What Is AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol)?

AP2 is an agent payments protocol: a proposed standard for how an agent authorises and executes a payment on a human’s behalf, carrying a mandate that proves the human agreed to the terms. Its problem is trust at the moment money moves — proving an agent was authorised to spend, for this, up to this much. It complements payment rails rather than replacing them, and sits alongside x402 as the agentic-commerce layer takes shape.

Is

A protocol for agent-authorised payments

Carries

A mandate proving human agreement

Problem

Proving authorisation when money moves

Relation

Complements rails; sits beside x402

The mandate is the point

The hard question in agent payments is not moving money but proving an agent was allowed to. A mandate — a signed statement of what the human authorised, for what, and up to what limit — is what lets a merchant accept an agent’s payment without a human present. That is the same authority-and-record discipline the estate applies to every action, aimed at the payment moment.

Related standards

AP2x402

Questions

Is AP2 the same as x402?

No. x402 is about how a machine pays for a request over HTTP; AP2 focuses on the mandate proving an agent was authorised to pay. They address adjacent parts of agent commerce.

Does AP2 need a blockchain?

No. It concerns authorisation and mandates; settlement can run over conventional rails or chain-neutral mechanisms.