> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://stablecoininsider.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Best Paymaster Providers for Paying Gas in USDC - URL: https://stablecoininsider.org/best-paymaster-providers-gas-in-usdc/ - Published: 2026-10-28T08:45:39.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-28T08:45:39.000Z - Description: Six providers compared on published markups and what those percentages are actually charged on. Chains, ERC-20 gas support, policy controls and funding models. - Author: Milos Djukanovic - Tags: Analysis, Stablecoins, Developers A stablecoin business eventually hits a wall that has nothing to do with stablecoins. A user holds 500 USDC, owes you 20, and cannot pay because the wallet has no ETH. Paymasters fix that, either by letting the user pay the fee in USDC or by having your app pay it for them. Both routes work and both carry a markup on top of the gas. So this compares six providers on that markup and, more importantly, on what the percentage is charged against, because the published numbers look comparable and are not. > Five percent and ten percent are not a price difference until you know what each one is a percentage of. One of these providers charges on the exchange rate rather than the gas fee. ### Key Takeaways - Published markups run from 5 to 10 percent of gas. - Those percentages are not comparable because the base differs. - Circle Paymaster takes USDC for gas on seven chains. - Coinbase charges 7 percent but covers only Base. - Biconomy publishes no pricing, so compare it by quote. --- ## Why Gas Is the Stablecoin Problem Two patterns cause this, and they are the two patterns stablecoin businesses actually use. The first is a user or customer funded entirely in USDC, which is normal the moment anyone is paid in stablecoins rather than buying them. The second is an automated agent or server wallet that must transact without a human topping up a native balance. In both cases the native token is an operational chore rather than an asset anyone wants, which is why gas abstraction became standard tooling. Our [**stablecoin developer ecosystem**](https://stablecoininsider.org/stablecoin-developer-ecosystem-report-2026/) report covers where this sits in the wider stack. **What to note:** decide early whether the user pays the fee in USDC or your app absorbs it, because that choice picks your provider. [![Stablecoin Developer Ecosystem Report 2026: Market Size, APIs, SDKs & Regulation](https://storage.ghost.io/c/73/6a/736af0e4-2274-4543-a329-2952b2b52abc/content/images/2026/10/Screenshot-2026-10-28-at-09.41.01.png)](https://stablecoininsider.org/stablecoin-developer-ecosystem-report-2026/) --- ## Best Paymaster Providers for Paying Gas in USDC ### 1\. [Pimlico](https://docs.pimlico.io/infra/paymaster/erc20-paymaster/architecture) [](https://docs.pimlico.io/infra/paymaster/erc20-paymaster/architecture) **Does the job:** the most transparent pricing in the category, by a wide margin. Pimlico publishes a rate card with a per-operation cost, which almost nobody in infrastructure does, and that alone makes it the baseline for comparison. The platform supports: - Pay-as-you-go at no monthly fee, with 10 million credits included then 1 dollar per 100,000 - Roughly 0.0075 dollars per user operation, and about 0.0105 dollars when sponsored - A 10 percent surcharge on sponsored gas on mainnet, with no surcharge on testnets - ERC-20 gas payments across more than 300 tokens, listed as an Enterprise feature - An off-chain quote endpoint returning an exchange rate and a post-operation gas value - 5,000 requests per minute on pay-as-you-go, unlimited on Enterprise Two gaps in the documentation. The ERC-20 paymaster page does not list supported tokens or chains and does not state whether the user must approve the paymaster first, and ERC-20 pricing is not broken out from the sponsored-gas surcharge. Best for teams that want to model unit economics before writing any code. ### 2\. [Circle Paymaster](https://developers.circle.com/paymaster) [](https://developers.circle.com/paymaster) **Does the job:** USDC as the gas token, from the company that issues it. Circle Paymaster is the narrowest product here and the most obviously aligned with a stablecoin business, because USDC is the only token it accepts for fees. The platform supports: - A permissionless smart contract rather than a hosted service with an API key - Any ERC-4337 compliant wallet - Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon and Unichain on version 0.8 - Arbitrum and Base on