Solana's ecosystem has launched a native on-chain subscription and authorization payment program, attempting to fill the long-standing gap in its recurring fee deduction capabilities. Developers no longer need to build separate custom billing systems or rely on centralized payment service providers; instead, they can directly integrate with the same audited, open-source on-chain program.

Three licensing modes

This infrastructure, named Subscriptions & Allowances, covers scenarios such as subscription billing, budget delegation, and automated billing. The new program offers three licensing methods to adapt to different business needs.

Allowances allow users to pre-set spending limits, which can also include expiration dates. Authorized parties can initiate spending within these limits, and users do not need to confirm each transaction individually.

Recurring Delegations supports deductions at fixed intervals, with the credit limit automatically reset. Unlike traditional merchant-driven subscriptions, this model allows users to pre-set payment terms, making it more suitable for payroll, outsourcing payments, and long-term partnership settlements.

AI agents and payroll can be directly integrated.

The Solana Foundation states that developers can build recurring payment applications more quickly based on this system, without having to develop payment logic from scratch and repeatedly conduct security audits.

• Set a budget for the AI agent and authorize it to spend within the limit.
• Automated processing of employee or contractor payroll
• Supports stablecoin billing and API periodic billing

The foundation stated that in the past, such integrations often required weeks of development and additional auditing, but now the access time can be significantly shortened through shared payment procedures.

Solving the single delegate restriction

This launch also addresses a long-standing limitation in Solana's token delegation mechanism. Traditionally, a token account can typically only approve one delegation address at a time, making it difficult for users to maintain multiple payment relationships simultaneously.

The new program introduces a program-controlled Subscription Authority for each "user-token" combination. After a user completes an authorization, each subsequent transfer will be verified according to an independent authorization record, including the deduction party, the maximum amount, the expiry time, and the limit reset cycle.

Solana emphasizes that the Subscription Authority itself cannot transfer funds. A transaction will only be executed if the transfer request meets the valid authorization requirements.

Multiple ecosystem companies are promoting integration.

With companies like Dynamic, Helius, and Confirmo beginning to integrate, this program is expected to become a new underlying component for commercial applications on the Solana blockchain, driving the implementation of subscription fees, automatic settlement, and recurring revenue models on the chain.