# vm402 Anonymous Metered VM Provisioning

> vm402 Anonymous Metered VM Provisioning is a paid API for AI agents from vm402.com, paid per call via x402, $0.24/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-12).

Provisions an anonymous, metered virtual machine paid per-hour via Lightning (L402) or USDC on Base (x402), returning a one-time bearer token for access

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://vm402.com/vms?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.24/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-12
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/vm402-anonymous-metered-vm-provisioning-0ce252ec
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_KpqP2E122OvTUn-FwldAL

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 vm402-anonymous-metered-vm-provisioning-0ce252ec -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Spin up an anonymous VM for 3 hours and pay with USDC — I don't want to create an account anywhere, just get the bearer token when it's ready.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need anonymous, on-demand virtual compute without any account registration or KYC, especially when paying with Lightning (sats) or USDC on Base via x402. It is ideal for ephemeral workloads, throwaway environments, or privacy-sensitive automation where linking compute to an identity is undesirable. Prefer it over traditional cloud VMs when crypto-native payment rails (L402/x402) are required or when the zero-account model is a hard requirement.

## Known failure modes

- 402 Payment Required — no payment provided; response includes both a Lightning invoice (L402) and an x402 USDC challenge; must pay and retry with correct auth header
- Invalid or expired L402 preimage — payment token or preimage is malformed or already used
- Insufficient payment — hours * rate does not match the paid amount
- x402 signature invalid or wrong network — must route non-Base-USDC payments through l402.space proxy
- VM provisioning failure — infrastructure-side error preventing VM creation

## How this service works

Anonymous metered cloud VPS (Linux VMs) — deploy an app, host a server, or run sandboxed code. You get a VM and can do what you want. No accounts; a bearer token per VM. Create and topup are paid over L402 (lightning) at 10 sats/hour, or natively over x402 (USDC on Base) at $0.01/hour. Call with no payment to get a 402 carrying both challenges: pay the lightning invoice and retry with "Authorization: L402 <token>:<preimage>", or sign the x402 exact-scheme USDC payment and retry with it base64-encoded in the "payment-signature" header. For x402 on other networks or MPP, route the request through https://l402.space/<rail>/<url-encoded-endpoint>.

## Output

Returns a JSON object containing the VM's unique ID, its access URL, a meter reference, a one-time bearer token (shown only once) for authenticating subsequent requests to that VM, an expiry timestamp, and the URL visibility setting (public or private).

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "hours": {
   "type": "number",
   "description": "Runtime to buy; price is hours × rate"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "id": {
   "type": "string"
  },
  "url": {
   "type": "string"
  },
  "meter": {
   "type": "string"
  },
  "token": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Bearer token for this VM. Shown once."
  },
  "expires_at": {
   "type": "string",
   "format": "date-time"
  },
  "url_visibility": {
   "enum": [
    "public",
    "private"
   ],
   "type": "string"
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/vm402-anonymous-metered-vm-provisioning-0ce252ec/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from vm402.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/vm402.com/llms.txt)