DEV Community: Neil Valentine

Agentic commerce examples: ten real launches, and the companies behind them

Neil Valentine — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 18:11:15 +0000

Ten launches from OpenAI, Google, Amazon, PayPal, Shopify, Visa and Mastercard, each with a date and a source. Then the companies and startups behind them, and what they have in common.

Agentic commerce examples are real products in which an AI agent finds, chooses or pays for something on a person's behalf. The clearest examples today are ChatGPT Instant Checkout, Google agentic checkout, Amazon Buy for Me and the agent payment programs from Visa and Mastercard. Every example below has a date and a public source, because this category has more announcements than launches.

I picked these ten because each one changes what a business has to do, not because it got the most press. If you need the category defined first, start with what is agentic commerce.

Ten agentic commerce examples

1. ChatGPT Instant Checkout, from OpenAI and Stripe

On September 29, 2025, OpenAI launched Instant Checkout so US ChatGPT users could buy from US Etsy sellers inside the chat. Stripe processes the payment through a Shared Payment Token scoped to one merchant and one cart total. The same launch released the Agentic Commerce Protocol as open source.

2. ChatGPT shopping research

On November 24, 2025, OpenAI added shopping research, which asks clarifying questions, researches across the web and returns a personalized buyer's guide in minutes. It is the research half of an agent, and it decides which products ever reach a buy button.

3. Google agentic checkout and Let Google Call

In November 2025 Google started rolling out agentic checkout on Search, including AI Mode, with eligible US merchants such as Wayfair, Chewy and Quince. The same update added Let Google Call, where AI phones local stores to ask about stock, price and promotions.

4. Amazon Buy for Me

Amazon is testing Buy for Me with a subset of US customers. When Amazon does not sell an item, the app can buy it from the brand's own website on the customer's behalf, using the customer's encrypted name, address and payment details. Delivery, returns and service stay with the brand.

5. Amazon Rufus

Rufus is Amazon's shopping assistant, available to all US customers in the app and on desktop. It answers product questions from listing details, customer reviews and community questions and answers, compares options and tracks orders.

6. Perplexity Instant Buy, with PayPal

On November 25, 2025, PayPal and Perplexity launched Instant Buy, letting US users check out inside Perplexity from merchants including Abercrombie & Fitch, Ashley Furniture, Fabletics, Adorama and Newegg.

7. Microsoft Copilot Checkout, with PayPal

On January 8, 2026, PayPal announced it was powering Copilot Checkout, so shoppers can discover, decide and pay without leaving Copilot, starting with Copilot.com.

8. Shopify Agentic Storefronts

On December 10, 2025, Shopify introduced Agentic Storefronts, which send a merchant's products to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot from one setup in the Shopify admin, with orders attributed back to the AI channel.

9. Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce

The card networks moved early. Mastercard launched Agent Pay on April 29, 2025, with Agentic Tokens and a requirement that agents be registered and verified. Visa announced Intelligent Commerce the next day, with tokenized credentials and spending limits that consumers set for their agents.

10. The protocols: ACP, AP2 and UCP

Three open standards sit under many of these launches. The Agentic Commerce Protocol from OpenAI and Stripe handles checkout between agent and merchant. Google's AP2, announced September 16, 2025 with more than 60 organizations, records what a user authorized through signed mandates. Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, described in detail on January 11, 2026, was developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart and endorsed by partners including American Express, Mastercard, Stripe and Visa.

Agentic commerce companies to know

It helps to sort them by the job they do.

AI platforms where the shopping happens: OpenAI, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Perplexity.

Commerce platforms that connect merchants: Shopify and Etsy, whose catalogs OpenAI says are already integrated into ChatGPT shopping.

Payment companies that carry the money and the trust: Stripe, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Stripe and PayPal support the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Google's AP2 announcement names American Express, Mastercard and PayPal among its collaborators, and its UCP announcement lists American Express, Mastercard, Stripe and Visa among the endorsers.

Agentic commerce startups

The startups worth watching here build plumbing, not storefronts. The clearest public example is Cymbio, a multi channel orchestration platform founded in 2015 and headquartered in Tel Aviv that helps brands sell on agentic surfaces such as Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. PayPal agreed to acquire Cymbio in January 2026 and completed the deal on February 5, 2026. Smaller companies also show up in the standards work. Google's AP2 announcement names Forter and Mysten Labs among its collaborators, and Airwallex among its supporters.

