Glossary
What is the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)?
Definition
The Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) is an open standard, started by Google, for proving that a person really approved a purchase their AI agent makes. It uses signed records called mandates, which capture what the shopper asked for and what’s in the final cart, so the merchant and the bank both have proof.
Also called: Agent Payments Protocol, AP2
At a glance
- CategoriesCommerce
- Related fieldsCommerce, Technical
- DifficultyIntermediate
At a glance
- Announced by Google in September 2025 with more than 60 partners, including Mastercard, American Express, PayPal and Coinbase.
- Handles payment approval, not product discovery or checkout.
- Google describes UCP as compatible with AP2, and card schemes like Mastercard Agent Pay sit alongside it.
- Designed for cards and other payment types, including stablecoins.
- In April 2026 Google donated AP2 to the FIDO Alliance, the industry body behind passkeys.
What it means for brands
AP2 answers the question every merchant asks when an agent places an order: did a real customer want this? That matters for chargebacks and fraud. For most brands it’s a conversation with your payment provider, not a build project.
The specification is public on GitHub.
How this term is used
Agentic commerce is early, and its terms and standards are still forming. It’s the commerce branch of AI search marketing, built on organic GEO / AEO visibility.
It’s one of several competing standards; agentic commerce protocols compares them side by side.
Frequently asked questions
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Is AP2 the same as ACP?
No. ACP is about products and buying in ChatGPT. AP2 proves a payment was approved.