Mastercard rolled out Agent Pay for AI on Thursday, a protocol that lets AI agents make micropayments and conduct machine-to-machine transactions over the Polygon blockchain. The company is working with Adyen, Coinbase, and Cloudflare to build the framework, positioning it as a decentralized alternative to centralized payment gateways for autonomous software agents.
How Agent Pay works
The protocol stores human-granted permissions for AI agents on Polygon's public blockchain. That setup allows any participant to verify an agent's authority to spend or receive funds without relying on a central gatekeeper. Mastercard says the approach keeps the system open while preserving user control over what an agent can do.
Who else is in the race
Mastercard isn't the first. Visa has its own AI payment system. Stripe backs Tempo's Machine Payments Protocol. Coinbase runs the x402 protocol, and Google introduced a standard last year. Mastercard's play is broader than just the protocol itself — the company has been quietly rebuilding its core payments infrastructure around crypto rails. Over the past year it integrated six regulated stablecoins across eight blockchain networks.
Revenue? Not yet
Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert told reporters Agent Pay for AI won't produce significant revenue within 12 months. He said it could become a meaningful market within five years. The timing isn't great for a fast payoff, but the strategic bet is clear: get the infrastructure in place before autonomous agents start spending real money at scale.
Mastercard will roll out Agent Pay for AI gradually, leaning on its partners to test real-world use cases. The open question is how quickly developers and enterprises will wire AI agents into a payment system that still requires human permissioning for every transaction. Lambert's five-year horizon suggests the company expects a slow burn — not a quick hit.
