{ "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 Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Visa Intelligent Commerce leads on security \u0026 auth and transparency \u0026 trust.", "b": { "slug": "visa-intelligent-commerce", "name": "Visa Intelligent Commerce", "vendor": "Visa", "vendorUrl": "https://developer.visa.com", "kind": "protocol", "category": "checkout-protocols", "summary": "Visa Intelligent Commerce is Visa's programme for AI agents paying with Visa cards, using agent-specific tokens, passkey-approved purchase instructions and the Trusted Agent Protocol, which lets merchants verify agents by HTTP message signatures.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "repo": "https://github.com/visa/trusted-agent-protocol", "license": "Trusted Agent Protocol specification and sample code under Visa's TAP Product Terms (a revocable, limited licence). The visa/ai integration kit is MIT. The Intelligent Commerce APIs are under the Visa Developer Centre Terms of Use, with a Visa Developer agreement for production", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Needs Visa onboarding and a consumer's passkey approval. The VIC MCP server takes a JWE bearer token, a JWT signed with the developer's RSA key and encrypted to Visa's JWKS key, which Visa's client renews hourly. The REST APIs take an X-Pay HMAC-SHA256 token with message-level encryption, or two-way TLS. Under the Trusted Agent Protocol an approved agent signs each request with a key Visa publishes for merchants to verify.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "No fee to read or implement the Trusted Agent Protocol, and the Visa Developer sandbox is free. Fees apply in certification and production under a Visa Developer agreement, and no Intelligent Commerce prices are published. Card fees apply on the payment itself.", "priceSummary": "Freemium", "where": "spec", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "A card payment programme and protocols, not a tool that accepts payment. The TAP specification defines a Browsing IOU for a merchant's HTTP 402 response, and Visa said on 14 October 2025 it was working with Coinbase on x402 interoperability (https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.releaseId.21716.html).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-16" }, "docsUrl": "https://github.com/visa/ai/wiki/Visa-Intelligent-Commerce", "llmsTxt": "https://sandbox.mcp.visa.com/mcp/doc/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "payments.protocol", "payments.card-token", "payments.mandate", "auth.agent-identity" ], "tags": [ "protocol", "cards", "visa", "agent-identity", "web-bot-auth", "passkeys", "restricted-access", "pilot" ], "lastRelease": "2026-06-08", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 47.6, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 0, "ranked": false, "notRankedWhy": "A protocol, graded on the same scale but not ranked against tools", "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 3, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 40, "maintenance": 22, "payments": 35, "reliability": 42, "schema": 54, "security": 70, "transparency": 62 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-16" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "The Trusted Agent Protocol specification and Visa's MCP and REST sample kit are public, and purchase instructions bind network tokens to a passkey-approved amount, merchant and expiry. The Intelligent Commerce APIs and MCP server are restricted to onboarded partners, no API contract or test vectors are public, and the specification carries no version or date.", "bestFor": "Agent platforms that will sign with Visa to pay with consumers' Visa cards under passkey-approved limits, and for merchants and bot-management vendors that want to recognise Visa-approved agents with TAP.", "strengths": [ "Purchase instructions record the consumer's passkey approval and mandates with a decline threshold, merchant, category code, expiry and recurrence", "Visa checks each credential request against the authenticated instruction, and VisaNet checks merchant and amount at authorisation, as Visa describes it", "The Trusted Agent Protocol signs each request per RFC 9421 with a nonce and 8-minute window, aligned with Web Bot Auth", "A public llms.txt, a documentation MCP server and MIT-licensed TypeScript MCP and REST clients cover the six purchase-instruction operations", "The Visa Acceptance guide to Intelligent Commerce is public in HTML and Markdown, with self-serve sandbox sign-up" ], "weaknesses": [ "The Intelligent Commerce Agent APIs are a restricted product, and VIC credentials come only through Visa's onboarding", "No public API contract. The Acceptance guide's API reference links point to an `internal` spec branch on apihub.visa.com", "The TAP specification has no version, date or test vectors, and its key section lists RSA fields while its examples sign with Ed25519", "TAP is licensed under revocable Visa terms that assign unpermitted modifications to Visa and require updates within six months", "No published fees, rate limits, error codes, idempotency keys or prompt-injection guidance were found for the agent APIs" ], "agentNotes": [ "Don't plan to call the Intelligent Commerce APIs or MCP server without Visa onboarding. Ask the person for the VIC and VTS credentials Visa issues", "Read workflows from https://sandbox.mcp.visa.com/mcp/doc/llms.txt or the documentation MCP server's `get-docs` tool. It returns documentation and takes no payments", "Get the consumer's passkey approval on each purchase instruction, and request credentials only within the amount, merchant and expiry the mandate sets", "Send `confirm-transaction-events` after every purchase. Visa uses these signals with the instruction to manage disputes", "At a merchant, sign each request per RFC 9421 with tag `agent-browser-auth`, or `agent-payer-auth` at checkout, a fresh nonce and at most 8 minutes to expiry", "Keep card numbers, CVV and VTS responses out of agent state and logs. Visa changed its own demo agent in June 2026 to stop holding them" ], "metrics": { "kind": "spec", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 4, "avgRating": 2.