{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "l402", "name": "L402", "vendor": "Lightning Labs", "vendorUrl": "https://l402.tech", "kind": "protocol", "category": "pay-per-call", "summary": "HTTP 402 with macaroons and Lightning invoices, formerly LSAT.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/l402", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/l402.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/l402.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/l402.json", "repo": "https://github.com/lightninglabs/L402", "license": "MIT (per l402.tech)", "transports": [], "packages": [ { "registry": "go", "name": "github.com/lightninglabs/aperture" }, { "registry": "go", "name": "github.com/lightninglabs/lnget" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@getalby/lightning-tools" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account. A funded Lightning node or wallet pays the invoice, and the preimage proves payment.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "No protocol fee. The payer pays Lightning routing fees.", "priceSummary": "Free", "where": "spec", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "A payment protocol, not a tool that accepts payment.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 89, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-26" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.lightning.engineering/the-lightning-network/l402", "capabilities": [ "payments.protocol", "payments.lightning" ], "tags": [ "protocol", "bitcoin", "lightning", "account-free" ], "lastRelease": "2026-03-25", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 60.5, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 0, "ranked": false, "notRankedWhy": "A protocol, graded on the same scale but not ranked against tools", "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 3, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 61, "maintenance": 27, "payments": 97, "reliability": 55, "schema": 65, "security": 58, "transparency": 50 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Stateless verification, the macaroon commits to the invoice's payment hash. Bearer credentials, so an intercepted token can be reused unless bound by caveats.", "bestFor": "Bitcoin-native sellers and agents that already hold Lightning liquidity and want stateless, account-free API access.", "strengths": [ "Stateless verification, the macaroon commits to the invoice's payment hash", "Caveats let a client narrow a token's expiry and scope before handing it on", "A short RFC-style spec plus an agent spec of about 560 tokens", "Aperture serves L402 and MPP from one proxy", "No account and no protocol fee" ], "weaknesses": [ "Bearer credentials, so an intercepted token can be reused unless bound by caveats", "No tagged release since 25 March 2026, and l402sdk has never been released", "No `LICENSE` file in the spec repository", "No error codes beyond 402 and 401", "Named production users are Lightning Labs' own Loop and Pool" ], "agentNotes": [ "Run lnget with `--max-cost` and `--max-fee` set", "Check the invoice amount before paying, the server can ask for anything", "Accept both `LSAT` and `L402` in challenges, servers still send both", "Reuse a paid token for later calls until its caveats expire rather than paying again", "Keep macaroons and preimages out of logs, they're bearer credentials" ], "metrics": { "kind": "spec", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 60.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 61, "maintenance": 27, "payments": 97, "reliability": 55, "schema": 65, "security": 58, "transparency": 44 }, "provenanceScore": 55 }, "connect": { "install": "go install github.com/lightninglabs/lnget@latest" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/payments.protocol", "tool": "https://letme.dev/l402" }, "area": "payments", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Lightning Labs, Inc.", "domain": "lightning.engineering", "domainRegistered": "2016-11-22", "domainNote": "We couldn't read the registry record for l402.tech, so this uses Lightning Labs' own domain.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-09-26", "score": 55 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/l402.json", "live": { "slug": "l402", "versions": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@getalby/lightning-tools", "version": "9.0.1", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T00:59:02.784408958Z" } ], "githubStars": 91, "npmWeekly": 23527, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://lightning.engineering/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T15:48:10.275335715Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "lightning.engineering", "registered": "2016-11-22", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/lightning.engineering", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:13:19.798456542Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T00:59:03.204052071Z" } }, "answer": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 6 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": "Lightning Labs", "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 (per l402.tech)", "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": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-03-25", "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": "89 stars", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3/5 (2)", "b": "2/5 (4)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, L402 or Mastercard Agent Pay?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 55 against 40", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 65 against 47", "Agent ergonomics, 61 against 38", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 97 against 25", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 50 against 36" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it", "Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5" ], "goodFor": "Bitcoin-native sellers and agents that already hold Lightning liquidity and want stateless, account-free API access.", "slug": "l402", "watchFor": "Bearer credentials, so an intercepted token can be reused unless bound by caveats" }, { "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-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-mastercard-agent-pay.json", "title": "ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-l402.json", "title": "Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs L402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-l402" }, { "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-l402.json", "title": "American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) vs L402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-l402" }, { "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-l402.json", "title": "Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs