ACP · UCP · AP2 · MCP · x402

Agentic commerce standards, compared and tracked

A neutral, up-to-date reference for the protocols that let AI agents buy, pay and act. One filterable comparison, a dated adoption tracker, and primary sources on every page.

Compare the standards See who supports what

In short: "agentic commerce" is online commerce where AI agents discover, decide and complete purchases on a person's behalf. Five open standards underpin it. ACP (OpenAI + Stripe) handles agent checkout and powers Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. UCP (Google + Shopify) covers the full shopping journey and powers agentic checkout on Google AI Mode and the Gemini app. AP2 (Google) is a payment-agnostic framework for authorizing agent-led payments. MCP (Anthropic, now Linux Foundation) is the context layer that connects agents to tools and data. x402 (Coinbase) carries native stablecoin payments over HTTP. They are complementary more than competing, and they are moving fast, so every fact here carries a verification date.

The five standards

Agentic Commerce Protocol

OpenAI and Stripe

Agent checkout protocol powering Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. OpenAI + Stripe, Apache 2.0.

verified 2026-06-10

Universal Commerce Protocol

Google and Shopify (with Etsy, Wayfair, Target, Walmart)

Full-journey commerce standard powering agentic checkout on Google AI Mode and Gemini. Google + Shopify, Apache 2.0.

verified 2026-06-10

Agent Payments Protocol

Google, with 60+ partner organizations

Payment-agnostic framework for agent-led payments. Google, 60+ partners, extends A2A and MCP.

verified 2026-05-31

Model Context Protocol

Created by Anthropic; donated to the Agentic AI Foundation (Linux Foundation)

The context layer connecting agents to tools and data. Anthropic, now a Linux Foundation project.

verified 2026-06-18

x402

Created by Coinbase; specification stewarded by the x402 Foundation

HTTP-native stablecoin payments for agents and APIs. Coinbase, built on the 402 status code.

verified 2026-06-18

Also tracked: Visa TAP, Mastercard Agent Pay, A2A and MPP. All standards →

ACP vs AP2 vs MCP vs x402

Author, license, payment type, transport, adoption: side by side, filterable.

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Latest

All analysis →

Analysis · June 2026

Agentic commerce in June 2026: the month the payment networks went all in

Visa, Mastercard, OpenAI, Shopify, Coinbase x402, and Europe in production.

Guide

How AI agents pay: the agentic payments stack

Discovery, checkout, authorization, settlement and trust, layer by layer.

Recent milestones

2026-06-17 Shopify opens agentic commerce to all developers (source)
2026-06-16 Coinbase and AWS bring x402 to the edge (source)
2026-06-16 Adyen launches Adyen Agentic (source)

Full changelog → · Statistics →

Stay current on the standards

A note when a standard moves (ACP, UCP, AP2, MCP, x402). No spam.