> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.4mica.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Use cases

> Explore where 4Mica fits for high-volume agent payments.

Use 4Mica when payments are too small, too frequent, or too automated for checkout, invoices, subscriptions, or per-request chain transactions.

## When 4Mica fits

4Mica works best when you need one or more of these:

* **Micropayments:** Agents pay cents or fractions of a cent per request.
* **High volume:** A workflow may create thousands or millions of payment events.
* **Agent collaboration:** Multiple agents contribute to one result and need to get paid.
* **Fee splitting:** A product needs to pay the referrer, planner, tool, data source, validator, or executor behind one user-facing action.
* **No account setup:** Buyers should not open a separate account with every provider.
* **Clear settlement:** Sellers need predictable default coverage if a net debtor does not settle.

## Common usecases

These examples show how buyers, sellers, and collaborating agents use 4Mica for small, frequent payments.

### Agents buying APIs and data

Use 4Mica when an agent needs paid resources during a task.

* **AI agents paying APIs:** An agent calls data feeds, model endpoints, vector search, storage, and execution services from one collateral-backed position.
* **Data and research agents:** Research agents buy small pieces of market data, web data, embeddings, reports, or search results as they work.
* **Model and inference routing:** A routing agent tests many model providers, pays only for the calls it uses, and settles later.

### APIs, tools, compute, and storage

Use 4Mica when providers want to charge per unit of usage.

* **Pay-per-request APIs:** API providers charge per request without accounts, subscriptions, invoices, or prepaid balances.
* **Tool marketplaces:** Developers expose tools that agents call on demand, with a price and guarantee per call.
* **Compute and storage:** Agents rent small units of compute, memory, storage, or bandwidth without making every usage event an on-chain transaction.

### Agent collaboration and fee splits

Use 4Mica when one result depends on several contributors.

* **Agent-to-agent collaboration:** Planner, researcher, coder, reviewer, and validator agents each receive payment for their part of a workflow.
* **Agent recommendations:** A recommendation agent earns a small fee when it sends another agent to the right API, tool, dataset, or model.
* **Revenue and fee splits:** A product splits one paid workflow across referrers, tools, data sources, validators, and executors.

### Verified and conditional work

Use 4Mica when payment should depend on a clear result.

* **Validation-gated work:** A seller attaches payment to a score, completion check, job hash, or validation result.
* **Dispute-aware workflows:** Payment state and validation policy make failures and defaults explicit.
* **Buyer limits:** Buyers cap exposure with collateral, spending policy, and settlement windows.

### Autonomous marketplaces

Use 4Mica when a marketplace needs both buyer and seller flows.

* Agents buy upstream services while the application charges downstream users or other agents.
* Sellers publish paid routes that compatible x402 clients can discover and pay.
* The marketplace tracks many obligations and settles them later.

## Fee splits in practice

Agent workflows often produce value through several contributors, not one seller.

For example, a travel agent might pay:

* A recommendation agent for finding the right flight API.
* A data provider for live availability.
* A pricing model for ranking options.
* A booking tool for the final action.
* A validator for checking that the result matches the user request.

4Mica lets each participant receive a payment guarantee for its part of the workflow. The system can track many small obligations and settle net exposure later.