Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)

What Is ACP?

ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol) is an open protocol that standardizes how AI agents and merchant systems exchange the information needed to complete purchases. Maintained by OpenAI and Stripe, it provides the foundation for buying experiences such as Instant Checkout in ChatGPT.

The key idea is that AI should not only recommend products. It should be able to help users confirm an order and complete a purchase inside the conversation.

How Does It Work?

In an ACP flow, the AI understands the user's shopping intent and passes the required order information to the merchant system.

• A user asks a shopping question in an AI interface such as ChatGPT.
• The AI shows relevant products and identifies which ones can be purchased.
• The user confirms order, shipping, and payment details.
• The merchant processes the order through its existing payment, fulfillment, and customer support systems.

The merchant keeps the customer relationship and remains responsible for order handling. The AI platform acts more like a purchase interface than a replacement storefront.

Why Does It Matter?

If ACP adoption grows, AI chat interfaces become real commerce channels. Brands will need product data and trust signals that AI agents can understand, recommend, and route toward checkout.

If a brand is not selected inside the AI answer, it will struggle to enter the purchase journey even when checkout capabilities are available.