My read: a payments company buying a catalog startup says a lot about where the bottleneck sits. Agents need clean, structured product data before a checkout button is worth much.

What the examples have in common

Three patterns repeat across the launches above. The merchant stays the merchant of record. One integration reaches many agents, which is why Shopify, PayPal and Stripe are all building syndication layers. And the payment carries proof of what the person approved, through tokens, mandates or both.

The pattern I care about most gets less attention. Every shopping agent above picks a short list before anyone buys, which is the Found and Chosen part of Found, Chosen, Booked. Checkout launches get the headlines, but most of the sale is won or lost on that short list. The payment side is covered in agentic payments. If you want the tests run on your business, start with what an agentic commerce advisor does.

FAQ

What are examples of agentic commerce?

Live examples include ChatGPT Instant Checkout and shopping research from OpenAI, Google agentic checkout in Search and AI Mode, Amazon Rufus and Buy for Me, Perplexity Instant Buy with PayPal, Microsoft Copilot Checkout, Shopify Agentic Storefronts, Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce.

Which companies are leading agentic commerce?

The AI platforms are OpenAI, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Perplexity. The commerce platforms are Shopify and Etsy. The payment companies are Stripe, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and American Express, which support standards such as the Agentic Commerce Protocol, Google's AP2 and the Universal Commerce Protocol.

Are there agentic commerce startups?

Yes. The clearest public example works on infrastructure rather than storefronts. Cymbio, a Tel Aviv orchestration platform founded in 2015 that helps brands sell on Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, was acquired by PayPal in a deal completed on February 5, 2026. Forter, Mysten Labs and Airwallex appear in Google's AP2 announcement.

Is agentic commerce live today or still experimental?

It is live in the United States. ChatGPT, Google Search, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot all let shoppers complete purchases inside the AI interface, and Amazon Rufus is available to all US customers. Some features, such as Amazon Buy for Me, are still in beta for a subset of users.

What do these agentic commerce examples mean for my business?

Each example shows an AI agent choosing a short list before anyone buys. A business has to be found with accurate data, chosen on trust signals such as reviews and consistent facts, and able to complete the sale through a checkout the agent can use.

Originally published at neilvalentine.com.

AI agents for ecommerce: the two kinds, and which one decides the sale

Neil Valentine — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 18:05:56 +0000

One kind shops for your customers. The other works inside your store. What each does, which platforms run them, and the order I would build in.

The definition

AI agents for ecommerce are software systems that act on their own to complete commerce tasks. Some act for the shopper: they find, compare and buy products. Others act for the store: they write listings, analyze pricing and watch inventory. The first kind is the one most teams have not planned for.

The two kinds matter in different ways. The agent working for the shopper decides whether you get the sale. The agent working for you decides how much it costs to serve it. It is tempting to start with the second because it lives inside tools you already pay for. I would start with the first.

Agents that shop for your customers

These are the assistants your buyers already use. ChatGPT offers shopping research and Instant Checkout. Google has agentic checkout in Search and AI Mode. Amazon runs Rufus for all US customers and is testing Buy for Me, which purchases from a brand's own website on the shopper's behalf. Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot both added checkout inside the chat through PayPal.

Each one reads your product data, compares you with alternatives and either sends the shopper to you or buys from you directly. How they make that call is covered in agentic shopping. For an ecommerce team, that means the first thing a buyer sees is often your data, before your product page.

What the shopper agents read

The platforms say a fair amount about what they read.

Amazon says Rufus answers questions from product listing details, customer reviews and community questions and answers. If your listing does not say whether the coffee maker is easy to clean, Rufus has less to say about it.

OpenAI says that when several merchants sell the same product, ChatGPT weighs availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller and whether Instant Checkout is enabled. Two of those five are operational facts you control today: stock and checkout.

Amazon's Buy for Me shows the other side. It buys from a brand's own website, and the brand keeps delivery, returns and customer service. Amazon says brands choose whether to participate. An agent that can complete checkout on your site is only useful if your site lets it, and if your returns process can handle an order you never saw coming.

