What is the difference between Verifiable Intent and Agent Payments Protocol?

The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. They answer different questions: Verifiable Intent is a step 9 (Account) standard, Agent Payments Protocol step 7 (Pay), so they are not substitutes. Verifiable Intent answers: After an agent completes a purchase on a user's behalf, can the merchant, issuer and consumer all point to the same cryptographic record of what the user actually authorized? Agent Payments Protocol answers: Did the user actually authorize what this agent is about to buy and pay for, and can the merchant prove it later?

When should I use Verifiable Intent instead of Agent Payments Protocol?

Choose Verifiable Intent when your question is “After an agent completes a purchase on a user's behalf, can the merchant, issuer and consumer all point to the same cryptographic record of what the user actually authorized?” and you accept its maturity: status "Draft (v0.1); open-sourced specification and reference implementation", implementation prototype. Choose Agent Payments Protocol when your question is “Did the user actually authorize what this agent is about to buy and pay for, and can the merchant prove it later?” and you accept its maturity: status "Security/authorization protocol for agent-performed payments; core spec now stewarded by FIDO Alliance", implementation multi-implementation (Google (launch blog post, 60+ launch partners)).

Can Verifiable Intent and Agent Payments Protocol be used together?

Yes. Verifiable Intent and Agent Payments Protocol are listed as complementary on this map and are commonly deployed together on the same origin or agent.

Verifiable Intent (VI) vs Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)

The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. They answer different questions: Verifiable Intent is a step 9 (Account) standard, Agent Payments Protocol step 7 (Pay), so they are not substitutes.

9 Account Verifiable Intent · 7 Pay Agent Payments Protocol

	Verifiable Intent VI	Agent Payments Protocol AP2
Lifecycle step	9 Account: Prove what happened; be judged	7 Pay: Settle the bill
Answers	After an agent completes a purchase on a user's behalf, can the merchant, issuer and consumer all point to the same cryptographic record of what the user actually authorized?	Did the user actually authorize what this agent is about to buy and pay for, and can the merchant prove it later?
Governed by	Mastercard; contributed to the FIDO Alliance Payments TWG (2026-04-28); built on FIDO Alliance, EMVCo, IETF and W3C primitives	Google; core specification donated to the FIDO Alliance (Payments TWG and Agentic Authentication TWG), 2026-04-28; the google-agentic-commerce/AP2 repository now hosts only samples and an SDK, not the normative spec text
Status (issuer's words)	Draft (v0.1); open-sourced specification and reference implementation	Security/authorization protocol for agent-performed payments; core spec now stewarded by FIDO Alliance
Version	0.1-draft (2026-02-18)	v0.2.0 (2026-04-28)
Form / transport	document format	endpoint
Found at	none	none
Implementation	prototype	multi-implementation — Google (launch blog post, 60+ launch partners)
Evidence	4 verified	4 verified, 2 reported
Primary use case	Let agents buy on behalf of a person	Let agents buy on behalf of a person
Last verified	2026-10-23 (current)	2026-10-23 (current)
Specification	https://verifiableintent.dev/spec/	https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google-agentic-commerce/AP2/main/docs/ap2/specification.md

When to use which

Choose Verifiable Intent when your question is “After an agent completes a purchase on a user's behalf, can the merchant, issuer and consumer all point to the same cryptographic record of what the user actually authorized?” and you accept its maturity: status "Draft (v0.1); open-sourced specification and reference implementation", implementation prototype.
Choose Agent Payments Protocol when your question is “Did the user actually authorize what this agent is about to buy and pay for, and can the merchant prove it later?” and you accept its maturity: status "Security/authorization protocol for agent-performed payments; core spec now stewarded by FIDO Alliance", implementation multi-implementation (Google (launch blog post, 60+ launch partners)).

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

Read the full articles

Verifiable Intent: After an agent completes a purchase on a user's behalf, can the merchant, issuer and consumer all point to the same cryptographic record of what the user actually authorized?
Agent Payments Protocol: Did the user actually authorize what this agent is about to buy and pay for, and can the merchant prove it later?

Ask the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. Connect.

vi.json · ap2.json · Markdown