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 47.6 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 40, "maintenance": 22, "payments": 35, "reliability": 42, "schema": 54, "security": 70, "transparency": 43 }, "provenanceScore": 80 }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/payments.protocol", "tool": "https://letme.dev/visa-intelligent-commerce" }, "area": "payments", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Visa Inc.", "domain": "visa.com", "domainRegistered": "1994-03-08", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://developer.visa.com/terms", "privacy": "https://www.visa.com/en-us/legal/global-privacy-notice", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://developer.visa.com/docs/release-notes", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-16", "notes": [ "The Developer Centre terms name a contracting entity per territory, Visa U.S.A. Inc. in the United States and Visa Europe Limited in the Visa Europe region, among others. Press releases are issued by Visa Inc.", "RDAP for visa.com gives a registration date of 8 March 1994. The VIC MCP sandbox is at sandbox.mcp.visa.com, the REST sandbox at sandbox.api.visa.com, and the Visa Acceptance APIs at apitest.visaacceptance.com and api.visaacceptance.com.", "No status page covers the VIC APIs or MCP server. status.visaacceptance.com covers Visa Acceptance Platform, including Rest API, tokenisation (TMS) and the sandbox, with no Intelligent Commerce component.", "No security.txt at developer.visa.com (400), www.visa.com, usa.visa.com or corporate.visa.com (404) on 16 October 2026. Visa's vulnerability disclosure programme takes reports through HackerOne (https://www.visa.com/en-us/company/vulnerability-disclosure). Neither GitHub repository has a SECURITY.md.", "The changelog link is the Developer Centre's monthly release notes. TAP has no changelog of its own.", "developer.visa.com serves no robots.txt (404), and usa.visa.com and developer.visaacceptance.com allow the pages read. status.visaacceptance.com disallows /api/. The Developer Centre terms forbid scraping its Materials to extract or compile data elements, recorded as a fact.", "WebFetch was refused for developer.visa.com, so its pages were read with curl. WebFetch read the Visa newsroom. The VIC documentation on developer.visa.com is behind a login for approved users, and mcp.visa.com redirects to it. GitHub web pages and the GitHub API were refused by our session's proxy, so repositories were read through git." ], "score": 80 }, "requirements": { "card": "unknown", "freeTier": true, "minutes": 180, "credential": "mixed" }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "live": { "slug": "visa-intelligent-commerce", "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://sandbox.mcp.visa.com/mcp/doc/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-16T14:20:47.794835787Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T14:20:47.794835787Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "Payment protocol", "b": "Payment protocol", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Lightning Labs", "b": "Visa", "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": "Freemium", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT (per l402.tech)", "b": "Trusted Agent Protocol specification and sample code under Visa's TAP Product Terms (a revocable, limited licence). The visa/ai integration kit is MIT. The Intelligent Commerce APIs are under the Visa Developer Centre Terms of Use, with a Visa Developer agreement for production", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-03-25", "b": "2026-06-08", "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": "2.5/5 (4)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Visa Intelligent Commerce leads on security \u0026 auth and transparency \u0026 trust.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, L402 or Visa Intelligent Commerce?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 55 against 42", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 65 against 54", "Agent ergonomics, 61 against 40", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 97 against 35", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 27 against 22" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it", "Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 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, 70 against 58", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 62 against 50" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "Agent platforms that will sign with Visa to pay with consumers' Visa cards under passkey-approved limits, and for merchants and bot-management vendors that want to recognise Visa-approved agents with TAP.", "slug": "visa-intelligent-commerce", "watchFor": "The Intelligent Commerce Agent APIs are a restricted product, and VIC credentials come only through Visa's onboarding" } ], "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-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/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-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "title": "Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, { "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-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "title": "American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, { "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-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "title": "Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, { "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/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-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-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/mpp-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "title": "Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mpp-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402.json", "title": "Visa Intelligent Commerce vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 