Payees
Let agents pay for the services they need — recurring payments within exact limits
Payees are pre-approved addresses that receive payments from your Programmable Wallet — within exact limits you control. Pre-approve recurring recipients like market data feeds, model providers, compute vendors, contractors, payroll, and subscriptions. Set per-payment caps, period limits, allowed assets, cooldowns. Your funds keep earning in DeFi until the millisecond they're needed.
Your trading agent keeps its data feed, inference API, and GPU provider online with fixed USDC allowances. Your CFO pays vendors without accessing reserves. Employees pull their exact salary. Every payment validated against your rules, every penny earning yield until sent.
Why Payees Exist
The Agent Payment Problem
AI agents need to pay for services to operate: data feeds for market intelligence, inference APIs for decision-making, compute providers for execution. But giving agents unrestricted spending access is dangerous — one bug or exploit could drain your wallet.
Payees solve this by pre-approving specific recipients with hard spending caps. Your trading agent can keep its data feed and GPU provider online with fixed USDC allowances — but cannot overspend, cannot add new recipients, and cannot access funds beyond its budget. The agent (as a Manager) can execute payments. Only you can decide who gets paid.
The Problem with Recurring Crypto Payments
For both agents and humans, making regular crypto payments today means choosing between bad options:
Manual transfers: Re-enter addresses, risk typos, waste time every pay period
Give full access: Share private keys or grant unlimited spending permissions
Traditional banking: Pay wire fees, lose DeFi yield, wait for processing
None of these work for agents, businesses, or individuals who need reliable, controlled automation.
The Payee Solution
Payees create a verified recipient list with granular controls:
Your funds stay in DeFi earning yield (via protocols like Aave, Morpho, Euler) until the moment of payment. The system automatically withdraws only what's needed, when it's needed. Plus, you earn rewards on all your DeFi activity.
Pre-Approved Recipients, Enforced Onchain
Owner-Controlled Recipient List
Direct owner control: Only you, as the wallet owner, can directly add, confirm, or widen payees. Managers can propose new payees, but those proposals stay pending until you approve them after the configured delay. Payees can remove themselves, but nobody besides you can activate or expand them. This is enforced by smart contracts, not policy.
Tamper-Resistant Recipient Records
Onchain recipient records: Once a payee is configured, the recipient address and limits live onchain. A manager cannot silently swap "GPU Provider" to a different address or widen the allowance without your approval.
Managers Can Pay, Not Expand the List
Separation of powers: Managers can execute payments to active payees within the configured caps. They cannot unilaterally activate new recipients, raise payee limits, or route funds to unapproved destinations. You control the recipient list. Agents and operators handle the approved flow.
This is the core payee model: recurring recipients are approved first, then payments execute only within those limits.
Payee Controls & Configuration
You can set comprehensive controls for each payee, ensuring payments happen exactly as intended. These controls protect against overspending, timing errors, and unauthorized changes.
Financial Limits
Dual Protection System
Every payee supports both token amount AND USD value limits:
Transaction Limits: Maximum per single payment (e.g., 1,000 USDC or $1,000)
Period Limits: Maximum per time period (e.g., 5,000 USDC or $5,000/month)
Lifetime Limits: Total cumulative maximum (e.g., 50,000 USDC or $50,000)
The most restrictive limit always applies, protecting against price volatility.
Period Configuration
Custom Periods: Set any duration in blocks (e.g., 43,200 blocks ≈ 1 day on Base)
Auto-Reset: Limits refresh each period (unused amounts don't roll over)
Common Settings: Daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly
Payment Controls
Transaction Restrictions
Max Transactions: Limit payment count per period (e.g., 1 for monthly salary)
Cooldown Period: Minimum time between payments (prevents accidental double-pays)
Expiry Date: Auto-deactivate payees after set time (e.g., contractor end date)
Asset Restrictions
Control exactly which tokens each payee can receive:
Single Asset: Lock to one token only (e.g., USDC for salaries)
Preferred Asset: Set default with flexibility for others
Any Asset: Accept all tokens (useful for trading desks)
Security Features
Global Settings (Wallet-Wide)
Pull Payment Master Switch: Enable/disable all pull payments
Self-Payment Toggle: Allow/block payments to yourself
Default Limits: Base settings inherited by new payees
Individual Overrides
Custom Limits: Override globals for specific relationships
Pull Permission: Enable per-payee even if globally disabled
Asset Whitelist: Restrict tokens beyond global settings
System Limits
Maximum 40 Payees: Per wallet capacity
Maximum 40 Assets: Per payee restriction list
Fail-Safe Protection: Blocks payments if price oracles unavailable
Keep it enabled: A broken price feed could otherwise drain your wallet
Only disable for: Pure stablecoin operations where you trust the 1:1 peg
Price oracles are essential services that provide real-world asset prices to the blockchain. By blocking payments when this price data is unavailable, the system prevents potential exploits that could otherwise drain funds during an oracle malfunction.
