Definition
Mastercard Agent Pay is Mastercard’s framework for letting verified AI agents pay on a shopper’s behalf. It uses Agentic Tokens: card credentials tied to one specific agent and the limits the shopper set, so the agent never holds the real card number. Mastercard later added Verifiable Intent, which records what the shopper actually asked for.
Also called: Agent Pay, Mastercard Agentic Tokens, Mastercard Verifiable Intent
At a glance
- CategoriesCommerce
- Related fieldsCommerce, Technical
- DifficultyIntermediate
At a glance
- Announced by Mastercard in April 2025.
- Agentic Tokens build on the same tokenization behind mobile wallets.
- Verifiable Intent followed in March 2026, open-sourced and co-developed with Google.
- Mastercard is also a launch partner on AP2.
What it means for brands
If you already accept Mastercard, most of this happens at the network and processor level. The questions are for your payment provider: are agent transactions flagged, how are disputes handled, and does anything change on your side.
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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Does Mastercard Agent Pay change anything for merchants?
Mostly not at your end. It runs at the network and processor level. Ask your payment provider how agent transactions are flagged and how disputes on them are handled.