HTTP 402 Payment Required

HTTP 402 is a status code baked into the web since the early days that means one thing: "pay to continue." It sat unused for decades because there was never a clean way for a machine to actually pay. Now that AI agents shop, book, and buy on a user's behalf, 402 is waking up — it's the signal a server sends an agent that says "this costs money, settle up and I'll proceed."

Why it matters for the ChatGPT funnel

The buying journey moved into ChatGPT and Claude. When the assistant is ready to act for a user — book a demo, reserve a slot, complete a purchase — something has to handle the money cleanly, in-chat, without bouncing the person to a checkout page. 402 is the plumbing that lets that happen automatically. The takeaway for you isn't the code itself. It's that the assistant can now carry a high-intent user all the way to a transaction without leaving the conversation. That's where booked pipeline gets won or lost — at the moment of intent, inside the chat.

How drio fits

drio is the conversion layer that lives at that moment. When the assistant picks your app and the user is ready to commit, drio books the meeting right there in the chat. You don't have to build payment plumbing or learn agentic payment standards — drio handles the conversion so AI-search demand turns into real leads.