# VirusTotal Popular Threat Categories via Locus x402

> VirusTotal Popular Threat Categories via Locus x402 is a paid API for AI agents from virustotal.x402.paywithlocus.com, paid per call via x402, $0.055/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Retrieves the most popular threat categories currently tracked by VirusTotal across its 70+ antivirus engines and security tools.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://virustotal.x402.paywithlocus.com/virustotal/popular-threat-categories
- Price: $0.055/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/virustotal-popular-threat-categories-via-locus-x402-2a2716e6
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_dgam_IWqMul8C5KxdwiUx

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 virustotal-popular-threat-categories-via-locus-x402-2a2716e6 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Pull the current popular threat categories from VirusTotal so I can see what malware types and attack families are most commonly detected right now.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need a high-level overview of the current threat landscape as categorized by VirusTotal — ideal for populating dashboards, threat briefings, or building context before performing specific file/URL/domain/IP scans. Prefer this over direct VirusTotal API access when you want pay-per-use billing via USDC x402 without managing a VirusTotal API key subscription.

## Known failure modes

- Payment failure if insufficient USDC balance — returns 402 Payment Required
- Invalid or malformed request body returns 400 Bad Request
- Upstream VirusTotal API unavailability returns 502 or 503
- Rate limiting by the Locus proxy returns 429 Too Many Requests
- Authentication/payment settlement failure leaves request in pending state checkable via statusUrl

## How this service works

Threat intelligence platform — scan files by hash, URLs, domains, and IPs against 70+ antivirus engines and security tools.

## Output

Returns a data object containing the currently popular threat categories as tracked by VirusTotal across its 70+ security engines, along with payment confirmation metadata (settled USDC amount, request ID, and a status URL for tracking the request).

## 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",
    "bodyType",
    "body"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "body": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {},
     "additionalProperties": true
    },
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "POST"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "bodyType": {
     "enum": [
      "json",
      "form-data",
      "text"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "data": {},
  "payment": {
   "scheme": "exact",
   "settledUsdc": "0.001000",
   "authorizedMaxUsdc": "0.001000"
  },
  "request": {
   "id": "00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000",
   "statusUrl": "/requests/00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000"
  },
  "success": true
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/virustotal-popular-threat-categories-via-locus-x402-2a2716e6/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from virustotal.x402.paywithlocus.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/virustotal.x402.paywithlocus.com/llms.txt)