Building an Instagram data API where AI agents pay per search with USDC (x402 protocol)
What I'm building: Social Intel (socialintel.dev) — an Instagram influencer search API designed for AI agents.
The core idea: instead of API keys or monthly subscriptions, the API uses the x402 payment protocol (HTTP micropayments). When an AI agent calls the endpoint, it gets back HTTP 402 with payment details, pays 0.10 USDC on Base chain, and gets JSON results back. No signup, no rate limits, no billing dashboard.
It also ships as an MCP server, so Claude and Cursor can search Instagram influencers as a built-in tool — and pay automatically with their own wallets.
What it returns: usernames, follower counts, categories, verified status, and public business emails (~50% of profiles have one in their bio). Searchable by keyword, country, follower range, gender.
Current status: listed on Smithery (MCP directory), building organic SEO traffic, launching on Product Hunt March 30.
Looking for anyone building with:
- Influencer marketing tools
- Social data pipelines
- AI agents that need data APIs
- x402 / pay-per-use API patterns
Happy to share what I've learned about building pay-per-call APIs with x402.
The x402 protocol angle is clever — pay-per-use APIs are a natural fit for agents that need to operate autonomously with their own budgets. How are you handling rate limiting and abuse detection? With agents making automated calls, I imagine the traffic patterns look very different from human users.
the x402 pay-per-search model for AI agents is a really interesting angle. we built a web analysis API (SEO, speed, tech stack, link checking) and the hardest part has been figuring out the right monetization model. per-request pricing makes way more sense than subscriptions for API products where usage varies wildly. the USDC payment layer adds complexity though — most developers just want to pass an API key and get billed monthly. curious if youre seeing more interest from actual AI agent builders or from traditional developers who want instagram data? the two audiences have very different expectations around pricing and docs.