Agents that work inside your store

On the operating side, the platforms are building agents into the admin. Shopify's Sidekick is pitched as an AI assistant for running a store, with prompts for writing product descriptions, analyzing pricing, building weekly performance summaries, setting up discounts, drafting email campaigns and flagging low stock.

These tools save hours, and I would use them. They just do not decide who wins the sale.

The layer in between: protocols

For a shopper's agent to buy from your store, the two sides need a shared language. Two open standards are worth knowing, and they overlap.

The Agentic Commerce Protocol, from OpenAI and Stripe, is open source and works with a traditional API or MCP. It keeps the store as merchant of record. Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, described in detail on January 11, 2026, was developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart and is compatible with Google's AP2 for payments. Shopify says UCP works across several transports, including A2A and MCP.

You do not have to wire this by hand if your platform does it for you. Shopify's developer documentation describes a Global Catalog that searches products across every Shopify merchant, and a Checkout MCP that lets trusted agents complete purchases directly. Shopify's Agentic Storefronts send a store's products to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot from one setup. PayPal's Store Sync and Stripe's catalog feed play a similar role for their merchants.

The order I would build in

I design commerce operations that AI agents can buy from, including MCP servers that expose live inventory and pricing, agent to agent checkout and voice agents for handoff.

Fix the product data. Every product needs a complete, current record: price, stock, variants, specifications, shipping and returns. This is what every shopper agent reads first.
Syndicate it. Turn on the agent channels your platform offers, or apply directly. OpenAI says Shopify and Etsy catalogs are already integrated into ChatGPT shopping, and other merchants can apply.
Open checkout to agents. Ask your processor what it supports. Stripe's Shared Payment Tokens and PayPal's Agent Ready both exist for this job.
Then automate the back office. Put agents on listings, inventory and support once the front door works.
Measure monthly. Ask the assistants your buyers use the questions that lead to revenue, and record whether you are the answer.

What not to build

A chatbot on your website only talks to people who already found you. The shopper agents never see it. The sale gets decided earlier, when an assistant picks the few stores it will show.

If you want the category explained from the start, read what is agentic commerce. Real launches, with dates, are collected in agentic commerce examples. If you want the audit run on your store, here is what an agentic commerce advisor does.

FAQ

What are AI agents for ecommerce?

AI agents for ecommerce are software systems that act on their own to complete commerce tasks. Some work for the shopper, finding, comparing and buying products in tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Amazon Rufus. Others work for the store, writing listings, analyzing pricing and watching inventory.

How do AI agents help ecommerce stores?

Inside the store, agents such as Shopify Sidekick write product descriptions, analyze pricing, summarize performance and flag low stock. Outside the store, shopper agents in ChatGPT, Google, Perplexity and Copilot can discover a store's products and complete purchases, which opens a new sales channel for merchants whose data they can read.

Which AI platforms let shoppers buy from ecommerce stores?

ChatGPT offers Instant Checkout, Google offers agentic checkout on Search and AI Mode, Perplexity offers Instant Buy through PayPal, and Microsoft offers Copilot Checkout through PayPal. Amazon's Buy for Me, in beta, buys from brand websites on the customer's behalf.

Do I need to build my own AI agent for my store?

Usually not first. Shopify Agentic Storefronts, PayPal Store Sync and Stripe's agentic commerce tools connect a store to AI shopping channels without a custom agent. The first job is complete product data and a checkout an agent can use. A custom agent or MCP server makes sense once that works.

How do I make my ecommerce store ready for AI agents?

Fix your product data so price, stock, variants, specifications, shipping and returns are complete and current. Syndicate the catalog to AI channels through your platform or by applying directly. Confirm your payment processor supports agent checkout. Then test monthly by asking the assistants your buyers use.

Originally published at neilvalentine.com.

Agentic shopping, and how AI shopping agents choose

Neil Valentine — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 17:57:01 +0000

The shopper describes what they want. The agent does the rest. How it works today in ChatGPT, Google, Amazon and Perplexity, and what a brand has to do to be the one it picks.

The definition

Agentic shopping is shopping in which an AI agent does the work a person used to do: it researches products, compares them against the shopper's criteria and, more and more often, completes the purchase. The shopper describes the need and approves the result. An AI shopping agent is the software doing that work, whether it lives in ChatGPT, Google Search, the Amazon app or Perplexity.

