What is the Mastercard Agent Pay (Agent Pay)?
Last verified 2026-06-10Mastercard Agent Pay is the agentic payments program announced by Mastercard on 29 April 2025. It lets registered, verified AI agents transact on a consumer’s behalf using Mastercard Agentic Tokens, an evolution of the tokenization capabilities behind contactless payments, secure card-on-file and Payment Passkeys. The program emphasizes consumer control (what an agent may purchase), transaction transparency for every player in the value chain, fraud protection and dispute support. Mastercard announced collaborations with Microsoft (Azure OpenAI Service, Copilot Studio), IBM (watsonx Orchestrate for B2B), and acquirers and checkout players such as Braintree and Checkout.com. Unlike ACP, UCP, A2A or x402, Agent Pay is a proprietary network program rather than an open-source specification.
Key facts
| Author / steward | Mastercard |
|---|---|
| Announced | 2025-04-29 |
| License | Proprietary network program (no open-source license) |
| Governance | Proprietary Mastercard program (not an open-source specification); Mastercard states collaboration with industry players to advance agentic payment standards |
| Scope | Agentic payments program: registered and verified AI agents transact on a consumer's behalf using Mastercard Agentic Tokens, with consumer controls, transaction transparency, fraud protection and dispute support |
| Transport | Mastercard tokenization rails (Agentic Tokens, building on the capabilities behind contactless, secure card-on-file and Payment Passkeys); integrations with AI platforms such as Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot Studio |
| Payment | Card payments via Mastercard Agentic Tokens, including virtual corporate card tokens for B2B use cases |
| Maturity | announced |
What makes it distinctive
- Announced by Mastercard on 29 April 2025 as its Agentic Payments Program
- Introduces Mastercard Agentic Tokens, built on proven tokenization capabilities
- Trusted agents must be registered and verified before paying on a user's behalf
- Consumer controls over what an agent may purchase, with end-to-end fraud protection and dispute support
- Collaborations announced with Microsoft (Azure OpenAI Service, Copilot Studio), IBM watsonx Orchestrate, Braintree and Checkout.com
- Every player in the value chain can recognize agent-initiated transactions
How Agent Pay works
Agent Pay extends Mastercard’s tokenization infrastructure to agents. Trusted AI agents must be registered and verified before they can transact; payments then use Mastercard Agentic Tokens, built on the capabilities that power contactless payments, secure card-on-file and Payment Passkeys. Every actor in the value chain can recognize a transaction as agent-initiated. Consumers keep control over what an agent may buy, with strong authentication (including on-device biometrics) and a process for clarifying unfamiliar agentic transactions; merchants and issuers get end-to-end fraud protection and dispute support.
Program and partners
Announced on 29 April 2025, Agent Pay is a proprietary program, not an open-source spec. Mastercard announced collaborations with Microsoft (Azure OpenAI Service, Copilot Studio) for consumer use cases, IBM watsonx Orchestrate for B2B, and acquirers/checkout providers Braintree and Checkout.com. Use cases named at launch include conversational shopping with tailored recommendations and B2B sourcing paid with virtual corporate card tokens. Mastercard also stated interest in applying MCP to Secure Remote Commerce.
How Agent Pay fits the stack
Agent Pay is the card-network counterpart to the open standards: where AP2 defines a cross-network authorization framework and TAP a merchant-side verification layer, Agent Pay operationalizes agent payments inside Mastercard’s rails. Mastercard is also among the 20+ endorsers of UCP.
Limitations and open questions
As a proprietary program, its mechanics are documented through Mastercard’s communications rather than a public spec, and adoption beyond the announced partners is not independently verifiable. How Agentic Tokens interoperate with ACP/UCP checkout flows in production is the open question to watch.
Who should care
Issuers wanting visibility and control over agentic transactions, acquirers and checkout providers already using Mastercard tokenization, and AI platforms negotiating payment access for their agents.