ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol)
ACP, or the Agentic Commerce Protocol, is an open standard from OpenAI and Stripe that lets a buyer's AI agent complete purchases from a business inside a chat experience. It powers Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, while the business stays the merchant of record and keeps control of its catalog and fulfillment.
Updated June 24, 2026
How does ACP work?
ACP gives an AI agent a standard way to talk to a business's existing checkout. The agent presents products, the shopper confirms, and the order and payment are submitted through the merchant's commerce and payment systems. The business stays the merchant of record.
Who maintains ACP?
ACP is co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe and published as an open standard under the Apache 2.0 license, so any agent or payment processor can implement it. It is the standard behind Instant Checkout in ChatGPT.
How is ACP different from x402 and MPP?
ACP is built for people shopping from merchants through an agent, settling with cards while the merchant stays the merchant of record. x402 and MPP are machine-to-machine payment protocols, where an autonomous agent pays a server per request, usually in stablecoins. They solve different parts of agentic commerce.
| Dimension | ACP | x402 and MPP |
|---|---|---|
| Primary buyer | A person shopping via an agent | An autonomous agent |
| What is bought | Merchant products | APIs, data, and compute |
| Payment | Cards, merchant of record | Stablecoins, per request |
| Maintainers | OpenAI and Stripe | Coinbase (x402); Tempo and Stripe (MPP) |
ACP organizes buying around merchants and platforms, the curated side of the market. Open agentic commerce points at the complementary open side, where any agent can pay any service without a gatekeeper.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does ACP stand for?
- ACP stands for Agentic Commerce Protocol. It is an open standard from OpenAI and Stripe that lets a shopper's AI agent buy from a business, for example through Instant Checkout in ChatGPT.
- Is ACP the same as Instant Checkout in ChatGPT?
- Instant Checkout is the first product built on ACP. ACP is the underlying open standard, so other agents and businesses can adopt it too.
- Who stays in control of the customer under ACP?
- The business remains the merchant of record. It controls which products can be sold, how they are presented, and how orders are fulfilled.
- Is ACP open source?
- Yes. ACP is published under the Apache 2.0 license, so any agent or payment processor can implement it.