# Paddock Market Gaps API

> Paddock Market Gaps API is a paid API for AI agents from paddock.finance, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Returns ranked AI agent commerce categories with opportunity scores, provider concentration, and transaction volume to identify underserved market gaps

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://paddock.finance/api/paddock/mcp/gaps
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/paddock-market-gaps-api-c1975012
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_emdTsh_AyQOOYmmJ2SxFY

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability paddock-market-gaps-api-c1975012
```

Example prompt: What are the top 10 AI agent commerce categories with the biggest market gaps right now — I want to see where demand is high but providers are few, using Paddock's opportunity score data.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need a neutral, data-driven ranking of AI agent API market categories by opportunity — especially when deciding where to build or position a new AI agent service. Prefer this over generic market research when you want live transaction-derived signals from actual x402 micropayment activity rather than survey data or speculation.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid 'top' parameter type (non-integer) returns a 400 error
- top value exceeding 50 silently caps at 50 results
- Payment failure via x402 returns 402 if USDC is not provided
- Empty categories array if no transaction data is available for the requested date
- Stale data if the underlying Paddock pipeline has not refreshed recently

## How this service works

Paddock niche gap analysis — one-time query

## Output

A JSON object containing a dated snapshot of AI agent commerce categories, each with an opportunity_score, number of providers, daily transaction count, top provider market share concentration, a signal label, and a link to the full Paddock dashboard page for that category. Also includes methodology metadata and the tool/payment attribution fields.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "top": {
       "type": "integer",
       "maximum": 50,
       "minimum": 1
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "tool": "get_niche_gaps",
  "categories": [
   {
    "signal": "Open — proven demand, few providers",
    "category": "LLM & inference",
    "category_id": "llm",
    "opportunity_score": 1.23
   }
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/paddock-market-gaps-api-c1975012/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from paddock.finance](https://www.zero.xyz/host/paddock.finance/llms.txt)