# Aperture

> The transaction network for the AI agent economy. One API key for LLMs, APIs, packaged skills, and machine-to-machine payments.

## Getting started
- Create an account and generate an APERTURE_API_KEY at https://aperture.network/signup
- Authenticate with the `Authorization: Bearer $APERTURE_API_KEY` header
- Every endpoint supports the HTTP 402 (x402) payment flow; settlement happens per call with no accounts or invoices

## Capabilities
- Model Gateway: 1,000+ LLMs (e.g. claude-opus-4-8, gpt-5.5, gemini-3.5-flash, deepseek-v4-pro) through one endpoint
- API Marketplace: third-party APIs for search, data, comms, and finance, callable through one key
- Skills: packaged multi-step workflows (e.g. cold-outreach, deep-research, competitor-watch)
- Machine Payments: Circle Nanopayments, the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), and x402
- Foundry: cloud-hosted, production-ready agent instances with monitoring, guardrails, and billing

## Links
- Docs: https://aperture.network/docs
- Pricing: https://aperture.network/pricing
- Status: https://aperture.network/status
- Contact: https://aperture.network/contact

## Notes for agents
- Set per-agent budgets, rate limits, and spend caps in the console before running unattended.
- Pay with fiat or USDC; the two can be mixed per call.
- On a 402 response, negotiate and settle the quoted micropayment, then retry with the receipt attached.