version 0.7 - A 10 percent surcharge on gas fees - USDC-funded approval and account deployment paid by signed permit, with no native token needed There is a documentation inconsistency to resolve before modelling costs, since the page says the surcharge applies to Arbitrum and Base while its own comparison table states 10 percent of the gas fee without that restriction. Being permissionless is also a double-edged feature, because there is no dashboard, no policy engine and no spend cap. Best for USDC-native products that want the user to pay their own fees with no sponsorship budget. ### 3\. [Coinbase Paymaster](https://docs.cdp.coinbase.com/paymaster/docs/paymaster-features) [](https://docs.cdp.coinbase.com/paymaster/docs/paymaster-features) **Does the job:** the cheapest published markup, on exactly one chain. Coinbase charges less than anyone else here and the scope is correspondingly narrow, which is a clean trade rather than a hidden one. The platform supports: - Sponsored gas plus a 7 percent fee, invoiced monthly - Base Mainnet and Base Sepolia only, with other networks needing a third-party paymaster - One endpoint handling both paymaster signing and bundling - Policy controls covering contract allowlists, per-user limits and global spend caps - ERC-7677 compliance, so it works with any compatible SDK rather than only Coinbase wallets - Up to 15,000 dollars in gas credits through the Base Gasless Campaign Sponsorship requires smart accounts, with externally owned accounts needing an EIP-7702 upgrade first. The features page also does not mention paying gas in ERC-20 tokens while a separate launch announcement and a docs route both suggest it exists, so confirm that directly, and our walkthrough of [**the CDP SDK**](https://stablecoininsider.org/how-to-send-usdc-with-the-cdp-sdk/) covers the surrounding tooling. Best for products already committed to Base, where the 7 percent and the credits are hard to beat. ### 4\. [Alchemy Gas Manager](https://alchemy.com/docs/reference/gas-manager-coverage-api-pricing) [](https://alchemy.com/docs/reference/gas-manager-coverage-api-pricing) **Does the job:** treats sponsorship as a billing product, with the controls to match. Alchemy is the entry that reads like it was designed by a finance team, which is a compliment if gas is a line item you have to forecast. The platform supports: - 8 percent of gas fees covered on pay-as-you-go mainnet, custom on Enterprise - Unlimited free testnet sponsorship on every tier - Gas fronted up to a tier base limit and added to the monthly bill - Prepaid gas manager credits bought in dollars, carried over until used - Usage alerts to billing admins at 50, 75, 90 and 100 percent of the limit - Ten sponsorship policies on the lower tiers, custom on Enterprise One detail matters more than the headline rate. Sponsored gas and ERC-20 gas payments both count against the same monthly limit, so a product doing both will hit the ceiling sooner than a forecast based on one of them suggests. Best for teams that need gas spend to behave like a predictable, alertable budget line. ### 5\. [ZeroDev](https://docs.zerodev.app/smart-accounts/pay-gas-with-erc20s) [](https://docs.zerodev.app/smart-accounts/pay-gas-with-erc20s) **Does the job:** the lowest percentage here, charged on a different base. ZeroDev looks cheapest at 5 percent, and the important detail is that the premium sits on the exchange rate rather than on the gas fee. The platform supports: - USDC for gas by default on Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Optimism and Arbitrum - A 5 percent premium added to the exchange rate, negotiable for enterprise - Self-funded custom paymasters for other tokens or networks, deployed from the dashboard - Approval batched with the transaction or sent as its own operation, with one approval covering many - Three rate sources, live CoinGecko pricing, a custom HTTPS price feed or a static rate - Dashboard validation that the token is a real ERC-20 on the chosen chain The static rate option is a quiet operational risk, since a fixed rate that nobody updates drifts against the market and the drift lands on either you or your users. Custom paymasters also have to be funded with the native token, which puts part of the original problem back on your side. Best for teams wanting ERC-20 gas on a handful of major chains with control over the rate source. ### 6\. [Biconomy](https://docs.biconomy.io/gasless-apps/sponsorship) [](https://docs.biconomy.io/gasless-apps/sponsorship) **Does the job:** one gas tank across chains, and a self-hosted