What is Visa Intelligent Commerce? Visa's agentic payments program explained

Visa Intelligent Commerce is Visa's program for letting AI agents pay on a consumer's behalf with Visa credentials. Instead of handing the agent a card number, Visa provisions an agent-specific payment token, the consumer approves each payment instruction with a passkey, and Visa checks the agent's purchase against that approved instruction. Visa launched it in April 2025 as a set of APIs and a commercial partner program, and later added the Trusted Agent Protocol so merchants can recognize legitimate agents.

Visa's launch announcement named Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung and Stripe among its partners. Visa: Visa Intelligent Commerce launch press release If the wider idea is new to you, start with what agentic commerce is; this page covers only Visa's part of it.

What has Visa announced, and when?

Visa has built the program in stages:

Sources: Visa: launch press release, Visa: Trusted Agent Protocol press release, Visa UK: Agentic Ready press release, Visa: Agentic Ready in CEMEA, Visa: Visa Payments Forum 2026 announcements.

Visa has also added Intelligent Commerce Connect, positioned as one integration for agent builders, merchants and payment enablers; it is a separate decision from the core APIs below.

How do agent-specific tokens work?

Visa's developer documentation describes "provisioning and life cycle management of agent-specific payment tokens" that agents use to transact on behalf of the user. Visa Developer: Visa Intelligent Commerce overview The agent and the merchant work with the token, not the primary account number, and the token has a lifecycle separate from the underlying card.

The launch materials called these "AI-ready cards": tokenized credentials that confirm the consumer's chosen agent is authorized to act for them, with the consumer controlling activation and use. If you know Visa Token Service from mobile wallets, the model is familiar; wallet tokens and payment operations explains what tokenization protects and what it leaves to operations teams.

Visa describes the API set as covering four jobs: enrolling an agent-specific token, submitting a user instruction, retrieving payment credentials to fulfill that instruction, and submitting the outcome of the purchase. Visa Developer: Visa Intelligent Commerce

How does a consumer authorize the agent?

Authorization happens when the agent is set up and again for each payment instruction.

1. Enrollment. Visa says agent provisioning includes step-up verification of the cardholder and setting up a passkey that the agent will use to authenticate future instructions.
2. Instruction. Before a purchase, "the agent requests the user to authenticate the Payment Instruction using their Passkey and provides that instruction to the Visa Intelligent Commerce platform."
3. Credential release. Visa checks the agent's request against the authenticated instruction before payment credentials are released for that purchase.
4. Outcome. The agent shares the result of the purchase with Visa. Visa says these signals, together with the user's instructions, can be used to resolve disputes that arise.

Source for all four steps: Visa Developer: Visa Intelligent Commerce overview. The passkey matters because it binds the approval to the person, not to the agent's claim that the person agreed. Visa's separate Passkey Service documentation describes passkeys as built on FIDO and assigned to a device and card combination after cardholder authentication. Visa Acceptance: Intelligent Commerce developer guide

What spend controls can consumers set?

The launch announcement said consumers can set spending limits and conditions for their agents, and that Visa provides real-time transaction controls and support for dispute resolution. In the European Agentic Ready tests, Visa describes risk scoring and configurable spending controls, with consumers setting the parameters in advance. Visa UK: Agentic Ready press release

The most useful control is the approved instruction itself: one that names a merchant, an amount ceiling and an expiry can be checked by code, while "buy something nice for the kitchen" cannot. Check which instruction fields your integration supports; Visa's workflow pages say the journeys shown are illustrative and that data elements and authentication mechanisms may vary as the product evolves. Visa Developer: Visa Intelligent Commerce workflows

What is the Trusted Agent Protocol?

Merchant bot defenses are built to block automated traffic, and a shopping agent is automated traffic. Visa introduced the Trusted Agent Protocol on October 14, 2025, developed with Cloudflare, so a merchant can tell a trusted agent from an unknown bot. It uses agent-specific cryptographic signatures, builds on the HTTP Message Signatures standard and aligns with Web Bot Auth. Visa: Trusted Agent Protocol press release

The signed request can carry three kinds of information: agent intent (is the agent browsing or buying a specific product?), consumer recognition (does the shopper have an existing relationship with the merchant?) and payment information. Visa said the protocol was available through the Visa Developer Center and GitHub, and that it is incorporating it into Visa Intelligent Commerce.

Read it as the identity layer for the web request, separate from the token that pays. A merchant still needs a policy for what a verified agent may do; KYA as an identity control plane covers that decision.

Can developers use Visa Intelligent Commerce today?

Visa's developer page says the service is free to use in sandbox, that fees for production come from Visa, and that production access requires onboarding to Visa Intelligent Commerce and completing Visa's applicable onboarding processes. Visa names three audiences: Agent Providers, Wallet Providers and Agent Enablers. Visa Developer: Visa Intelligent Commerce

The getting-started guide makes its first call against a sandbox host, using an endpoint that retrieves credentials for an approved instruction. Visa Developer: make your first API call Visa also documents an MCP server that connects agent applications to Visa Intelligent Commerce, Visa Token Service and Visa Developer Platform services, and publishes an AI skills repository on GitHub for agents implementing Visa APIs.

Issuers come in through a different door. Agentic Ready is the testing program for banks:

• Europe and the UK: launched in March 2026, with participating issuers working alongside Visa and selected merchants in controlled, production-grade environments that cover enrollment, tokenization, authentication and authorization.
• Middle East and Africa: extended to CEMEA in May 2026, starting with issuer readiness. Visa said more than thirty partners from the region had enrolled. Visa: Agentic Ready in CEMEA

Neither announcement gives a date for consumer-scale availability, so ask your issuer or agent platform what is live in your market.

How does Visa Intelligent Commerce compare with Mastercard Agent Pay?

Both networks replace card numbers with tokens scoped to agents, both ask for strong consumer authentication, and both are giving merchants a way to verify agents through Web Bot Auth. Visa's public material leans on the approved instruction and the purchase outcome reported back to Visa. Mastercard's leans on agent registration and agentic tokens; what Mastercard Agent Pay is explains its side, and what Visa and Mastercard are building compares the two strategies.

FAQ

Is Visa Intelligent Commerce available to consumers now?

It depends on your issuer, the agent platform and your market. Visa's Agentic Ready programs were still testing with issuers in 2026, and Visa has not published a date for consumer-scale availability.

Does an AI agent see my Visa card number in Visa Intelligent Commerce?

Visa's design uses an agent-specific payment token instead of the card details. The agent receives credentials only for an instruction you have authenticated with a passkey.

What is the difference between Visa Intelligent Commerce and the Trusted Agent Protocol?

Visa Intelligent Commerce handles tokens, instructions and payment credentials. The Trusted Agent Protocol lets a merchant's website verify that an incoming agent is trusted and what it intends to do.

How do developers get access to Visa Intelligent Commerce?

Through the Visa Developer platform. Sandbox use is free; production requires onboarding with Visa, and Visa sets production fees.

Does Visa Intelligent Commerce help with chargebacks?

Visa says the purchase outcome the agent reports, together with the user's instructions, can be used to resolve disputes. How specific dispute cases will be decided is still a matter for network rules and the parties' terms.