With agentic shopping, the buyer may never see your homepage. They see whatever the agent decided to show them.

Three jobs an AI shopping agent does

Research. The agent asks what matters, then reads across the web. OpenAI's shopping research feature, launched November 24, 2025, asks clarifying questions about budget and features, draws on past conversations and memory, and returns a personalized buyer's guide in minutes.

Compare. The agent narrows the field. When several merchants sell the same product, OpenAI says ChatGPT weighs availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller and whether Instant Checkout is enabled.

Buy. The agent completes the order, or hands the shopper to a merchant who can. This is the newest job and the one changing fastest.

How ChatGPT shopping works today

OpenAI said in September 2025 that more than 700 million people turn to ChatGPT each week, including to find products. That month it launched Instant Checkout, letting US users buy from US Etsy sellers inside the chat, with over a million Shopify merchants announced as coming soon. OpenAI says product results are organic and unsponsored, ranked on relevance to the user.

The merchant side has moved since launch. OpenAI's page for merchants now describes product feeds built on the Agentic Commerce Protocol. It says shoppers are sent to the merchant's site or app by default, and that catalogs from Shopify and Etsy are already integrated with no extra setup. Shopping is live for ChatGPT users in the US. So ChatGPT shopping today is two things: a discovery engine fed by product data, and a checkout that some merchants offer inside the chat.

Google, Amazon, Perplexity and Copilot

Google. In November 2025 Google began rolling out agentic checkout on Search, including AI Mode, with eligible US merchants such as Wayfair, Chewy and Quince. The same update added Let Google Call, where AI phones nearby stores to check stock, price and promotions, powered by Google's Duplex technology.

Amazon. Rufus, Amazon's shopping assistant, is available to all US customers in the Amazon Shopping app and on desktop. Buy for Me goes further. In beta for a subset of US customers, it lets Amazon buy an item from a brand's own website on the customer's behalf when Amazon does not sell it. Amazon says it runs on Amazon Bedrock, with Amazon Nova and Anthropic's Claude models.

Perplexity. On November 25, 2025, PayPal and Perplexity launched Instant Buy, letting US Perplexity users check out in the chat from merchants including Abercrombie & Fitch, Ashley Furniture, Fabletics, Adorama and Newegg.

Microsoft. On January 8, 2026, PayPal announced it was powering Copilot Checkout, so shoppers can discover, decide and pay without leaving Copilot.

Where agentic shopping still falls short

It is early, and the launch notes say so. OpenAI launched Instant Checkout with single item purchases and said multi item carts would come next. Amazon's Buy for Me is a beta for a subset of US customers, starting with a limited number of brand stores. Google describes agentic checkout as rolling out from eligible merchants. Nearly everything above started in the United States.

The volume is already real. Amazon says customers had already asked Rufus tens of millions of questions. OpenAI says hundreds of millions of people use ChatGPT to find, understand and compare products. Buying inside the chat is new. Choosing already happens at scale, and a brand can lose at that step without ever knowing.

How the agent decides who wins

Every platform describes its ranking a little differently. Underneath, they come down to the three tests in Found, Chosen, Booked. Can the agent find accurate facts about the product? Can it trust them, through reviews, consistent data and sources it already believes? Can it complete the purchase or hand off cleanly?

OpenAI says it plainly on its merchant page. It tells merchants that richer data helps products surface with more accurate information when shoppers compare options, and asks them to keep pricing and availability in sync. When your data is missing, the agent has a reason to pick someone else.

What a brand should do this quarter

Get your catalog into the feeds. If you are on Shopify, Agentic Storefronts, announced December 10, 2025, sends products to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot from one setup in the admin. PayPal's Store Sync does a similar job for PayPal merchants. If neither applies, apply through OpenAI's merchant page.

Fill every field. Price, stock, variants, dimensions, materials, shipping, returns. An agent comparing three products will not guess what yours is made of.

Publish the answers. The questions shoppers ask an assistant are specific. Will it fit. Does it ship by Friday. Can I return it. Put plain answers where a machine can read them.

Test like a shopper. Ask ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Rufus and Perplexity the question your customer asks, in your customer's words. Write down who wins. Do it every month, because the answers move.

The payment underneath all of this is covered in agentic payments. The broader category is defined in what is agentic commerce, and if you want someone to run the full audit, start with what an agentic commerce advisor does.

