MPP

Stripe and Tempo's open standard for billing AI agents over HTTP — agents discover prices, pay, subscribe and reconcile across stablecoins, cards and BNPL, with cryptographic receipts.

name

MPP

full_name

Machine Payments Protocol

layer

payments

creator

Stripe + Tempo

status

live (shipped 2026; IETF Internet-Draft)

year

2026

one_liner

Stripe and Tempo's open standard for billing AI agents over HTTP — agents discover prices, pay, subscribe and reconcile across stablecoins, cards and BNPL, with cryptographic receipts.

spec_url

https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

snippet

HTTP 402 + machine-readable price discovery → pay (stablecoin/card) → cryptographic receipt, in one cycle.

abbreviation

MPP

also_known_as

Machine Payments Protocol Stripe/Tempo MPP

canonical_spec_url

https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

entity_uri

https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

taxonomy_layer

payments

sub_layer

machine-billing-over-http

protocol_type

settlement

central_problem

Gives AI agents a standard way to discover prices, pay for resources, manage subscriptions, and reconcile balances over HTTP across stablecoins, cards, and BNPL — with cryptographic receipts.

maintainer

Stripe + Tempo (co-authored); proposed to the IETF as a Standards Track Internet-Draft

governance_body

vendor (Stripe + Tempo); IETF Internet-Draft submitted verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

license

— verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

maturity_tag

emerging

current_spec_version

— verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

spec_date

2026-03-18 verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

launch_date

2026-03-18 verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol

last_verified

2026-06-15

transport

HTTP (formalizes the 402 status code); settlement via Stripe PaymentIntents with Tempo as default stablecoin chain

core_mechanism

MPP gives HTTP's 402 status code a formal specification so agents can, in one request-response cycle, discover pricing, pay for a resource (stablecoins via Tempo, cards via Stripe/Visa, Bitcoin via Lightning, or custom methods), and receive a cryptographic receipt. It is lifecycle-aware — subscriptions, streaming charges, cancellations, and balance reconciliation are first-class — with funds settling through Stripe PaymentIntents.

discovery_endpoint

HTTP 402 price-discovery response (per-resource); MPP Services Directory

settlement_type

stablecoin (Tempo) / card-rail (Stripe, Visa) / Bitcoin (Lightning) / custom

adoption_metric

100+ services listed in the MPP Services Directory (per the Stripe/Tempo announcement) source

notable_adopters

{"value":"Stripe (co-author; PaymentIntents settlement)","source":"https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol"} {"value":"Tempo (co-author; default stablecoin chain)","source":"https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol"}

relationships

{"predicate":"competes_with","target":"x402","note":"MPP and x402 both formalize HTTP 402 for agent payments; MPP adds lifecycle primitives (subscriptions, reconciliation) and multi-rail settlement."} {"predicate":"complements","target":"ap2","note":"Both target agent payments; MPP is an HTTP 402 billing protocol with Tempo settlement, AP2 is a mandate framework across rails."}

ideal_use_case

Billing AI agents for API/resource access over HTTP with subscriptions, streaming charges, and multi-rail settlement.

when_to_use

When you need lifecycle-aware agent billing (not just one-shot payments) across stablecoins, cards, and BNPL with cryptographic receipts.

when_not_to_use

When a simple inline stablecoin micropayment (x402) or a mandate-routed checkout (AP2) is all you need.

code_example

HTTP/1.1 402 Payment Required MPP-Accepts: stablecoin; chain=tempo; price=0.02 USD # Agent pays and retries; server returns a cryptographic receipt: MPP-Receipt: <signed receipt>

source

Stripe + Tempo Machine Payments Protocol (shipped 2026-03-18; formalizes HTTP 402; price discovery + subscriptions + reconciliation; stablecoin via Tempo, cards via Stripe/Visa, Bitcoin via Lightning; Stripe PaymentIntents settlement; IETF Internet-Draft; 100+ services directory): https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol . Listed for addition in research §2.

agent_readiness_link

agent-readiness/x402

layer_legacy

payment

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