Pull Payment Safety
Hard requirement: You cannot enable pull payments without setting limits. The system enforces at least one cap (transaction or period) to prevent unlimited access.
Permission System
Who Can Add Payees
Owner: Full control to add, confirm, modify, or remove any payee Managers: Can propose new payees (requires owner approval after delay) Others: No access to change payees or their limits
Who Can Execute Payments
Owner: Can pay any active payee within limits Managers: Can pay active payees only, subject to both manager and payee limits Payees: Can pull payments if explicitly enabled
Who Can Remove
Owner: Can remove any payee immediately Payees: Can remove themselves (clean exit option) Managers: Cannot remove payees directly
Lifecycle Management
Activation Flow
Typical Activation & Expiry Combinations
New Vendor
7 days
90 days
High security for new relationships; quarterly review
Regular Employee
3 days
365 days
Moderate security; annual contract cycle
Trusted Family
1 day
Never
Quick access for emergencies; permanent relationship
Subscription Service
2 hours
30 days
Fast setup; monthly renewal matches billing
Administrative Hierarchy
Owner (You)
Direct add/update/remove
Confirm manager proposals
Full control always
Managers — Authorized Operators
Can make payments to active payees within limits
Can suggest new Payees (requires your approval)
Cannot directly activate, remove, or widen payees
Perfect for delegating routine payments while maintaining control
Payees
Can remove themselves
Enables clean exits
📋 Manager Proposals Need Your Approval If a manager proposes a new payee, you'll see a pending request. After the security delay (configurable by you), you must manually confirm to activate the payee. This two-step process prevents unauthorized additions.
Pull Payments: Optional Recipient-Initiated Billing
Enable Payees to pull payment directly from your wallet, always within your preset limits.
How It Works
Payee initiates withdrawal from your wallet
Smart contract validates against all configured limits
Funds automatically sourced from yield positions if needed
Payment executes immediately if within limits
Double Activation Required
Real Numbers
Traditional subscriptions:
$500/month sitting idle = $0 earned
With pull payments:
$500/month earning 5% = $25/year extra
$6,000 annual subscriptions = $300/year bonus
Safety: Pull Payees MUST have limits. No unlimited access allowed.
Real-World Configurations
Agent Data Feed
Agent Compute Provider
Agent Inference API
Employee Payroll Configuration
Vendor Management
Family Support
SaaS Subscriptions
Common Questions
What happens at expiry? Payees automatically deactivate. Payments blocked until you renew.
What if I overpay by mistake? Impossible. Hard limits enforced by smart contracts on the blockchain prevent sending more than configured.
Do I need separate Payees for each employee? Yes. Each payee has individual limits and tracking.
Can I modify limits after setup? Yes. Changes take effect immediately.
The Perfect Partnership: Managers + Payees
Payees define which recurring recipients can receive funds. Managers (Managers) handle the approved payment flow within their own permissions and budgets.
Together, they create unbreakable security:
You verify payment addresses once (adding them as Payees)
Your manager handles daily operations (paying only those Payees)
You maintain ultimate control (only you can directly activate or widen payees)
This separation of powers means you can delegate work without delegating trust. Your CFO can pay approved vendors without adding a fake recipient. Your AI can keep approved services online without routing funds to an unknown address.
For AI agents, this separation is critical. The agent (Manager) can execute payments to pre-approved service providers (Payees), but cannot add new recipients or modify spending limits. The wallet owner defines which services the agent can pay for and how much it can spend — enforced onchain, not by policy.
Learn more: See how Managers can automate your payment workflows.
Related Features
Cheques: One-time payments with time delays and cancellation ability
Managers: Learn how to delegate payment tasks to AI or team members
Whitelist: Configure instant, unlimited transfers for your most trusted addresses
Programmable Wallets: Explore your agentic wallet and all its features
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