L402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-l402" }, { "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-mpp.json", "title": "L402 vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mpp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "title": "L402 vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-x402.json", "title": "L402 vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-x402" }, { "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": [ { "by": 15, "edge": "l402", "key": "reliability", "l402": 55, "mastercard-agent-pay": 40, "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 18, "edge": "l402", "key": "schema", "l402": 65, "mastercard-agent-pay": 47, "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "by": 23, "edge": "l402", "key": "ergonomics", "l402": 61, "mastercard-agent-pay": 38, "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "by": 13, "edge": "mastercard-agent-pay", "key": "security", "l402": 58, "mastercard-agent-pay": 71, "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "by": 72, "edge": "l402", "key": "payments", "l402": 97, "mastercard-agent-pay": 25, "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 4, "edge": "l402", "key": "maintenance", "l402": 27, "mastercard-agent-pay": 23, "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "by": 14, "edge": "l402", "key": "transparency", "l402": 50, "mastercard-agent-pay": 36, "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth. Both do agent payment protocols.", "tutorials": [ { "title": "Fetch a Lightning-paid resource with lnget", "tool": "l402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/l402/" } ], "verdicts": { "l402": "Stateless verification, the macaroon commits to the invoice's payment hash. Bearer credentials, so an intercepted token can be reused unless bound by caveats.", "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/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.min.md" }, "markdown": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security \u0026 auth. Both do agent payment protocols.\n\n- L402: grade C, 60.5/100, rank graded, not ranked against tools. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/l402.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/l402.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### L402 (C)\n\nGood for: Bitcoin-native sellers and agents that already hold Lightning liquidity and want stateless, account-free API access.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 55 against 40\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 65 against 47\n- Agent ergonomics, 61 against 38\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 97 against 25\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 50 against 36\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5\n\nWatch for: Bearer credentials, so an intercepted token can be reused unless bound by caveats\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 | L402 | Mastercard Agent Pay | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 40 | L402 +15 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 47 | L402 +18 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 38 | L402 +23 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 71 | Mastercard Agent Pay +13 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 97 | 25 | L402 +72 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 27 | 23 | L402 +4 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 36 | L402 +14 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.5 · C** | **42.5 · E** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | L402 | Mastercard Agent Pay |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Payment protocol | Payment protocol |\n| Vendor | Lightning Labs | 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 (per l402.tech) | 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 | no | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-03-25 | 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 | 89 stars | none |\n| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2/5 (4) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**L402.** Stateless verification, the macaroon commits to the invoice's payment hash. Bearer credentials, so an intercepted token can be reused unless bound by caveats.\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### L402\n\n1. Run lnget with `--max-cost` and `--max-fee` set\n2. Check the invoice amount before paying, the server can ask for anything\n3. Accept both `LSAT` and `L402` in challenges, servers still send both\n4. Reuse a paid token for later calls until its caveats expire rather than paying again\n5. Keep macaroons and preimages out of logs, they're bearer credentials\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- [Fetch a Lightning-paid resource with lnget](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/l402/), for L402\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, L402 or Mastercard Agent Pay?\n\nL402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 6 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/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"l402\", \"b\": \"mastercard-agent-pay\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare l402 mastercard-agent-pay`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/l402.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.json\n\n## Other comparisons with L402 or Mastercard Agent Pay\n\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 Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md)\n- [Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs L402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-l402.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 L402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-l402.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 L402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-l402.md)\n- [Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md)\n- [L402 vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mpp.md)\n- [L402 vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [L402 vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-x402.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": "L402 vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "url": "" } ], "description": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) to Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "L402 C 60.5", "Mastercard Agent Pay E 42.5", "scores" ], "h1": "L402 vs Mastercard Agent Pay", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.png", "path": "/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "L402 vs Mastercard Agent Pay for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-16", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2150, "slim": 630 }, "version": 1 }