{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "ack-pay", "name": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit)", "vendor": "Catena Labs, Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://www.agentcommercekit.com", "kind": "protocol", "category": "pay-per-call", "summary": "ACK-Pay is the open payment protocol in Agent Commerce Kit from Catena Labs. A server returns a signed Payment Request, the client pays through a Payment Service and retries with a receipt issued as a W3C Verifiable Credential.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ack-pay", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ack-pay.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ack-pay.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ack-pay.json", "repo": "https://github.com/agentcommercekit/ack", "license": "MIT (docs and SDK)", "transports": [], "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@agentcommercekit/ack-pay" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "agentcommercekit" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account or key. Servers sign Payment Requests with a key bound to a DID, and Receipt Services sign receipts that servers check against their own list of trusted issuer DIDs. Identity checks between parties can use ACK-ID.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "No protocol fee, and the SDK is MIT with nothing to buy. Settlement costs depend on the Payment Service and rail a deployment chooses. The docs say conversion and bridging fees should be shown to the client. No public Payment Service with published prices was found.", "priceSummary": "Free", "where": "spec", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "A payment protocol, not a tool that accepts payment. The docs describe x402 as fitting the ACK-Pay pattern and list acting as an x402 facilitator as planned research (checked 2026-10-09).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 159, "npmWeekly": 54, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-09" }, "docsUrl": "https://www.agentcommercekit.com/ack-pay/introduction", "llmsTxt": "https://www.agentcommercekit.com/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "payments.protocol", "payments.stablecoin" ], "tags": [ "protocol", "verifiable-credentials", "did", "receipts", "typescript", "mit", "llms-txt" ], "lastRelease": "2026-08-04", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 53.6, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 0, "ranked": false, "notRankedWhy": "A protocol, graded on the same scale but not ranked against tools", "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 47, "maintenance": 53, "payments": 77, "reliability": 38, "schema": 66, "security": 58, "transparency": 60 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-09" }, "negative": -2, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-08-04, @agentcommercekit/ack-pay 0.11.0 fixed a revocation check that treated any failure to fetch or parse the status list as not revoked, so `verifyPaymentReceipt` accepted revoked credentials. The changelog describes the flaw in full and the repository has no published advisory. Fixed and documented, so we deduct 2 (https://github.com/agentcommercekit/ack/blob/main/packages/ack-pay/CHANGELOG.md, https://github.com/agentcommercekit/ack/security/advisories)" ], "verdict": "Signed payment requests and receipts that any server can verify offline against a list of trusted issuers, with an MIT TypeScript SDK and passing CI. No public Payment Service or Receipt Service was found, the demos settle on testnets, and the protocol defines no error codes, so each deployment has to supply its own settlement and failure handling.", "bestFor": "Teams that want receipts a server can verify offline and a single request format across card and stablecoin rails, and that will run their own payment and receipt services.", "strengths": [ "Receipts are W3C Verifiable Credentials signed by a Receipt Service, so a server checks payment without calling the payment system", "One Payment Request can list several options, such as USDC on Base and a card payment through Stripe, each with its own Payment Service", "Docs and code are MIT, with llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every docs page", "The SDK exports Valibot and Zod schemas for the request, the option and the receipt claim", "CI builds, lints and tests on every push, and the last five runs on main on the page read passed" ], "weaknesses": [ "No public Payment Service or Receipt Service was found. The docs use example.com hosts and the demo pays on Base Sepolia, Solana devnet or a simulated Stripe flow", "The protocol defines no error codes, idempotency key or retry header. The operations page tells implementers to design their own", "One SDK, in TypeScript, at 0.11.0. One release in the last 90 days, with nine changesets waiting on main, including a receipt option check", "0.11.0 fixed a revocation check that accepted revoked credentials when the status list was unreachable. No GitHub advisory was published", "Open issue 222 of 21 September 2026 reports that `expiresAt` on a Payment Request is never enforced", "No terms, privacy policy, status page or security.txt on agentcommercekit.com" ], "agentNotes": [ "Verify `paymentRequestToken` and read amount, recipient and currency from the signed payload, not from `description`", "Pass `trustedReceiptIssuers` to `verifyPaymentReceipt`. Without a trusted issuer list any DID can sign a receipt", "Check amount, recipient and receipt reuse yourself. The SDK's claim verifier checks only the shape of the receipt", "Use `@agentcommercekit/ack-pay` 0.11.0 or later, because earlier releases treated an unreachable revocation list as not revoked", "Plan for a Payment Service and a Receipt Service you run or choose. The protocol names the roles and no public one was found" ], "metrics": { "kind": "spec", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 53.6 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 47, "maintenance": 53, "payments": 77, "reliability": 38, "schema": 66, "security": 58, "transparency": 63 }, "provenanceScore": 57 }, "connect": { "install": "npm i @agentcommercekit/ack-pay" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/payments.protocol", "tool": "https://letme.dev/ack-pay" }, "area": "payments", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Catena Labs, Inc.", "domain": "agentcommercekit.com", "domainRegistered": "2025-05-02", "domainNote": "The docs site names no legal entity. Catena Labs, Inc. is the copyright holder in the repository's LICENCE file and the author in the package manifests. No terms or privacy policy were found for the docs site, so the MIT licence stands in.