Stripe Launches Machine Payments Protocol: Agents Can Now Pay Autonomously
Stripe and Tempo have launched the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), an open standard that lets AI agents make payments programmatically without human intervention. The protocol went live on March 18, 2026 alongside the Tempo mainnet launch.
MPP introduces "sessions" — essentially OAuth for money. An agent authorizes a spending cap once, then streams micropayments continuously as it consumes services like data, compute, or API calls. Businesses can accept payments from agents in both stablecoins and fiat currencies, with support for cards and buy-now-pay-later via Shared Payment Tokens (SPTs).
Visa contributed specifications for letting agents pay with credit and debit cards. Launch partners include Anthropic, OpenAI, DoorDash, Mastercard, Nubank, Revolut, Shopify, and Standard Chartered. Early adopters like Browserbase (headless browsers per session), PostalForm (print and mail), and Prospect Butcher Co. (sandwich orders) are already live.
The Tempo chain processes tens of thousands of transactions per second with sub-second deterministic finality — performance comparable to traditional card networks. This is a foundational shift: agents now have their own payment rails.
Official blog: https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol
Documentation: https://docs.stripe.com/payments/machine/mpp
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MPP introduces "sessions" — essentially OAuth for money. An agent authorizes a spending cap once, then streams micropayments continuously as it consumes services like data, compute, or API calls. Businesses can accept payments from agents in both stablecoins and fiat currencies, with support for cards and buy-now-pay-later via Shared Payment Tokens (SPTs).
Visa contributed specifications for letting agents pay with credit and debit cards. Launch partners include Anthropic, OpenAI, DoorDash, Mastercard, Nubank, Revolut, Shopify, and Standard Chartered. Early adopters like Browserbase (headless browsers per session), PostalForm (print and mail), and Prospect Butcher Co. (sandwich orders) are already live.
The Tempo chain processes tens of thousands of transactions per second with sub-second deterministic finality — performance comparable to traditional card networks. This is a foundational shift: agents now have their own payment rails.
Official blog: https://stripe.com/blog/machine-payments-protocol
Documentation: https://docs.stripe.com/payments/machine/mpp