Google today unveiled the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open-source standard aimed at enabling secure, auditable purchases by AI agents. Backed by more than 60 companies — including Mastercard, PayPal, American Express, and Coinbase — AP2 is designed to serve as a universal rulebook for AI-driven transactions.
AI agents capable of transacting on behalf of users introduce new risks around security and compliance. According to Google, AP2 addresses these challenges by establishing a common language that lets merchants, financial institutions, and AI developers authenticate, validate, and convey an agent’s authority to transact. Without such a framework, Google argues, the ecosystem risks fragmenting.
At the core of AP2 are digital contracts, or “Mandates,” cryptographically signed proofs that a user authorized an agent to make a purchase. These mandates create a verifiable audit trail, giving merchants and payment processors transparency into every transaction. The protocol supports multiple payment types out of the gate, from credit and debit cards to real-time bank transfers and stablecoins. Google has also partnered with Coinbase and the Ethereum Foundation to develop A2A x402, an extension that brings crypto payments into the AP2 framework.
The rise of AI agents that can browse, shop, and transact independently raises fundamental questions about trust and accountability. AP2 attempts to answer them by improving security through verifiable digital contracts, boosting efficiency by allowing AI agents to transact without requiring human approval every time, and enabling adoption by giving financial institutions and merchants clarity on how to manage AI-initiated payments. Industry backing is significant: with Mastercard, PayPal, American Express, and Coinbase already on board, AP2 has momentum that most emerging protocols lack.
Still, AP2’s success will hinge on widespread adoption by developers, payment networks, and AI companies. Regulators will also need to weigh in as AI-driven commerce grows, especially around consumer protection and liability. By supporting stablecoins and other digital assets, AP2 positions itself at the intersection of traditional finance and emerging Web3 technologies. That could make it a bridge between the payments world as we know it and the decentralized systems being built for the future.
Google’s Agent Payments Protocol is an ambitious attempt to bring order to a new frontier: AI-driven commerce. With heavyweight financial players already backing it and early support for crypto payments, AP2 could become the backbone for how AI agents transact on behalf of users. The real test will be whether the ecosystem — from fintechs to regulators — adopts it as the standard.