escape hatch. Biconomy has moved past the standard paymaster model, stating that its Modular Execution Environment replaces traditional ERC-4337 paymasters. The platform supports: - One gas tank funding sponsorship across all supported chains - Different flows by wallet type, EIP-7702 for embedded wallets and separate paths for external and smart accounts - Dashboard limits covering per-transaction dollar caps, total spend, allowed contracts and chain restrictions - Post-paid hosted sponsorship invoiced monthly, with enterprise contracts or card payment - A self-hosted option where you run the sponsorship backend, gas tank and token - Custom acceptance logic in the self-hosted model No fee or pricing schedule is published, which puts it in a different procurement category from the rest of this list. The sponsorship page also does not name the supported chains, so the single-gas-tank benefit needs confirming against your actual networks. Best for teams spanning many chains, or those who want to run the paymaster themselves. --- ## Compared | Provider | Published markup | Charged on | Gas in USDC | Chains | | ------------------- | -------------------------------------- | --------------------------- | --------------------------- | ----------------------- | | Pimlico | 10 percent, plus per-operation credits | Sponsored gas, mainnet only | 300-plus tokens, Enterprise | Not listed on that page | | Circle Paymaster | 10 percent | Gas fee | USDC only | Seven on v0.8 | | Coinbase Paymaster | 7 percent | Sponsored gas | Not on the features page | Base only | | Alchemy Gas Manager | 8 percent | Gas fees covered | Yes, same monthly limit | Not stated on that page | | ZeroDev | 5 percent | The exchange rate | USDC by default | Five by default | | Biconomy | Not published | Not published | Separate docs page | Not listed on that page | Five of six publish a number, which makes this one of the few infrastructure categories where cost comparison is possible at all. Read the second column before the first. **What to note:** ask every provider to quote the all-in cost of one 50 dollar USDC transfer on your chain, and compare those six figures instead. --- ## The Markups Are Not Comparable Four different bases appear in that table, and the differences are not cosmetic. A percentage of the gas fee scales with network congestion, so your cost rises exactly when your users are most likely to complain. A premium on the exchange rate behaves differently, since it is a spread on the USDC-to-native conversion and moves with token prices rather than with block space. Credits and per-operation pricing add a third shape, where a cheap operation carries a fixed cost that a percentage would not. The practical consequence is that the ranking flips depending on your transaction size and the chain you are on. **What to note:** model two scenarios, a quiet chain at low gas and a congested one at peak, because different providers win each. --- ## How to Choose ### 1\. Decide who pays, the user or you An ERC-20 paymaster charges the user in USDC and a verifying paymaster charges you. That decision determines which providers are even candidates. ### 2\. Match the chain list before the price list Coinbase covers Base, ZeroDev covers five chains by default, and Circle covers seven on the newer version. A cheaper rate on a chain you do not use is not cheaper. ### 3\. Confirm the base of the percentage in writing Gas fee, gas covered, or exchange rate are three different things. Get the answer in the same sentence as the number. ### 4\. Check the spend controls, not just the quote Per-user limits, contract allowlists and global caps are what stop a loop or an exploit from draining a sponsorship budget overnight. A permissionless contract has none of them. ### 5\. Plan for agents, not just users Automated payers hit gas problems faster than humans because nobody is there to top up a balance, which is the same constraint behind our comparison of [**x402 facilitators**](https://stablecoininsider.org/best-x402-facilitators-compared/). **What to note:** run a sponsored transaction at the policy limit during the pilot and confirm it is refused rather than silently paid. --- ## How This List Was Built Inclusion required three things, so that the comparison means something. - Public technical documentation describing the paymaster mechanism, rather than a product page - Either gas sponsorship or ERC-20 gas payment available to a business today - Enough published detail to state what the provider does not disclose Several providers in this category are