Set up your AI wallet.

Go to /sign-in. Use Google, email, or whichever method your admin has enabled. New accounts are created automatically.

From the dashboard, click Add a card. You'll be handed to Stripe's secure form. The card number goes directly from your browser to Stripe — our servers never see it and never store it.

For test mode, use Stripe's magic card:

Number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
Exp:    any future date
CVC:    any 3 digits
ZIP:    any 5 digits

After the card is saved you'll see it listed on your wallet page with brand + last 4.

A budget is the permission you hand to an AI to spend on your card. It carries rules you set:

• Limit — total dollars this AI can spend before the budget stops working.
• Allowed stores — optional list of merchant IDs. Empty = any merchant on Pay By AI.
• Expires in — hours until the budget auto-cancels.

Head to /user/budgets, fill in the form, click Create budget. Copy the resulting pbai_sess_… code immediately — it's shown once. (We call it a budget in the UI; internally the credential is a bearer token.)

Pay By AI exposes an MCP server that any modern AI client — Claude (web or desktop), Claude Code, ChatGPT, or a custom agent — can add as a custom connector. The easiest path is the web UI.

Claude on the web (claude.ai) — recommended

This is the path most people want. No config files, no CLI — just paste a URL.

1. Open claude.ai and sign in. (Requires a Claude Pro or Max plan — Anthropic gates custom connectors on paid tiers.)
2. Click your avatar → Settings → Connectors.
3. Click Add custom connector.
4. Fill in:

Name:    PayByMy.AI
URL:     https://www.paybymyai.com/api/mcp
Header:  Authorization: Bearer pbai_sess_YOUR_CODE_HERE

5. Click Save. Claude validates the connection by calling tools/list — if the budget code is valid, the connector becomes available.
6. In any new chat, confirm the connector is enabled (small toggle in the composer) and ask: “What cards do I have on file?” Claude will call the tool and show your cards.

Claude Desktop (config-file alternative)

If you prefer editing config files (or you're on Claude Desktop without the UI flow enabled), open ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or the Windows equivalent, and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paybyai": {
      "url": "https://www.paybymyai.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer pbai_sess_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop to pick up the change.

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add paybyai \
  --transport http \
  --url https://www.paybymyai.com/api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization=Bearer pbai_sess_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"

Generic MCP client

Any client that supports MCP Streamable HTTP can connect directly:

POST https://www.paybymyai.com/api/mcp
Authorization: Bearer pbai_sess_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE
Content-Type: application/json

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}

Tell your AI what you want. When it's ready to pay, it asks the merchant's MCP (or is handed a token directly) and calls pay_payment_request(token, paymentMethodId) on Pay By AI.

Pay By AI verifies your session, checks the consent bounds, and creates a Stripe PaymentIntent with transfer_data.destination pointing at the merchant's Connect account. The money never passes through us.