Sébastien LOPEZ

Posted on Apr 10

How I Built an AI API That Accepts USDC Payments on Solana (No Credit Card Needed)

#solana #cryptocurrency #webdev

Most AI APIs require a credit card, a subscription, and KYC verification. What if you could just send USDC on Solana and start making API calls immediately?

That's exactly what I built with TextAI API — a text processing service (summarize, extract keywords, translate) where you pay per request with USDC on Solana.

Why USDC on Solana?

No credit card needed — just a Solana wallet with USDC
No subscription — pay only for what you use
No KYC — start in seconds
Sub-cent transactions — Solana fees are negligible
Global access — anyone with a wallet can use it, no banking infrastructure required

How It Works

1. Get an API key (free, 100 demo credits included)

curl -X POST https://textai-api.overtek.deno.net/api/keys

You get 100 free credits to try every endpoint before paying anything.

2. Use the API

Summarize text:

curl -X POST https://textai-api.overtek.deno.net/api/summarize \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Your long text here...", "length": "short"}'

Extract keywords:

curl -X POST https://textai-api.overtek.deno.net/api/keywords \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Your text here..."}'

Translate:

curl -X POST https://textai-api.overtek.deno.net/api/translate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "Hello world", "targetLang": "fr"}'

3. Add credits with USDC

When your free credits run out, send USDC to the payment address on Solana and submit the transaction signature:

curl -X POST https://textai-api.overtek.deno.net/api/credits \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"txSignature": "your_solana_tx_signature"}'

The API verifies the SPL token transfer on-chain with anti-double-spend protection.

Tech Stack

Runtime: Deno + Hono.js
AI: Groq inference (fast, free tier available)
Payments: USDC (SPL token) on Solana devnet
Hosting: Deno Deploy
Anti-fraud: KV-based transaction deduplication

Why This Matters for Web3

Most AI services today are siloed behind Web2 payment rails. By accepting USDC natively, TextAI API opens up use cases for:

AI agents that need text processing capabilities and already hold USDC
DeFi protocols that want to add AI features without credit card infrastructure
Global developers in regions with limited banking access
Autonomous systems that can transact programmatically on Solana

Try It Now

API: https://textai-api.overtek.deno.net
GitHub: https://github.com/mokchou/textai-api
100 free credits — no signup, no credit card

The API is live and ready to use. Get your key, try the endpoints, and let me know what you build with it.

Have questions or feedback? Drop a comment below or open an issue on GitHub.

DEV Community