Frequently asked questions
Short answers, no hedging. If a question isn't here, the contact page reaches a person.
Quick definitions: dry run, x402, and USDC on Base
- Dry run
- A test run that executes your flow's logic for real but stubs every step that would cost money or reach an outside system, so nothing is spent.
- x402
- An optional rail for selling an agent per call. An open payment protocol built on HTTP status 402 (Payment Required): the server answers an unpaid request with its price, the caller's wallet signs a payment and retries, and the work runs once the payment settles. Agent Studio itself runs on a card-funded plan and usage credit.
- USDC on Base
- The optional x402 rail's currency. USDC is a stablecoin designed to track the US dollar, and Base is an Ethereum layer-2 network. Calls paid over x402 settle in USDC on Base; plans and usage credit are paid by card.
The basics
Do I need a crypto wallet to use Agent Studio?
No. A wallet is never needed to build, run, publish or call agents. Your Studio plan is paid by card and your usage credit funds every run. A wallet only comes in if you add the optional x402 rail: to receive per-call sales in USDC directly, or to pay another agent over x402 from your own code.
Do I need to know anything about crypto?
No. Agent Studio runs on a card-funded plan and usage credit, and buyers on your agent's page pay from their credit. x402, AP2 and USDC are optional rails for builders who want other agents to pay them per call, and the platform handles the protocol details when you switch them on.
How do I pay for Agent Studio?
By card. Studio software starts at $99/month for new subscriptions, and your runs draw on usage credit you manage on the usage page. Your plan, balance and every charge sit in your workspace.
Is this only for music and IP workflows?
No. The template catalog and node palette are mostly general business workflows: lead scoring, invoice chasing, contract review, support triage, dev-ops. Music (song, video, and image generation) is one built-in vertical among the priced Suede nodes.
Costs and earnings
What does it cost to build and launch an agent?
Studio software starts at $99/month for new subscriptions. Agency Scale includes 3 client workspaces. Platform usage is billed separately. Workspace runs spend usage credit at cost plus the plan's platform fee: base 20%; Agency Scale 15%. There is no additional per-agent listing fee. Run cost includes model usage at the provider's list rate and settled specialized Suede endpoint calls. Dry runs are free. Existing subscriptions keep their agreed terms.
What stops a buggy flow from spending all my money?
Every run shares one in-run cost ceiling, checked before each cost-bearing node executes: a per-run cap ($5 by default; a paid caller's run is also bounded by the amount reserved for it). A loop that would exceed the ceiling stops with an explicit error naming how many iterations completed. Loops default to 50 iterations, go up to 200, and run up to 4 at a time.
What does the platform take when my agent gets paid?
The platform take is 0%. On a payment-enabled service, the full settled x402 price routes to your payout address, and Pay with credit and MCP sales are recorded as owed to you. There is no listing fee or payout threshold, and Studio software and usage are separate. Per-call sales are optional: switch them on once your launch's deployment, payout and service checks pass.
Calling and optional per-call payment
Do callers need a Suede AI account or API key?
No. A service that advertises preview answers without an account, key or wallet. Public callers do not need a Studio subscription to pay an agent through x402. On an agent sold per call, the payment itself authenticates the call, and signed-in buyers on the agent's page pay from usage credit instead. Suede AI never issues API keys to callers.
Can people call my agent before I turn on per-call payment?
Yes, for an ordinary service: it answers free in preview mode, so integrators verify the output shape before any money moves. Company services take paid calls only and advertise unavailable until their paid-call gates pass. Switch on payment and the same URL starts charging your price, with no change for anyone already integrated.
What happens if a paid call fails mid-run?
Payment settles before execution starts, so a run that fails after settlement is a settled call with status "error" in the response. Suede AI settles on x402's exact scheme, which has no chargeback, so sellers keep settled payments. Dry-run your flow before you switch payment on, and offer a preview so callers see the output shape before they pay.
What is x402 in one sentence?
An optional open protocol that uses HTTP status 402 to charge for a single API call: the server quotes machine-readable payment terms, the caller retries with a signed x402 v2 payload in a PAYMENT-SIGNATURE header, and settlement happens on Base before the response.
Testing, data, and hosting
What is dry-run mode exactly?
A dry run executes the real graph and stubs exactly the nodes that cost money or touch external systems: LLM returns without calling the model, HTTP returns a fixed placeholder without making a request, and paid nodes never settle. Branch, Transform, Loop, and the other logic nodes run for real. Ordinary published agents advertise this as preview mode, so anyone can check the output shape free; a company service whose paid-call gates are not ready advertises unavailable instead.
Where are my flows stored, and who can see them?
Flows are private to their owner; the directory lists only agents you have explicitly launched and listed. Launching publishes the agent's name, description, price, run endpoint, and current preview, payment-enabled, or unavailable state. The flow graph itself stays private.
Can I run my agent on my own server and still sell it through Suede AI?
Yes: that is the relay setting in the @suedeai/agents SDK. Your code runs on your machine and callers use the same Suede AI endpoint. An ordinary relay service previews free; when you switch on per-call payment, the platform verifies the x402 payment, forwards the call to your server with an HMAC signature, and routes settled USDC to your payout address.
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