Protocols
ACP
Agentic Commerce Protocol. Stripe + OpenAI; docs now also credit Meta.
- Entry
- Apache 2.0, spec 2026-04-17
- First shipped
- Sep 29, 2025
Open standard for agent checkout. 25+ endorsers (Etsy, URBN, Coach, Best Buy).
Maps · Discovery, not in-chat checkout
Updated 2026-09-01. Brief: The 2026 reversal, and the Amazon vacuum.
2026 reversed the demo: assistants find the product, retailers keep checkout. The fight is whether your feed is machine-readable, not whether you integrated a chat checkout API.
Protocols
Agentic Commerce Protocol. Stripe + OpenAI; docs now also credit Meta.
Open standard for agent checkout. 25+ endorsers (Etsy, URBN, Coach, Best Buy).
Protocols
Google Agent Payments Protocol, donated to FIDO (Apr 28, 2026).
Identity and intent, not a storefront. Mastercard Verifiable Intent sits on it.
Protocols
Universal Commerce Protocol. Google plus a retailer coalition.
The retailer-friendly rail: Shopify, Walmart, Target, Wayfair, Visa, Mastercard, Amex.
Protocols
Protocol-agnostic on-ramp. Accepts TAP, MPP, ACP, UCP.
This is why you should not bet the roadmap on one protocol.
Protocols
Mastercard-run agent payments plus FIDO Verifiable Intent.
30+ partners including Stripe, Adyen, Coinbase, Cloudflare.
Protocols
Cloudflare → IETF draft on RFC 9421. Agent identity for the card networks.
Visa, Mastercard, and Amex all build agent-identity checks on it.
Surfaces
Discovery plus ads. Instant Checkout walked back Mar 24, 2026.
Feed is Google Merchant Center-compatible. Peec says the catalog is a re-rank of Google Shopping's top ~40.
Surfaces
Rufus + Alexa+ merged May 13, 2026. The only surface already at revenue scale.
Rufus 2025: 300M users, ~$12B incremental GMV. Q1 2026 MAU +115%, engagement +400%. Official seller dashboard: none.
Surfaces
Default distribution layer for SMB brands. Catalog cleans the feed once.
One connection to ChatGPT, AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, Meta. Second confirmed agentic ad slot.
Surfaces
US checkout via Stripe, PayPal, Shopify. Shopify merchants auto-enrolled after opt-out.
Default-on distribution, same pattern as Shopify's agentic storefronts.
Surfaces
UCP checkout via Google Pay. Retailer stays seller of record. Universal Cart across retailers.
Cleaning the Google feed is the highest-leverage single action: it feeds AI Mode and, per Peec, ChatGPT Shopping.
Surfaces
Buy with Pro plus a free Merchant Program. Product cards described as unsponsored.
March 2026: a US judge blocked Comet from shopping inside users' Amazon accounts. First legal marker.
Surfaces
Walmart's in-ChatGPT app. Walmart co-developed UCP.
Same vacuum as Amazon: the retailer agent is live; the seller dashboard is not.
Surfaces
Instagram/Facebook Buy Now tests (Stripe/PayPal), plus Amazon/eBay/Temu tie-ups.
Social surface, not a protocol play. Watch, don't build against it yet.
Visibility
Shopping Mode Rate, ranking, merchant layer, feed diagnostics. ChatGPT only.
Dashboard, not write-back. API docs: model = ChatGPT, no filter.
Visibility
Per-SKU win rate, price gaps, co-occurrence, buyer destination. ChatGPT only.
Exposed ChatGPT Shopping as a re-rank of Google Shopping. Rufus still 'internal testing' as of Sep 1.
Visibility
SKU recs across ChatGPT, AI Mode, Copilot, and Alexa for Shopping.
Only one of the original three GEO names that actually shipped Rufus/Alexa.
Visibility
Broadest surface list found, plus write-back into Amazon Seller/Vendor Central.
This is the Amazon vacuum product. Citation intelligence on what Rufus reads.
Visibility
YC W25. Per-SKU visibility, JSON-LD enrichment published to Shopify. Not a SaaS-customer tool.
Write-back to Shopify. Rufus in beta. Explicitly not for SaaS brands.
Visibility
Per-SKU citation ledger, Agent-Readability Score, PDP diffs to Shopify.
Write-back camp. Rufus + COSMO + Sparky are on channel plans, not every scan.
Visibility
Incumbent PXM. ACP-compliant feed into ChatGPT plus GEO enrichment with source/timestamp/approval.
Feed platforms will absorb agentic commerce as a connector, not a startup category.
Visibility
Incumbent PXM. AEO copy, schema healing, approved attributes exposed to agents.
Same motion as Syndigo: don't buy a fourth dashboard if the PIM already speaks agent.