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/agentcommercekit/ack/blob/main/packages/ack-pay/CHANGELOG.md", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-09", "score": 57 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ack-pay.json", "live": { "slug": "ack-pay", "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "agentcommercekit/ack", "version": "agentcommercekit@0.11.0", "released": "2026-08-04", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T00:32:37.714574551Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@agentcommercekit/ack-pay", "version": "0.11.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T00:32:35.499501628Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "agentcommercekit", "version": "0.11.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T00:32:36.306969323Z" } ], "githubStars": 158, "npmWeekly": 751, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://agentcommercekit.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T15:48:51.791292911Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://www.agentcommercekit.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-16T14:18:12.984100824Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "agentcommercekit.com", "registered": "2025-05-02", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/agentcommercekit.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:16:56.352355321Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agentcommercekit/ack/main/packages/ack-pay/CHANGELOG.md", "kind": "changelog", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T22:03:21.268192986Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "a86c2ee19456" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T14:18:12.984100824Z" } }, "answer": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth.", "b": { "slug": "mastercard-agent-pay", "name": "Mastercard Agent Pay", "vendor": "Mastercard", "vendorUrl": "https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/business/artificial-intelligence/mastercard-agent-pay.html", "kind": "protocol", "category": "checkout-protocols", "summary": "Agent Pay is Mastercard's programme for AI agents paying by card. Registered agents identify themselves with Web Bot Auth signatures and pay with scoped agentic tokens. Agent Pay for Machines, announced in June 2026, extends it to machine payments.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.json", "repo": "https://github.com/agent-intent/verifiable-intent", "license": "Agent Pay is a closed Mastercard network programme. Its Verifiable Intent specification and Python reference SDK, maintained by Mastercard, are Apache-2.0", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Not self-serve. Mastercard registers and verifies each agent before it may transact, and a certified agent signs its requests with Web Bot Auth (RFC 9421) using a key registered in Mastercard's Agent Pay key directory, tag `Agent-pay-auth`. Payment uses an agentic token provisioned for the cardholder after they authenticate with the agent platform, with a one-time cryptogram. Merchants are registered through their acquirer or PSP.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "The Verifiable Intent specification and SDK are free under Apache-2.0, and the merchant guides on Mastercard Developers need no account. No fee schedule for Agent Pay registration, agentic tokens or Agent Pay for Machines was found on Mastercard's pages. Card and network fees apply on the payment itself.", "priceSummary": "Free", "where": "spec", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "A card network programme, not a tool that accepts payment. Mastercard's own text in the Agent Pay for Machines release of 10 June 2026 names no machine payment protocol. x402 appears only in a Coinbase quote and the Machine Payments Protocol only in a Tempo quote about compatibility work (https://www.mastercard.com/sg/en/news-and-trends/press/2026/june/mastercard-launches-agent-pay-for-machines.html, checked 2026-10-16).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-16" }, "docsUrl": "https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-cloud/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/agentic-commerce-guide/index.md", "llmsTxt": "https://developer.mastercard.com/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "payments.protocol", "payments.card-token", "payments.mandate", "auth.agent-identity" ], "tags": [ "protocol", "cards", "partner-only", "pre-1.0", "web-bot-auth", "sd-jwt", "passkeys", "fido", "mastercard" ], "lastRelease": "2026-06-10", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 42.5, "grade": "E", "agentReady": false, "rank": 0, "ranked": false, "notRankedWhy": "A protocol, graded on the same scale but not ranked against tools", "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 38, "maintenance": 23, "payments": 25, "reliability": 40, "schema": 47, "security": 71, "transparency": 36 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "low", "date": "2026-10-16" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Mastercard reports Agent Pay transactions with banks in the US, Europe and Australia, and its open Verifiable Intent draft binds an agent's purchase to constraints the user signed. Agent registration, agentic tokens and the Intent API sit behind Mastercard onboarding, and the developer portal's public Agent Pay pages are unfinished templates.", "bestFor": "Agent platforms that can partner with Mastercard and need card purchases issuers recognise as agentic, with tokens instead of card numbers.", "strengths": [ "Agents identify themselves with Web Bot Auth signatures (RFC 9421) from keys in a Mastercard key directory, so merchants can verify them