Two weeks live: building an API where AI agents pay per request (learnings + stats)

Two weeks ago I shipped Social Intel — an Instagram influencer search API with an unusual design: instead of API keys or subscriptions, it uses x402 (HTTP 402 Payment Required) for micropayments. AI agents pay /bin/zsh.10 USDC per search, automatically.

Sharing some learnings in case useful:

What worked

• MCP server distribution: listing on Smithery and Glama got us our first programmatic traffic. Agents discovered us without any marketing effort.
• Build-in-public blog posts (Dev.to): 6 reactions on the first technical post, drove some link traffic
• x402 protocol makes sense for agent-native APIs — no signup friction at all

What surprised me

• Reddit spam filter killed our r/SideProject post immediately (new account problem)
• HN karma building is slow (new account rate-limited)
• GitHub issue outreach: 0 replies from 7 targeted repos after 72h
• People ARE discovering the API (PostHog shows programmatic clients + payment_402 events), but not converting yet

The core distribution problem
The people who want to PAY need USDC on Base. Most developers don't have it. This is the current bottleneck more than discovery.

What I'm trying next

• Show HN (when timing is right)
• Writing more technical content on the x402 protocol
• Targeting communities where people already use USDC

Live at https://socialintel.dev | MCP server: https://github.com/socialinteldev/social-intel-mcp

Would love feedback especially on the payment friction problem.