FAQ

What is agentic shopping?

Agentic shopping is shopping in which an AI agent researches products, compares them against the shopper's criteria and, increasingly, completes the purchase on the shopper's behalf. The shopper describes the need and approves the result. ChatGPT, Google Search, Amazon and Perplexity all offer forms of it today.

What is an AI shopping agent?

An AI shopping agent is software that shops for a person. It asks what matters, searches and compares products, and either buys the item or hands the shopper to a merchant to finish. Examples include ChatGPT shopping research, Amazon Rufus and Buy for Me, and Google agentic checkout.

How does ChatGPT shopping work?

A user asks a shopping question and ChatGPT shows products from across the web, which OpenAI says are organic and unsponsored. Merchants share product feeds built on the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Shoppers are sent to the merchant's site by default, and products that support Instant Checkout can be bought inside the chat.

Can AI agents buy things for you?

Yes. ChatGPT Instant Checkout, Google agentic checkout, Perplexity Instant Buy and Microsoft Copilot Checkout all let a shopper complete a purchase inside the AI interface after confirming the order. Amazon's Buy for Me, in beta, buys items from brand websites on the customer's behalf.

How do I get my products into ChatGPT shopping?

OpenAI says Shopify and Etsy catalogs are already integrated with no extra setup. Other merchants can apply through OpenAI's merchant page to share a product feed. Complete, current data on price, availability, images and reviews helps products surface accurately when shoppers compare options.

Originally published at neilvalentine.com.

Agentic payments, explained

Neil Valentine — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 17:56:55 +0000

When software pays on your behalf, someone has to prove you said yes. Here is who is building that proof, and what it means for a business that sells online.

The definition

Agentic payments are payments that an AI agent starts and completes on behalf of a person, inside limits that person approved. The agent finds the item, builds the cart and pays. The payment carries proof that a human authorized it, and in the card network programs the merchant can see that an agent was involved. The term covers several competing systems at once, because card networks, payment processors and AI platforms are each building their own piece.

You will also hear AI agent payments, agent pay and agentic checkout. People use them loosely. Agentic checkout is the moment the shopper sees: a buy button inside a chat. Agentic payments is everything underneath that button that makes it safe to press.

Why a card number is not enough

A card number was built for a person typing it into a form. Hand that number to software and three questions appear that the old system never had to answer. Google listed them when it announced its Agent Payments Protocol in September 2025. Authorization: proof that the user gave the agent authority for a particular purchase. Authenticity: proof that the request reflects what the user actually wanted. Accountability: who answers for a fraudulent or incorrect transaction.

The four systems below answer them in similar ways. Each one narrows what the credential can do, with tokens tied to an agent, a merchant or an amount, and each keeps a record of what the person approved.

The four systems behind agentic payments

Agentic Commerce Protocol, from OpenAI and Stripe

OpenAI and Stripe released the Agentic Commerce Protocol on September 29, 2025, alongside Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. It is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. When a buyer pays, Stripe issues a Shared Payment Token scoped to a specific merchant and cart total, and ChatGPT passes that token to the merchant. The merchant accepts or declines the order, charges the payment and handles fulfillment and returns as it normally would. OpenAI says a merchant already on Stripe can enable agentic payments in as little as one line of code, and merchants on other processors can use the Shared Payment Token API or the protocol's Delegated Payments Spec. PayPal announced on October 28, 2025 that it would adopt the protocol too.

Agent Payments Protocol, from Google

Google announced AP2 on September 16, 2025 as an open protocol that can run as an extension of the Agent2Agent protocol and the Model Context Protocol. Its unit of trust is the mandate, a cryptographically signed digital contract that records what the user instructed. When you shop live, your request becomes an Intent Mandate and your approval of the cart signs a Cart Mandate. When you delegate, for example "buy concert tickets the moment they go on sale," you sign an Intent Mandate up front with price limits and timing, and the agent can act once those conditions are met. Google said it was working with more than 60 organizations, including American Express, Mastercard, PayPal, Adyen and Coinbase.

Mastercard Agent Pay

Mastercard launched Agent Pay on April 29, 2025. It introduced Mastercard Agentic Tokens, built on the same tokenization that already powers contactless and card on file payments. Trusted AI agents must be registered and verified before they can pay for their users, and consumers control what an agent is allowed to buy. Mastercard said it would work with Microsoft first, with other AI platforms to follow.

