# Universal Commerce Protocol vs Agentic Commerce Protocol

The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both.

[7 Pay](/category/pay/) [Universal Commerce Protocol](/protocols/ucp/) · [7 Pay](/category/pay/) [Agentic Commerce Protocol](/protocols/agentic-commerce-protocol/)

|  | [Universal Commerce Protocol](/protocols/ucp/) UCP | [Agentic Commerce Protocol](/protocols/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 | 2026-10-19 (current) | 2026-10-19 (current) |
| Specification | [https://ucp.dev/documentation/core-concepts/](https://ucp.dev/documentation/core-concepts/) | [https://github.com/agentic-commerce-protocol/agentic-commerce-protocol](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)).

Guidance is derived from the two records (question, phase, adoption, prerequisites, pairings), not from opinion. Each record's page carries its numbered references.

## Read the full articles

- [Universal Commerce Protocol](/protocols/ucp/): 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](/protocols/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?

Ask the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. [Connect](/connect/).

[ucp.json](/data/protocols/ucp.json) · [agentic-commerce-protocol.json](/data/protocols/agentic-commerce-protocol.json) · [Markdown](/compare/ucp-vs-agentic-commerce-protocol/index.md)