not here, either because pricing and mechanism are not publicly documented or because the detail could not be verified at the time of writing. Operators who believe they meet the three criteria above are welcome to send documentation for consideration in the next update. **What to note:** last reviewed against vendor documentation in October 2026, and pricing in this category changes without announcement. --- ## Risks and Limitations - Published percentages are charged on four different bases, so the table ranks nothing on its own. - Circle's own page states the surcharge scope two different ways, which needs confirming before modelling. - Coinbase's features page omits ERC-20 gas payment while other Coinbase material indicates it exists. - Alchemy counts sponsored gas and ERC-20 gas against the same monthly limit. - A static exchange rate drifts against the market, and the drift is paid by you or your users. - Paymasters are on-chain contracts, and Pimlico states plainly that it cannot guarantee its own is risk free. --- ## Conclusion The best paymaster is the one whose markup base and chain list match your actual transaction pattern. The headline percentage is the least useful number on any of these pages. Pimlico is the one to model against because it publishes the most. Circle Paymaster is the natural fit for USDC-only products willing to forgo a dashboard, Coinbase is the cheapest published rate if you live on Base, Alchemy turns gas into a forecastable budget line, ZeroDev charges least but on a different base, and Biconomy is the multi-chain and self-hosted option priced by quote. Two habits matter more than the choice. Get the base of the percentage in writing, and test your spend cap by hitting it on purpose before launch. ***Read Next:*** - [**Stablecoin Developer Ecosystem Report**](https://stablecoininsider.org/stablecoin-developer-ecosystem-report-2026/) - [**How to Send USDC with the CDP SDK**](https://stablecoininsider.org/how-to-send-usdc-with-the-cdp-sdk/) - [**Best x402 Facilitators Compared**](https://stablecoininsider.org/best-x402-facilitators-compared/) --- ## FAQs: ### 1\. What is a paymaster? A smart contract that pays a transaction's network fee on someone else's behalf, so the sender does not need the chain's native token. It either collects the equivalent in an ERC-20 token such as USDC, or lets an application absorb the cost as sponsorship. ### 2\. Can a user really pay gas in USDC? Yes, and several providers support it directly. Circle Paymaster accepts USDC as the only gas token, ZeroDev supports USDC by default on five chains, and Pimlico lists ERC-20 gas payments across more than 300 tokens as an Enterprise feature. ### 3\. What does gas abstraction cost? Published markups in this comparison run from 5 to 10 percent, plus per-operation credits in Pimlico's case. The percentages are charged on different bases, so the only reliable comparison is an all-in quote for one real transaction on your chain. ### 4\. Do I need smart accounts to use this? Usually yes, because these are ERC-4337 mechanisms. Coinbase states that sponsorship works only with smart accounts, with externally owned accounts upgradeable through EIP-7702, and Biconomy routes embedded wallets through EIP-7702 as well. ### 5\. What stops a sponsorship budget from being drained? Policy controls, which vary a lot across this list. Coinbase, Alchemy and Biconomy all offer dashboard limits such as contract allowlists, per-user caps and total spend ceilings, while a permissionless contract like Circle Paymaster offers none because the user pays their own fee. --- ***Disclaimer:*** This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax, or security advice; no material herein should be interpreted as a recommendation, endorsement, or solicitation, and readers should conduct their own independent research or consult a qualified professional. Pricing, surcharges, chain support, token support and policy features are drawn from each provider's own documentation at the time of writing, are not independently verified or audited here, and change frequently; paymasters are on-chain contracts carrying smart contract risk, and at least one provider states explicitly that it cannot guarantee its contract is risk free. Confirm current pricing, mechanism and supported networks directly with each provider before deploying funds. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/73/6a/736af0e4-2274-4543-a329-2952b2b52abc/content/images/2026/10/Crypto-Security-Is-Becoming-a-Consumer-Protection-Issue---2026-10-28T094517.679.png)