Agentic Commerce Protocol Explained for Retailers 2026

The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is the open standard OpenAI and Stripe published so AI agents can complete checkout with a retailer’s systems. The agent sends purchase requests and payment credentials. The retailer calculates the total, accepts payment and creates the order.

For a retailer, adopting ACP means connecting checkout and payments to an agent-facing interface. The open specification and an individual AI platform’s merchant programme are separate: implementing ACP doesn’t automatically get your products listed.

What the Agentic Commerce Protocol Covers

ACP defines how an AI agent and a merchant exchange checkout information and securely pass payment credentials. OpenAI and Stripe developed the standard, which is published under the Apache 2.0 licence. The official ACP site publishes its documentation and links to the specification repository.

The checkout part manages a purchase session. The delegated-payment part lets a payment provider issue a token with spending limits. ACP also supports payment handlers, so an integration must agree which payment method both sides can use.

ChatGPT Instant Checkout was the first product built on ACP. The guide to ChatGPT Instant Checkout covers that product separately. The commerce protocols directory explains where checkout standards fit alongside other agent protocols.

How an ACP Order Moves From Agent to Merchant

An ACP order starts with a checkout session and ends with an order confirmation from the merchant. The session is a record of the basket and the information needed to buy it. The merchant’s responses keep the agent’s displayed total consistent with the store’s checkout.

1. The agent sends the chosen products and quantities to create a session. The merchant returns the available items and calculated prices.
2. The customer supplies delivery details and chooses a delivery option. The agent updates the session, and the merchant recalculates tax and delivery charges.
3. The customer authorises payment. In a delegated-payment flow, the payment provider issues a token restricted to the allowed purchase.
4. The agent submits the token to complete checkout. The merchant processes payment and returns the order identifier and confirmation link.
5. The merchant sends order events to keep the agent informed as the order changes.

Stripe’s shared payment token gives the merchant limited access to the customer’s payment method. Its limits include the maximum amount and expiry. The token passes through the agent without exposing the underlying card credentials.

In a hypothetical purchase of a navy jacket, the feed helps the agent identify the requested size. The checkout session confirms that size is still available. If the customer changes the delivery address, the merchant must return the new total before payment.

The retailer stays the merchant of record: it sells the goods and is responsible for the order. Fulfilment and refunds remain with the retailer and its existing systems. ACP changes how the order arrives, while the store continues to manage the sale.

What Merchants Must Provide

A merchant needs product information for discovery, a checkout integration and a compatible payment provider. A direct implementation requires development work. A platform or commerce suite can handle parts of that work for eligible stores.

• Supply a product feed with identifiers, variants, prices and availability for the chosen AI platform. Feed submission is separate from implementing the checkout standard. Use the ChatGPT product feed guide for feed preparation.
• Implement checkout endpoints that create, update and complete sessions. Return the full basket state and useful errors, such as an unavailable size or unsupported delivery address.
• Connect a payment provider that supports the selected payment handler. Token receipt must work with the merchant’s payment-processing flow.
• Authenticate requests and make retries safe. A repeated completion request must not charge the customer twice or create a second order.
• Send order events and retain a customer-accessible confirmation link. Order support must work after the agent’s checkout conversation ends.

Stripe’s shared-payment-token documentation lists the US, Canada and selected European countries as supported. Australia is absent from that list. An Australian Stripe account alone therefore isn’t a supported route to receiving those tokens. The same country restriction applies to Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite.

Eligible Wix merchants have a low-code route through its Stripe Agentic Commerce Suite integration, according to Wix’s documentation. This is a gradual rollout with eligibility requirements. A platform’s product-discovery setting alone doesn’t establish that it can accept an ACP order.

ACP Compared With UCP

ACP and the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) both let agents communicate with merchant systems, but their specifications organise commerce differently. ACP centres on checkout and delegated payment. UCP defines discoverable commerce capabilities, including checkout and order management.

Factor	ACP	UCP
Backers	Developed by OpenAI and Stripe	Co-developed by Google and Shopify with other retail and technology partners
Scope	Checkout sessions, payment delegation and negotiated capabilities	Commerce capabilities covering catalogue, checkout, orders and identity linking
Payment handling	Negotiated payment handlers, with delegated tokens where applicable; Stripe shared payment tokens are one implementation	Merchant-advertised payment handlers; the platform obtains a credential and passes it to the merchant
Merchant responsibility	Merchant processes payment and manages the order	Merchant processes payment and manages the order

The UCP overview explains its discovery and capability model. Supporting ACP doesn’t rule out UCP: Stripe’s commerce suite documents support for both protocols. A retailer can connect both to the same underlying catalogue and order systems, with a separate compatible interface for each.

Choose an implementation by the agents it connects you to and the payment path available to your business. Before committing development time, identify who owns the checkout integration and how failed payments and repeated requests will reach your order system.