Agent Payments Protocol ↗
Identity & trustA protocol for expressing and verifying authority for agent-performed payments.
Read evidence →Merchant tools / Learn → Audit → Compare → Track
Compare roles, not acronyms.
See where commerce, payments, transport and agent coordination overlap or complement each other.
Start with the dimension you need.
Full commerce flow, discovery/catalog, checkout, payments/authorization, agent interoperability and merchant implementation appear as separate comparison dimensions. Select up to four protocols, then inspect the rows that answer your question.
8 protocol entries · Alphabetical order · Checked 28 Sep 2026
Agent2Agent Protocol ↗
Agent coordinationA standard for communication and task coordination between agents.
Read evidence →Agentic Commerce Protocol ↗
CommerceA commerce interaction standard connecting businesses, buyers and their agents.
Read evidence →A draft framework for card-based agentic payments and future specification work.
Read evidence →Machine Payments Protocol ↗
PaymentsA payment protocol for machine consumption of web services.
Read evidence →Model Context Protocol ↗
TransportA standard interface connecting applications to tools, resources and prompts.
Read evidence →Universal Commerce Protocol ↗
CommerceA common model for agents and businesses to negotiate commerce capabilities.
Read evidence →Curated decision briefs
ACP vs UCP
Which commerce integration path matches your target surface?
Explore →AP2 vs MPP
Do you need purchase authority, service payments, or both?
Explore →AP2 vs x402
What permits the action, and what pays for the resource?
Explore →MPP vs x402
Which machine payment flow fits your resource and payment methods?
Explore →MCP vs A2A
Are you exposing a tool, or coordinating work between agents?
Explore →UCP vs AP2
Where does commerce state end and purchase authority begin?
Explore →ACP vs AP2
Are you choosing commerce operations or an authorization model?
Explore →UCP vs MCP
Do you need a commerce model, a tool interface, or both?
Explore →ACP vs MCP
What does the tool mean in the context of commerce?
Explore →Commerce protocols vs payment protocols
Which part of the purchase does each layer own?
Explore →