Universal Commerce Protocol vs Agentic Commerce Protocol
The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both.
| Universal Commerce Protocol UCP | Agentic Commerce Protocol ACP | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle step | 7 Pay: Settle the bill | 7 Pay: Settle the bill |
| Answers | Can an agent discover a business's commerce capabilities, build a cart, and check out interoperably across shopping, lodging, and food ordering? | How do a buyer's agent and a merchant complete a deterministic, programmatic checkout without the agent becoming the merchant of record? |
| Governed by | Domain Tech Councils (DTC) per vertical — Shopping Tech Council and Food Tech Council seated — under an overall Governing Council (GC); DTC seats held by Google, Shopify, Etsy, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Target, Stripe, Salesforce, Wayfair, Square, Toast, DoorDash, Uber Eats | Technical Steering Committee (up to 7 org seats); OpenAI, Stripe, and Meta are lead maintainers, with OpenAI and Stripe as Founding Maintainers holding last-resort veto over mission, neutrality, security, and fork-integrity decisions |
| Status (issuer's words) | Open standard; specification expanding beyond Shopping into Lodging and Food | Beta open standard, interaction model for connecting buyers, agents, and businesses |
| Phase | living | living |
| Version | v2026-08-25 (2026-08-25) | 2026-04-17 (date-versioned spec; unreleased/ tracks current development) (2026-04-17) |
| Form / transport | well-known file | endpoint |
| Found at | /.well-known/ucp | Bilateral capability negotiation (per RFC: capability_negotiation) between agent platform and merchant; no fixed well-known path published |
| Adoption | claimed — UCP project (ucp.dev launch-partner list) | claimed — OpenAI and Stripe (project README) |
| Evidence | 5 verified, 1 reported | 3 verified, 2 reported |
| Primary use case | Let agents buy on behalf of a person | Let agents buy on behalf of a person |
| Last verified | 2026-10-18 (current) | 2026-10-18 (current) |
| Specification | https://ucp.dev/documentation/core-concepts/ | https://github.com/agentic-commerce-protocol/agentic-commerce-protocol |
When to use which
- Choose Universal Commerce Protocol when your question is “Can an agent discover a business's commerce capabilities, build a cart, and check out interoperably across shopping, lodging, and food ordering?” and you accept its maturity: phase living, adoption claimed (UCP project (ucp.dev launch-partner list)).
- Choose Agentic Commerce Protocol when your question is “How do a buyer's agent and a merchant complete a deterministic, programmatic checkout without the agent becoming the merchant of record?” and you accept its maturity: phase living, adoption claimed (OpenAI and Stripe (project README)).
Read the full articles
- Universal Commerce Protocol: Can an agent discover a business's commerce capabilities, build a cart, and check out interoperably across shopping, lodging, and food ordering?
- Agentic Commerce Protocol: How do a buyer's agent and a merchant complete a deterministic, programmatic checkout without the agent becoming the merchant of record?