The Gate402 MCP server is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server implementation for the Gate402 platform, giving any MCP client access to a pay-per-call agent API toolset. Its billing is handled through the x402 (HTTP 402) protocol, using USDC payments on the Base chain.
Main capabilities According to the official description, the server provides 20 tools, covering: LLM inference for open-source models; GPU and CPU compute; GPU marketplace; a complete Base chain transaction loop (discovery → due diligence → read → execute); on-chain, DeFi, SEC EDGAR filings, and news data; web scraping and conversion to Markdown. It also includes three free tools that run locally, are pure computation, require no payment, no key, and no network access (the official text does not list the specific names and functions of these 3 tools one by one).
GPU marketplace Gate402 can also route to third-party GPU/compute providers and uses an escrow model of "settle only upon successful delivery": only after the provider completes delivery is the buyer charged. Providers receive 85% of the revenue per call, paid on-chain in USDC on the Base chain.
Billing method On first use, the server automatically claims an API key with free quota from Gate402 and caches it at ~/.gate402-mcp/key.json. Calls consume that quota; when the quota is exhausted, the tools return a top-up link instead of failing directly. To skip the free quota, set the environment variable GATE402_API_KEY to a topped-up account (top-up required first). The official emphasis is "payment is authentication," with no need to create an account.
Installation and running It can be installed and then used, or run without installation via npx gate402-mcp.
Configure the MCP client In Claude Desktop / Claude Code, add it to the MCP configuration (claude_desktop_config.json, or use claude mcp add). Cursor / Cline / Windsurf are configured in the same form, pointing the MCP server command to npx -y gate402-mcp.
Integration with agent frameworks gate402 is a standard stdio MCP server, and any framework with an MCP adapter can addall 17 tools (the original text here says 17, which differs slightly from the 20 stated in the title; the official source prevails): LangChain / LangGraph uses langchain-mcp-adapters; CrewAI uses MCPServerAdapter; LlamaIndex uses McpToolSpec. After integration, agents can call these tools autonomously; the free quota key is claimed on first use, and paid tools deduct from it.
Environment variables The official documentation provides environment variable configuration (the original text does not list the specific variable names and values one by one, except for GATE402_API_KEY).
Use cases Suitable for MCP client users and framework developers who need to add LLM inference, compute, on-chain/DeFi data, SEC filing retrieval, news, and web scraping capabilities to agents; no registration is required to try it through the free quota.
Limitations The content is subject to the official repository description; prices, fee details, free quota size, supported model list, GPU provider list, etc. are not yet provided.
