JUST IN: Stripe and OpenAI launched the Agentic Commerce Protocol - ACP. (catchy title).

ChatGPT is now a checkout.

ChatGPT can now complete purchases from Etsy, Shopify, Glossier, SKIMS—directly in chat.

Before this merchants had a horrible choice

Reach new customers
OR keep control of the transaction and block bots

ACP is giving merchants a way to interact with their users through a new channel

Here's how it works.

They standardized:

Product discovery in an agent
Merchant-controlled product rendering
User intent confirmation
Merchant-controlled cart + tax calculation
Payment instruction

The merchant stays merchant of record.

They keep their fraud models.

Their brand.

Their customer relationship.

This protocol wasn't released in a vacuum

We're watching the stack for agentic commerce get built in real-time:

Each one solves a different problem

Cloudflare x402 - HTTP access to protected content (e.g. IP or paywalls)
AXTP - Agent-to-agent transactions (agents buying from agents)
Google A2P - Intent capture and routing (link back to a human)
Visa VIC - Secure payment completion (making it work as a card payment)
Stripe ACP - End-to-end merchant-controlled commerce (linking the merchant to the consumer)

All of these co-exist because they solve different problems.

But ACP is the first one purpose-built for the actual business problem: distribution through agents without losing control.

Merchants can now treat AI agents like they treat iOS or Android—another distribution channel that enhances reach without replacing their relationship with the customer.

Open source. Apache 2.0 licensed.

Built to work with any commerce backend.

If you're in payments, commerce platforms, or building agent experiences—this matters.

Author

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