at the CDN", "Agentic tokens keep card numbers away from the agent and carry a one-time cryptogram on each payment", "Verifiable Intent is Apache-2.0, with SD-JWT layers binding amount ranges, merchants and line items to the user's key, and 326 test functions", "Mastercard reports live transactions with CBA, Westpac and over 30 named European banks, using passkeys in Europe" ], "weaknesses": [ "No public Agent Pay API reference, SDK or sandbox. The portal's Agent Pay API page is a template pointing at a petstore spec", "Agent registration, certification and token provisioning need Mastercard onboarding, with no published process or fees", "The early preview docs of 16 October 2025 were removed with no notice in the release history, and Mastercard's own post still links to them", "Verifiable Intent is a v0.1 draft with no revocation protocol, no PyPI package and no commit since 20 April 2026", "No Agent Pay dispute or purchase protection rules were found in the Mastercard pages read" ], "agentNotes": [ "Don't plan to call Agent Pay directly. Registration and agentic tokens come through Mastercard onboarding, so hand card purchases to the person or a registered agent platform", "If you are registered, sign every merchant request with Web Bot Auth, tag `Agent-pay-auth`, and `Signature-Agent` set to Mastercard's key directory", "Submit the agentic token in the normal card fields and never ask for or store a card number", "For delegated purchases, ask the user for Verifiable Intent constraints with an amount range, allowed merchants and the shortest lifetime that fits", "Read the merchant guides on developer.mastercard.com as Markdown. The Agent Pay docs section there has no public content" ], "metrics": { "kind": "spec", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 4, "avgRating": 2, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "low", "grade": "E", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 42.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 38, "maintenance": 23, "payments": 25, "reliability": 40, "schema": 47, "security": 71, "transparency": 31 }, "provenanceScore": 41 }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/payments.protocol", "tool": "https://letme.dev/mastercard-agent-pay" }, "area": "payments", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "", "domain": "mastercard.com", "domainRegistered": "1994-07-27", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "https://www.mastercard.com/au/en/terms-of-use.html", "privacy": "https://www.mastercard.com/au/en/privacy.html", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "unknown", "checked": "2026-10-16", "notes": [ "No legal entity was read first-hand. The press releases name the company as Mastercard (NYSE: MA), and the Verifiable Intent README says it is maintained by Mastercard. The terms page wasn't readable in this session.", "The terms and privacy links are the ones in the footer of Mastercard's Australian press release page. Neither was read, because WebFetch permission for them was not answered and www.mastercard.com answers curl with 403, robots.txt included.", "RDAP gives mastercard.com a registration date of 27 July 1994 and verifiableintent.dev one of 22 February 2026.", "No changelog for Agent Pay exists. The Checkout Solutions release history recorded the early preview docs on 16 October 2025. Verifiable Intent keeps a CHANGELOG.md with one entry, 0.1.0.", "security.txt on www.mastercard.com couldn't be read (403 to curl). On developer.mastercard.com it redirects to a login. Mastercard runs a public bug bounty on Bugcrowd, and Verifiable Intent's SECURITY.md takes reports by email or GitHub private reporting.", "developer.mastercard.com robots.txt disallows only /media/ and a download path. verifiableintent.dev's robots.txt carries content-signal comments and no rules.", "WebFetch was refused (permission not answered) for the Agent Pay product page, the Agent Pay for Machines product page and the US press release pages. Locale copies of the same releases were read instead. Mastercard Developers pages were read with curl as Markdown." ], "score": 41 }, "requirements": { "card": "unknown", "minutes": 600, "credential": "mixed" }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.json", "live": { "slug": "mastercard-agent-pay", "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://developer.mastercard.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-16T14:19:45.832134212Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T14:19:45.832134212Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "Payment protocol", "b": "Payment protocol", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Catena Labs, Inc.", "b": "Mastercard", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "None", "b": "OAuth or key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Free", "b": "Free", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT (docs and SDK)", "b": "Agent Pay is a closed Mastercard network programme. Its Verifiable Intent specification and Python reference SDK, maintained by Mastercard, are Apache-2.0", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-08-04", "b": "2026-06-10", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "159 stars, 54 npm/wk", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "none", "b": "2/5 (4)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) or Mastercard Agent Pay?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Schema \u0026 documentation, 66 against 47", "Agent ergonomics, 47 against 38", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 77 against 25", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 53 against 23", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 60 against 36" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it" ], "goodFor": "Teams that want receipts a server can verify offline and a single request format across card and stablecoin rails, and that will run their own payment and receipt services.", "slug": "ack-pay", "watchFor": "No public Payment Service or Receipt Service was found. The docs use example.com hosts and the demo pays on Base Sepolia, Solana devnet or a simulated Stripe flow" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Security \u0026 auth, 71 against 58" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "Agent platforms that can partner with Mastercard and need card purchases issuers recognise as agentic, with tokens instead of card numbers.", "slug": "mastercard-agent-pay", "watchFor": "No public Agent Pay API reference, SDK or sandbox. The portal's Agent Pay API page is a template pointing at a petstore spec" } ], "job": { "capability": "payments.protocol", "name": "Agent payment protocols" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-acp.