What is the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)?
The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is an open standard, developed by OpenAI and Stripe, that lets AI agents complete purchases with merchants. It gives the three parties in an agentic commerce transaction a shared language: the agent acting for the buyer, the business selling the product and the payment provider processing the payment.
OpenAI and Stripe announced ACP in September 2025 and published it as open source. The specification covers three building blocks. A product feed format shares catalog data such as prices and availability. A checkout flow handles the order between agent and merchant. Delegated payments let the agent pass on a secure payment token instead of the buyer's card details. The merchant remains the merchant of record and keeps handling orders, payments, fulfillment and returns in its own systems.
ACP launched together with Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, which let users buy from participating merchants inside a conversation. In 2026 OpenAI said merchants could use their own checkout experiences while it focused on product discovery, so the way ACP is used inside ChatGPT is still changing.
Why ACP matters for merchants and brands
ACP turns a product catalog into something an agent can act on directly. Without a shared standard, every AI platform would need its own integration with every shop. With one, a merchant can describe products and accept orders in a format that any compatible agent understands, and ACP was designed to work with payment providers other than Stripe as well.
It also shows where product discovery is heading. OpenAI uses ACP-based product feeds to understand merchant catalogs in ChatGPT, so the quality of your feed now matters for visibility, alongside the structured data on your product pages.
How to prepare for ACP
Check whether your e-commerce platform or payment provider supports ACP, which can save you a custom integration.
Clean up your catalog data: accurate titles, prices, stock, shipping and return terms, plus identifiers such as GTIN.
Decide which products you want to make available to AI agents, and on which terms.
Keep your product feed, structured data and product pages consistent, so agents never see conflicting prices.
Monitor how your products appear in AI shopping results before and after you connect.
Trackbase's ChatGPT Shopping feature tracks your product visibility in ChatGPT Shopping, so you can see what changes once your catalog is available to agents.
Examples of the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)
A shopper asks ChatGPT for a waterproof hiking jacket under 200 euros, and product data shared through ACP feeds helps the assistant show current prices and stock from several shops.
A Dutch bicycle webshop connects its catalog through its commerce platform, so agents see correct frame sizes and delivery times.
A cosmetics brand completes missing shipping costs and return terms in its product feed, so agents can compare its offer fairly with others.
A developer builds a shopping assistant that uses ACP to place orders with merchants, while the buyer's card details stay with the payment provider.
Frequently asked questions
Who created the Agentic Commerce Protocol?
OpenAI and Stripe developed ACP together and announced it in September 2025. It is published as an open standard, so other AI platforms, merchants and payment providers can implement it too. Businesses that do not use Stripe can still adopt it through their own payment provider. The idea is a shared standard, not a feature tied to one platform.
Is ACP the same as Instant Checkout?
No. ACP is the underlying protocol. Instant Checkout was the first ChatGPT feature built on it, letting users buy from participating merchants inside a conversation. In 2026 OpenAI said merchants could use their own checkout experiences while it focused on product discovery. The protocol itself remains an open standard that any compatible agent or merchant can use.
Do I need ACP to appear in ChatGPT Shopping?
Not necessarily. OpenAI says ChatGPT selects products using structured product information from data providers and from stores themselves, and merchants can also provide their own product feed. ACP makes that data exchange more direct and complete. Either way, accurate product data, clear product pages and good reviews remain the basis for being recommended.