402 services sell? Mostly financial data: 60 of the 87 Base listings are finance and trading endpoints, with data APIs next at 14. Every listing charges per request in USDC. ### What do prices look like on Base? Base hosts the directory's full spread, from $0.0001 to $10 per request: 26 micro, 5 low, 27 moderate, and 28 premium listings, plus one that prices as varies. ### Which facilitators settle on Base? The coinbase facilitator settles 79 of the 87 Base listings; codenut settles 5, and payai, daydreams, and mogami settle one each. ## Related - [Base services](https://x402looker.com/chain/base/) - [x402 on Solana: Small Catalog, Micro Prices](https://x402looker.com/guides/x402-on-solana/) - [Finance & Trading category](https://x402looker.com/category/finance-trading/) - [Premium price band](https://x402looker.com/price-band/premium/) - [Coinbase facilitator profile](https://x402looker.com/facilitator/coinbase/)