Google’s Agent Payments Protocol: the “mandate” that lets an AI pay only as you authorized

If an AI agent is going to pay for things on your behalf, how does a merchant know the purchase is really what you authorized? Google answers that with the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), announced in September 2025 with 60+ partners including Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, and Coinbase.

AP2’s core idea is the Mandate — a tamper-proof, cryptographically signed record of your instructions. An Intent Mandate captures what you asked for and your limits (price caps, timing, conditions); a Cart Mandate locks in the exact items and price before anything is charged. Together they create a non-repudiable audit trail that proves what you authorized — the foundation for accountability if an agent ever oversteps.

It is payment-agnostic, working across cards, bank transfers, and stablecoins. For consumers, the important part is the principle baked in: an agent can only spend within the bounds you signed for. OwnWise’s take is that this kind of control should extend past the purchase — to whether the thing was worth buying, and whether you can get help if it fails.