Google introduced the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open protocol built together with leading payments and technology companies. The protocol is meant to make agent-led transactions secure across different platforms. It works as an extension of the existing Agent2Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) frameworks. With Agent Payments Protocol, users, merchants, and payment providers can move money across multiple methods with confidence.
Over 60 organizations are helping to shape AP2. The list includes Adyen, American Express, Ant International, Coinbase, Etsy, Forter, Intuit, JCB, Mastercard, Mysten Labs, PayPal, Revolut, Salesforce, ServiceNow, UnionPay International, and Worldpay.
The growth of AI agents has created a real need for secure systems. Traditional payments assume a human is approving a purchase directly. Agent-initiated payments contradict that assumption and demand new methods to check the trustworthiness of transactions. AP2 addresses this concern by:
- Authorization—verifying the user authorized the agent;
- Authenticity—ensuring the request is what the user truly desires;
- Accountability—determining who is liable if something happens amiss.
The Agent Payments Protocol accommodates a broad range of payment instruments like credit cards, debit cards, stablecoins and real-time bank transfers.
At the core of AP2 are Mandates, digitally signed contracts encrypted with verifiable credentials (VCs). They establish an unambiguous chain of evidence for real-time purchases and delegated work. For example, for a live transaction, the user intention creates an initial Intent Mandate. A Cart Mandate then follows once the agent approves the cart. For tasks to be delegated, pre-approved Intent Mandates allow agents to act automatically according to rules such as price caps or timing. This process ensures the payment method is securely linked to validated items, and a non-repudiable audit trail is created.
AP2 also enables simpler and new commercial models. Agents can track the availability of products, make purchases when demand is strong, arrange offers customized to individuals with merchants, or support multi-step transactions such as booking flights and accommodations within a budget. The protocol further scales out to new payment systems, such as cryptocurrencies, through the A2A x402 extension, developed with Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, and MetaMask.
