# Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs Mastercard Agent Pay (slim)

> Agent Payments Protocol scores 55.3 (C) to Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-16
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Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) scores 55.3 (C) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on reliability. Both do agent payment protocols.

- Agent Payments Protocol (AP2): C 55.3, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ap2.min.md
- Mastercard Agent Pay: E 42.5, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.min.md
- Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), good for The design to copy when an agent spends a person's money and you need signed proof of what they approved, especially for purchases made while the person is away. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 74 against 47; Agent ergonomics, 51 against 38; Security & auth, 84 against 71; Payments & pricing, 60 against 25; Transparency & trust, 56 against 36.
- Mastercard Agent Pay, good for Agent platforms that can partner with Mastercard and need card purchases issuers recognise as agentic, with tokens instead of card numbers. Ahead on Reliability, 40 against 31.

| Category | Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) | Mastercard Agent Pay |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 31 | 40 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 74 | 47 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 51 | 38 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 84 | 71 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 25 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 19 | 23 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 56 | 36 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) | Mastercard Agent Pay |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Google (standardisation moved to the FIDO Alliance) | Mastercard |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Agent Pay is a closed Mastercard network programme. Its Verifiable Intent specification and Python reference SDK, maintained by Mastercard, are Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-04-28 | 2026-06-10 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Popularity | 3.2k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 2/5 (4) |