Mastercard prepares agentic commerce platform for a future where AI agents make payments
Mastercard is launching Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a platform for AI agents and software systems to pay each other securely and at scale. It supports transactions across cards, bank accounts, and stablecoins, while adding identity verification, spending limits, and settlement through Mastercard’s network. The goal is to make agentic commerce trustworthy as AI systems increasingly book services, complete digital tasks, and handle purchases on behalf of users. Mastercard says the main challenge is ensuring agents are legitimate, stay within authorized budgets, and can reliably get paid. More than 30 companies, including Coinbase, Stripe, Adyen, Cloudflare, RippleX, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, and OKX, have joined. Initial permissions and credentials will be recorded on Polygon, Solana, and Base. Mastercard plans broader access later this year.
