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Agentic commerce

Agentic commerce is shopping in which an AI agent acts for a person, from finding and comparing products to placing the order.

How it works

Google describes AI agents as autonomous systems that perform tasks on behalf of people. An agent can read a site like a browser, or pass the order to the store through a protocol. In both protocols below, the store stays the merchant of record and takes the payment itself.

  • Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): an open standard for checkout in Google’s AI Mode and Gemini. Google launched it on 11 January 2026 with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart. A store needs a Merchant Center account in good standing with a return policy and support contacts, products approved for free listings, a feed attribute per product and Google’s approval.
  • Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP): an open standard by OpenAI and Stripe for a product feed, checkout and payment.

Both start from the same input, the product feed. A store outside the launch markets can prepare its feed now: agentic commerce, UCP and ACP.

Example

Example store, not client data.

Suppose UCP reaches the tableware shop’s country. Checkout stays off for each product until the feed sets native_commerce(checkout_eligibility) to TRUE. Plates printed with a customer’s design are personalised goods, which Google excludes, so they keep FALSE. Google suggests sending the attribute in a supplemental feed.

Not to be confused with

  • AI Mode — Google Search’s conversational mode, where products can appear without checkout. Buying inside it needs a UCP connection.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “A shop in Czechia can turn on checkout in Gemini now.” Right: Google launched UCP checkout with US retailers. Its May 2026 update names Canada and Australia next, then the UK.
  • Wrong: “ChatGPT will take our orders and payments.” Right: OpenAI tells merchants it is moving away from checkout inside ChatGPT. Purchases finish on the store’s site or app. Shopping in ChatGPT is for US users.

Sources