In one sentence: Visa and Mastercard are not building a commerce protocol that competes with UCP or ACP. They are adapting their payment network (tokenization, authentication, fraud protection, consumer control) so an AI agent can settle securely. This is the network layer of agentic payments.
Update — June 2026
On June 10, 2026, at the Visa Payments Forum, Visa and OpenAI announced the integration of Visa Intelligent Commerce into ChatGPT: an agent can pay there in tokenized form at merchants that accept Visa, within the user's limits. The same week, Mastercard introduced Agent Pay for Machines (software-to-software payments, with Stripe, Adyen, Global Payments, Checkout.com and Solana). Details and sources in our agentic payments briefing for June 2026.
Visa Intelligent Commerce
Visa Intelligent Commerce is an initiative Visa introduced in 2025 to let AI agents buy within the Visa ecosystem. It rests on several building blocks:
- Visa Agent APIs: tokenization, authentication and transaction controls that keep each payment safe while letting the consumer set limits (for example a spend cap defined in advance).
- Visa MCP Server: a secure integration layer so AI agents and LLMs connect directly to the Visa Intelligent Commerce APIs.
- Trusted Agent Protocol: a framework that verifies legitimate agents and blocks malicious bots.
- Post-purchase services such as dispute resolution, to reinforce trust.
Visa highlights a broad partner program integrated with Intelligent Commerce, including OpenAI, Perplexity, Microsoft, Stripe, Mistral AI, AWS, Anthropic, Samsung and Adyen. The network claims more than 4.8 billion payment credentials and over 150 million merchant acceptance locations.
Mastercard Agent Pay
Mastercard unveiled Agent Pay on April 29, 2025 as its agentic payments program. Its centerpiece is Mastercard Agentic Tokens, which extend the tokenization already used for mobile contactless, secure card-on-file, Payment Passkeys and programmable payments (subscriptions, recurring charges). The announced principles:
- Registration and verification of trusted agents before they can pay for a user.
- Consumer control over what the agent is allowed to buy, with secure authorization and identification.
- Recognition of agent-initiated transactions by every player (consumers, issuers, merchants), for greater transparency.
- Fraud protection and dispute support, with strong authentication (on-device biometrics).
Mastercard announced collaborations with Microsoft (Azure OpenAI Service, Copilot Studio), IBM (watsonx Orchestrate for B2B use cases), and checkout players like Braintree and Checkout.com. Chief product officer Jorn Lambert pointed to applying the Model Context Protocol to Secure Remote Commerce to lay the foundation for scale.
Visa vs Mastercard: how they differ
| Dimension | Visa Intelligent Commerce | Mastercard Agent Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | 2025 | April 29, 2025 |
| Core building block | Visa Agent APIs + MCP server + Trusted Agent Protocol | Mastercard Agentic Tokens |
| Agent verification | Trusted Agent Protocol | Trusted-agent registration and verification |
| AI partners cited | OpenAI, Perplexity, Microsoft, Anthropic, Mistral, AWS | Microsoft, IBM (watsonx) |
| MCP link | Official MCP server | MCP applied to Secure Remote Commerce |
| Consumer control | Caps and authorizations | Allowed purchase scope and strong authentication |
Where these sit in agentic commerce
Visa and Mastercard operate at the payment-network layer: tokenizing a payment method, verifying the agent, authorizing and securing the transaction, handling fraud and disputes. They do not describe the merchant journey (that is UCP from Google and ACP from OpenAI and Stripe), nor on their own the payment mandate (the job of Google's AP2). In practice they interlock: an agentic purchase can combine a commerce protocol, a proof of mandate, and tokenized settlement via Visa or Mastercard.
What it changes for a merchant
For most merchants these capabilities arrive through the issuer, acquirer or payment provider, not through a direct integration. The merchant-side job stays the same: be findable and buyable by agents (structured catalog, UCP, agentic checkout). Visa and Mastercard's network tokenization works in the background to secure the payment once the buying decision is made.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to integrate Visa or Mastercard directly?
Rarely directly: these capabilities usually come through your payment provider, acquirer or issuer. Ask them about their activation timeline.
Do Visa and Mastercard use MCP?
Yes, both build on the Model Context Protocol: Visa via an official MCP server, Mastercard by applying it to Secure Remote Commerce.
Does the consumer stay in control?
Yes. Both programs stress explicit authorization, caps or a defined purchase scope, and strong authentication.
Sources
- Visa, "Visa Intelligent Commerce" (official product page)
- Mastercard, "Mastercard unveils Agent Pay" (April 29, 2025)
- Digital Commerce 360, "Visa, Mastercard offer support for AI agents" (May 6, 2025)