# Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)

> 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.

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- **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