Google has unveiled its open-source payment standard that makes it possible for artificial intelligence (AI) agents to settle monetary transactions via traditional trails as well as stablecoins, Fortune reports.
The tech giant aims to standardize the rails for future AI-to-AI commerce before it becomes a reality.
Broad collaboration
For implementing this initiative, the tech behemoth has collaborated with Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation (EF), as well as roughly 60 payment and commerce firms, including American Express and Salesforce.
The collaboration between Coinbase and Google was meant to ensure the interoperability of payments. Notably, Google has integrated Coinbase’s x402, which is an HTTP-native, instant stablecoin payment standard.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says that the collaboration has unlocked a “new level” for AI agents.
x402 + @Google just unlocked a new level for AI agents.
Agents can actually pay each other now, with x402 powering the stablecoin rail inside Google’s new Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2). Really cool. pic.twitter.com/R3gj16g3hY
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) September 16, 2025
The company has also shared a demo that shows how Coinbase’s x402 and Google’s AI can be used for purchasing a refrigerator.
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The protocol, which is known as Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), is an open protocol that is meant to serve as an extension of Google’s April Agent2Agent (A2A), the protocol that enables communication between agents.
Essentially, the idea is that AI agents will be able to pay bills or buy things on a user’s behalf, and Google is working on a universal payments protocol. AI agents could potentially gain the ability to pay each other automatically.