# How to get a signed receipt of a web page

Last updated: 2026-10-10

To get a signed receipt of what a web page showed at a given time, have an independent fetcher load it and sign the result. `POST /v1/fetch` (US$0.002) loads the URL and returns an Ed25519-signed receipt with the final URL, status, time, content hash and a verdict on what came back. Anyone can check it offline.

## What the receipt records

The receipt is a compact JWS (`alg` EdDSA). Its payload includes:

- the URL you asked for and the final URL after redirects, with the HTTP status;
- `retrieved_at`, the time of the fetch;
- `content_sha256`, the SHA-256 of the page text, so anyone holding the text can match it;
- `content_kind`: `real`, `bot_wall`, `js_shell`, `paywall`, `http_error` and others;
- the site's IP address, TLS certificate details and a short list of response headers, where our fetcher could read them.

The full field list is in [How it works](/docs/how-it-works#receipts).

## Get one

```json
{ "url": "https://www.iana.org/help/example-domains", "return_text": true }
```

Send that to `POST /v1/fetch`. With `return_text` you also get up to 20,000 characters of clean text. Try the route free first: [`GET /v1/sample/fetch`](https://vehcdj664efetfrsolne5umanq.srv.us/v1/sample/fetch). Details: [Fetch a page](/docs/fetch). Step by step with `curl`, from the free sample to matching the page text: [How to get a signed receipt of a web page, step by step with curl](/guides/signed-page-receipt).

## Pay per call with x402

No account or key is needed. A valid request with no payment gets `402 Payment Required` with the price in a `PAYMENT-REQUIRED` header; an x402 v2 client signs that offer and sends the request again. With `@x402/fetch` (`npm install @x402/fetch @x402/evm viem`) and a Base Sepolia wallet made only for testing, holding test USDC:

```js
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client } from '@x402/fetch';
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from '@x402/evm/exact/client';
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts';

const client = new x402Client();
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(process.env.ATTESTPAGE_X402_KEY) });
const payingFetch = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

const res = await payingFetch('https://vehcdj664efetfrsolne5umanq.srv.us/v1/fetch', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: 'https://www.iana.org/help/example-domains', return_text: true }),
});
const answer = await res.json();
console.log(answer.page.content_kind, answer.page.content_sha256, answer.receipt);
```

The wrapper signs the offer it gets. To check the price and network before signing, see [One x402 payment step by step](/docs/examples/fetch-x402).

## Check one

Any receipt can be checked against our published keys with [POST /v1/receipt/verify](/docs/receipt-verify) (free), or with no call to us at all:

```sh
curl -O https://vehcdj664efetfrsolne5umanq.srv.us/dl/verify-receipt.mjs
node verify-receipt.mjs --selftest
```

See [Verify receipts offline](/docs/verify-offline). The keys are at [/.well-known/jwks.json](https://vehcdj664efetfrsolne5umanq.srv.us/.well-known/jwks.json).

## Receipts for other things

- A quote on a page: [Verify a quote](/docs/verify-quote) signs the match with the page details.
- Many links at once: [Check links](/docs/check-links) signs one receipt over up to 10 URLs.
- A file you hold, not a URL: [Attest a hash](/docs/attest) (US$0.002) signs a timestamp over a SHA-256 you send. We never see the file.

## Questions

### Is this the same as a web archive snapshot?

No. An archive stores the page for others to view. A receipt is a small signed statement about one fetch that you keep yourself; we do not publish it, and pages fetched for you are not stored ([Privacy](/privacy)).

### Does the receipt show the page is accurate?

No. It records what our fetcher saw at that time. Pages change and can show different content to different visitors.

### Why would an agent want one?

To show later what a source said when it was used: when handing work to another agent, answering a dispute about a citation, or keeping an audit trail of the pages a task relied on.