Google and Coinbase launched a new system called AP2 (Agentic Payments Protocol) on September 16, 2025 in the United States that lets AI agents handle payments, able to pay each other using stablecoins and other methods.
This is an open standard focused on enabling AI agents to make payments securely on their own.
It caters an increasingly real problem:
The initiative brings together over 60 companies from payments as well as tech, like American Express, Mastercard, PayPal, Coinbase, Salesforce, etc.
The AP2 protocol builds on existing standards such as Agent‑to‑Agent (A2A) and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing different agents to work together across many payment methods, from credit cards to cryptocurrency.
The AP2 protocol uses something called Mandates, digital contracts signed with cryptographic verifiable credentials to prove that users have authorized actions. These Mandates work in two main ways:
- Real‑time purchases, where you approve a specific cart or item at the time of purchase, and
- Delegated tasks (when you're not actively present), where you pre-authorize conditions (price limits, timing, etc.) for agents to make purchases under those rules.”
With connections to 36 major digital wallets, Ant will help shape how AP2 supports alternative payment methods (APMs) and boost fraud protection by embedding AI‑powered checks.
One real‑world use case in the works is Alipay+ Voyager, which will use AP2 to let AI agents autonomously book and pay for travel services like rides and tickets, while staying within user‑defined rules.