Pay for AI inference with USDC micropayments on Polygon. No API keys needed.
Pay for AI inference with USDC micropayments on Polygon. No API keys needed. That is what the drain mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.
An open protocol for trustless, streaming micropayments between AI consumers and providers.
DRAIN enables permissionless, pay-per-token AI inference without intermediaries. Users open payment channels with USDC, stream requests to any compatible provider, and settle on-chain only when needed.
The server publishes 14 tools. What each one is for:
Minimal — The protocol defines only what's necessaryPermissionless — Anyone can be a provider or consumerTrustless — Cryptography replaces trustImmutable — No admin keys, no upgrades, no feesProblem — DRAIN SolutionRole — What They DoConsumer — Pays for AI servicesProvider — Delivers AI responsesAsset — NetworkUSDC — PolygonLink — DescriptionURL — PurposeConfiguration is passed through the environment: DRAIN_PRIVATE_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, PROVIDER_PRIVATE_KEY. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.
drain-mcp on npm is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.
This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Drain's toolset — Minimal, Permissionless, Trustless and 11 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by kimbo128; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Minimal | The protocol defines only what's necessary |
| Permissionless | Anyone can be a provider or consumer |
| Trustless | Cryptography replaces trust |
| Immutable | No admin keys, no upgrades, no fees |
| Problem | DRAIN Solution |
| Role | What They Do |
| Consumer | Pays for AI services |
| Provider | Delivers AI responses |
| Asset | Network |
| USDC | Polygon |
| Link | Description |
| URL | Purpose |
| Component | Description |
| Party | Protected Against |
Configure in Cursor or Claude:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"drain": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "drain-mcp"],
"env": {
"DRAIN_PRIVATE_KEY": "0x..."
}
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| DRAIN_PRIVATE_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| OPENAI_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| PROVIDER_PRIVATE_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
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