Visa Intelligent Commerce

Visa announced Intelligent Commerce on April 30, 2025. It replaces card details with tokenized credentials that confirm a consumer's chosen agent is allowed to act for them, and it lets consumers set spending limits and conditions for agent transactions. Visa listed Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung and Stripe among its AI partners.

What agentic checkout looks like to a shopper

In ChatGPT, a person asks a shopping question and sees products. If a product supports Instant Checkout, they tap Buy, confirm the order, shipping and payment details, and finish without leaving the chat. OpenAI says users confirm each step before any action is taken, and that payment tokens are authorized only for specific amounts and specific merchants. It launched with single item purchases from US Etsy sellers.

Google started rolling out agentic checkout on Search, including AI Mode, in November 2025, with eligible US merchants such as Wayfair, Chewy and Quince and select Shopify merchants. In both cases the shopper sees two taps. Everything above this section happens behind them.

What changes for the merchant

A few things change, and one of them is easy to miss.

You keep the customer. The Agentic Commerce Protocol keeps the business as merchant of record, in control of which products are sold and how orders are fulfilled. You also get a vote. The protocol lets a business accept or decline transactions per agent, per transaction or by its own logic.

You do not get listed by default. Implementing the protocol does not put your products in front of every agent. Each AI platform runs its own process, and to sell in ChatGPT a business has to apply.

Your fraud rules need a second look. This part is my opinion, not a vendor's. Plenty of fraud rules were written to stop software from buying things. Now some software arrives with a scoped token and a verified identity, and it is carrying your best customer. If your rules cannot tell the difference, they will block the sale and nobody will tell you.

Where I would start

I have negotiated directly with OpenAI, Google, Stripe, PayPal and American Express, and agent to agent checkout is part of the commerce operations work I do. I would not try to pick the winning protocol yet. I would do these four things first.

First, ask your payment processor which agent protocols it supports today. Stripe's documentation, for example, already lists Shared Payment Tokens, the Universal Commerce Protocol and machine payments such as x402. Second, make your catalog, prices and stock readable by a machine, because an agent cannot pay for what it cannot parse. Third, write an agent policy: which agents you accept, for which products, up to what amount. Fourth, buy something from yourself through ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity, and watch where it breaks.

Payments are the last of three tests. An agent has to find you and trust you before it ever reaches the checkout. That framework is laid out in what is agentic commerce, and the shopper side of the same story is in agentic shopping. If you want someone to run all three tests on your business, that is the job of an agentic commerce advisor.

FAQ

What are agentic payments?

Agentic payments are payments an AI agent starts and completes on behalf of a person, inside limits the person approved. The agent builds the cart and pays with a token instead of a raw card number, and the payment carries proof that a human authorized it. Systems include the Agentic Commerce Protocol from OpenAI and Stripe, Google's AP2, Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce.

How do AI agent payments stay secure?

They replace the card number with a token that only works for a narrow purpose, such as one merchant and one cart total, and they record what the person approved. Mastercard requires agents to be registered and verified. Google's AP2 uses cryptographically signed mandates. OpenAI says ChatGPT users confirm each step before any purchase.

What is agentic checkout?

Agentic checkout is the point where an AI agent completes the purchase for the shopper inside the AI interface. In ChatGPT, a shopper taps Buy, confirms order, shipping and payment details, and finishes without leaving the chat. Google began rolling out agentic checkout on Search, including AI Mode, in November 2025.

What is the difference between ACP and AP2?

The Agentic Commerce Protocol, from OpenAI and Stripe, defines how an agent and a merchant coordinate checkout and pass a scoped payment token. Google's Agent Payments Protocol, AP2, focuses on proving what the user authorized through signed mandates, and it can run as an extension of Agent2Agent and the Model Context Protocol. A merchant can meet both.

Do merchants need to change payment processors to accept agentic payments?

No. OpenAI says merchants on Stripe can enable agentic payments in as little as one line of code, and merchants on other processors can use Stripe's Shared Payment Token API or the Delegated Payments Spec without switching. PayPal also announced it would adopt the Agentic Commerce Protocol in October 2025.

Originally published at neilvalentine.com.