What is the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)?
Last verified 2026-05-31The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is an open standard, co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe and announced on 29 September 2025, that lets AI agents complete purchases with businesses. It powers Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, starting with Etsy sellers and, soon, Shopify merchants. The merchant stays the merchant of record and keeps its existing payment processor; orders flow from the agent to the merchant backend over the protocol. ACP is licensed under Apache 2.0 and maintained on GitHub by OpenAI and Stripe (currently beta). Stripe merchants can enable agentic payments in as little as one line of code using a Shared Payment Token.
Key facts
| Author / steward | OpenAI and Stripe |
|---|---|
| Announced | 2025-09-29 |
| License | Apache 2.0 |
| Governance | Founding maintainers OpenAI and Stripe, with a stated path toward broader community governance |
| Scope | Open standard connecting buyers, their AI agents and merchants to complete a purchase; powers Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, with the merchant remaining merchant of record |
| Transport | HTTP (OpenAPI/JSON Schema); MCP support added in the 2026-04-17 spec |
| Payment | Delegated Payments Spec; Stripe Shared Payment Token (SPT) for agent-initiated payments without exposing credentials |
| Maturity | beta |
What makes it distinctive
- Co-developed by Stripe and OpenAI, announced 29 September 2025
- Open source under Apache 2.0, spec maintained on GitHub by OpenAI and Stripe
- Powers Instant Checkout in ChatGPT (Etsy, then Shopify merchants)
- Merchant stays merchant of record; works with existing payment processors
- One-line enablement for existing Stripe merchants via Shared Payment Token
Adoption
Frequently asked questions
Who created ACP and when?
OpenAI and Stripe co-developed ACP and announced it on 29 September 2025.
Is ACP open source?
Yes. ACP is open source under the Apache 2.0 license, with the specification maintained on GitHub by OpenAI and Stripe.
What is ACP used for?
It powers Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, letting shoppers buy from merchants directly in chat while the merchant remains merchant of record.
ACP vs AP2: what is the difference?
ACP is a checkout/commerce protocol focused on completing a purchase; AP2 is a broader, payment-agnostic framework for authorizing agent-led payments. They can work together.