{
  "dataset": "glossary",
  "record": {
    "id": "ap2",
    "term": "Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)",
    "category": "commerce",
    "short_def": "An open protocol from Google that gives an AI agent a cryptographically signed mandate proving a human authorized it to spend, before any payment is made.",
    "long_def": "Announced by Google on 16 September 2025 with more than sixty payments and technology partners (including Mastercard, PayPal, American Express, Coinbase and Adyen), AP2 introduces tamper-proof 'mandates' — signed digital contracts that prove a user authorized a specific transaction. It is payment-rail agnostic (cards, bank transfers, stablecoins) and is designed to layer on top of A2A and settlement protocols like x402.",
    "see_also": [
      "x402",
      "agentic-commerce",
      "a2a"
    ],
    "etymology_origin": "Announced by Google on 16 September 2025 as the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), developed with 60+ payments and technology partners; an open, payment-rail-agnostic extension to the Agent2Agent (A2A) ecosystem.",
    "related_to": [
      "x402",
      "agentic-commerce",
      "a2a",
      "agent-identity",
      "acp"
    ],
    "contrast_with": "Unlike x402, which is the settlement layer that actually moves a stablecoin, AP2 is the authorization layer — a cryptographic mandate proving the human consented; AP2 extends x402 rather than replacing it.",
    "example": "Google announced AP2 on 16 September 2025 with more than sixty partners including Mastercard, PayPal, American Express and Coinbase.",
    "source": "https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/announcing-agents-to-payments-ap2-protocol",
    "status": "emerging",
    "why_it_matters": "AP2 is the authorization standard that lets a site accept agent-initiated payments with proof the human consented — the trust precondition for agentic checkout at scale.",
    "sameAs": [],
    "bridge_entity": "protocols/payments/ap2",
    "last_verified": "2026-06-15",
    "md_twin": "/glossary/ap2.md"
  }
}