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-acp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-amex-ace.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-amex-ace" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-ap2.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-ap2" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-l402.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs L402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-l402" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mpp.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mpp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-x402.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-x402" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json", "title": "Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-mastercard-agent-pay" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json", "title": "American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-mastercard-agent-pay" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json", "title": "Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-mastercard-agent-pay" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json", "title": "L402 vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-mpp.json", "title": "Mastercard Agent Pay vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-mpp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "title": "Mastercard Agent Pay vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-x402.json", "title": "Mastercard Agent Pay vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-x402" } ], "scores": [ { "ack-pay": 38, "by": 2, "edge": "mastercard-agent-pay", "key": "reliability", "mastercard-agent-pay": 40, "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "ack-pay": 66, "by": 19, "edge": "ack-pay", "key": "schema", "mastercard-agent-pay": 47, "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "ack-pay": 47, "by": 9, "edge": "ack-pay", "key": "ergonomics", "mastercard-agent-pay": 38, "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "ack-pay": 58, "by": 13, "edge": "mastercard-agent-pay", "key": "security", "mastercard-agent-pay": 71, "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "ack-pay": 77, "by": 52, "edge": "ack-pay", "key": "payments", "mastercard-agent-pay": 25, "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "ack-pay": 53, "by": 30, "edge": "ack-pay", "key": "maintenance", "mastercard-agent-pay": 23, "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "ack-pay": 60, "by": 24, "edge": "ack-pay", "key": "transparency", "mastercard-agent-pay": 36, "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth. Both do agent payment protocols.", "tutorials": [ { "title": "Run the ACK-Pay payment-and-receipt demo", "tool": "ack-pay", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/ack-pay/" } ], "verdicts": { "ack-pay": "Signed payment requests and receipts that any server can verify offline against a list of trusted issuers, with an MIT TypeScript SDK and passing CI. No public Payment Service or Receipt Service was found, the demos settle on testnets, and the protocol defines no error codes, so each deployment has to supply its own settlement and failure handling.", "mastercard-agent-pay": "Mastercard reports Agent Pay transactions with banks in the US, Europe and Australia, and its open Verifiable Intent draft binds an agent's purchase to constraints the user signed. Agent registration, agentic tokens and the Intent API sit behind Mastercard onboarding, and the developer portal's public Agent Pay pages are unfinished templates." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.min.md" }, "markdown": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth. Both do agent payment protocols.\n\n- ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit): grade D, 53.6/100, rank graded, not ranked against tools. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ack-pay.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ack-pay.json\n- Mastercard Agent Pay: grade E, 42.5/100, rank graded, not ranked against tools. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.json\n- All 26 pay per call comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pay-per-call/index.md\n- All 30 checkout comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/checkout-protocols/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) (D)\n\nGood for: Teams that want receipts a server can verify offline and a single request format across card and stablecoin rails, and that will run their own payment and receipt services.\n\nAhead on:\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 66 against 47\n- Agent ergonomics, 47 against 38\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 77 against 25\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 53 against 23\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 60 against 36\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n\nWatch for: No public Payment Service or Receipt Service was found. The docs use example.com hosts and the demo pays on Base Sepolia, Solana devnet or a simulated Stripe flow\n\n### Mastercard Agent Pay (E)\n\nGood for: Agent platforms that can partner with Mastercard and need card purchases issuers recognise as agentic, with tokens instead of card numbers.\n\nAhead on:\n- Security \u0026 auth, 71 against 58\n\nWatch for: No public Agent Pay API reference, SDK or sandbox. The portal's Agent Pay API page is a template pointing at a petstore spec\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) | Mastercard Agent Pay | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 38 | 40 | Mastercard Agent Pay +2 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 47 | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) +19 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 38 | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) +9 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 71 | Mastercard Agent Pay +13 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 77 | 25 | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) +52 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 23 | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) +30 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 36 | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) +24 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **53.6 · D** | **42.5 · E** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) | Mastercard Agent Pay |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Payment protocol | Payment protocol |\n| Vendor | Catena Labs, Inc. | Mastercard |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | | |\n| Auth | None | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Free | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT (docs and SDK) | Agent Pay is a closed Mastercard network programme. Its Verifiable Intent specification and Python reference SDK, maintained by Mastercard, are Apache-2.0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-08-04 | 2026-06-10 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | |\n| Customer content may train models | | |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | |\n| Popularity | 159 stars, 54 npm/wk | none |\n| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (4) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit).** Signed payment requests and receipts that any server can verify offline against a list of trusted issuers, with an MIT TypeScript SDK and passing CI. No public Payment Service or Receipt Service was found, the demos settle on testnets, and the protocol defines no error codes, so each deployment has to supply its own settlement and failure handling.\n\n**Mastercard Agent Pay.** Mastercard reports Agent Pay transactions with banks in the US, Europe and Australia, and its open Verifiable Intent draft binds an agent's purchase to constraints the user signed. Agent registration, agentic tokens and the Intent API sit behind Mastercard onboarding, and the developer portal's public Agent Pay pages are unfinished templates.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit)\n\n1. Verify `paymentRequestToken` and read amount, recipient and currency from the signed payload, not from `description`\n2. Pass `trustedReceiptIssuers` to `verifyPaymentReceipt`. Without a trusted issuer list any DID can sign a receipt\n3. Check amount, recipient and receipt reuse yourself. The SDK's claim verifier checks only the shape of the receipt\n4. Use `@agentcommercekit/ack-pay` 0.11.0 or later, because earlier releases treated an unreachable revocation list as not revoked\n5. Plan for a Payment Service and a Receipt Service you run or choose. The protocol names the roles and no public one was found\n\n### Mastercard Agent Pay\n\n1. Don't plan to call Agent Pay directly. Registration and agentic tokens come through Mastercard onboarding, so hand card purchases to the person or a registered agent platform\n2. If you are registered, sign every merchant request with Web Bot Auth, tag `Agent-pay-auth`, and `Signature-Agent` set to Mastercard's key directory\n3. Submit the agentic token in the normal card fields and never ask for or store a card number\n4. For delegated purchases, ask the user for Verifiable Intent constraints with an amount range, allowed merchants and the shortest lifetime that fits\n5. Read the merchant guides on developer.mastercard.com as Markdown. The Agent Pay docs section there has no public content\n\n## Tutorials\n\n- [Run the ACK-Pay payment-and-receipt demo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/ack-pay/), for ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit)\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) or Mastercard Agent Pay?\n\nACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) scores 53.6 (D) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"ack-pay\", \"b\": \"mastercard-agent-pay\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare ack-pay mastercard-agent-pay`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ack-pay.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.json\n\n## Other comparisons with ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) or Mastercard Agent Pay\n\n- [ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-acp.md)\n- [ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-amex-ace.md)\n- [ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-ap2.md)\n- [ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs L402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-l402.md)\n- [ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mpp.md)\n- [ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-x402.md)\n- [Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md)\n- [American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) vs Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md)\n- [Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md)\n- [L402 vs Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md)\n- [Mastercard Agent Pay vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-mpp.md)\n- [Mastercard Agent Pay vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Mastercard Agent Pay vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-x402.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-16", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "url": "" } ], "description": "ACK-Pay scores 53.6 (D) to Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) D 53.6", "Mastercard Agent Pay E 42.5", "scores" ], "h1": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.png", "path": "/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "ACK-Pay vs Mastercard Agent Pay for AI agents (2026) | Anchor Terminal", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-16", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2400, "slim": 630 }, "version": 1 }