13, "edge": "l402", "key": "reliability", "l402": 55, "name": "Reliability", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 42, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 11, "edge": "l402", "key": "schema", "l402": 65, "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 54, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 21, "edge": "l402", "key": "ergonomics", "l402": 61, "name": "Agent ergonomics", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 40, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 12, "edge": "visa-intelligent-commerce", "key": "security", "l402": 58, "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 70, "weight": 14 }, { "by": 62, "edge": "l402", "key": "payments", "l402": 97, "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 35, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 5, "edge": "l402", "key": "maintenance", "l402": 27, "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 22, "weight": 7 }, { "by": 12, "edge": "visa-intelligent-commerce", "key": "transparency", "l402": 50, "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 62, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Visa Intelligent Commerce leads on security \u0026 auth and transparency \u0026 trust. 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.", "visa-intelligent-commerce": "The Trusted Agent Protocol specification and Visa's MCP and REST sample kit are public, and purchase instructions bind network tokens to a passkey-approved amount, merchant and expiry. The Intelligent Commerce APIs and MCP server are restricted to onboarded partners, no API contract or test vectors are public, and the specification carries no version or date." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.min.md" }, "markdown": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Visa Intelligent Commerce leads on security \u0026 auth and transparency \u0026 trust. 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- Visa Intelligent Commerce: grade D, 47.6/100, rank graded, not ranked against tools. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.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 42\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 65 against 54\n- Agent ergonomics, 61 against 40\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 97 against 35\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 27 against 22\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5\n\nWatch for: Bearer credentials, so an intercepted token can be reused unless bound by caveats\n\n### Visa Intelligent Commerce (D)\n\nGood for: Agent platforms that will sign with Visa to pay with consumers' Visa cards under passkey-approved limits, and for merchants and bot-management vendors that want to recognise Visa-approved agents with TAP.\n\nAhead on:\n- Security \u0026 auth, 70 against 58\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 62 against 50\n\nWatch for: The Intelligent Commerce Agent APIs are a restricted product, and VIC credentials come only through Visa's onboarding\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | L402 | Visa Intelligent Commerce | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 42 | L402 +13 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 54 | L402 +11 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 40 | L402 +21 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 70 | Visa Intelligent Commerce +12 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 97 | 35 | L402 +62 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 27 | 22 | L402 +5 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 62 | Visa Intelligent Commerce +12 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.5 · C** | **47.6 · D** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | L402 | Visa Intelligent Commerce |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Payment protocol | Payment protocol |\n| Vendor | Lightning Labs | Visa |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | | |\n| Auth | None | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Free | Freemium |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT (per l402.tech) | Trusted Agent Protocol specification and sample code under Visa's TAP Product Terms (a revocable, limited licence). The visa/ai integration kit is MIT. The Intelligent Commerce APIs are under the Visa Developer Centre Terms of Use, with a Visa Developer agreement for production |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-03-25 | 2026-06-08 |\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) | 2.5/5 (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**Visa Intelligent Commerce.** The Trusted Agent Protocol specification and Visa's MCP and REST sample kit are public, and purchase instructions bind network tokens to a passkey-approved amount, merchant and expiry. The Intelligent Commerce APIs and MCP server are restricted to onboarded partners, no API contract or test vectors are public, and the specification carries no version or date.\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### Visa Intelligent Commerce\n\n1. Don't plan to call the Intelligent Commerce APIs or MCP server without Visa onboarding. Ask the person for the VIC and VTS credentials Visa issues\n2. Read workflows from https://sandbox.mcp.visa.com/mcp/doc/llms.txt or the documentation MCP server's `get-docs` tool. It returns documentation and takes no payments\n3. Get the consumer's passkey approval on each purchase instruction, and request credentials only within the amount, merchant and expiry the mandate sets\n4. Send `confirm-transaction-events` after every purchase. Visa uses these signals with the instruction to manage disputes\n5. At a merchant, sign each request per RFC 9421 with tag `agent-browser-auth`, or `agent-payer-auth` at checkout, a fresh nonce and at most 8 minutes to expiry\n6. Keep card numbers, CVV and VTS responses out of agent state and logs. Visa changed its own demo agent in June 2026 to stop holding them\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 Visa Intelligent Commerce?\n\nL402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Visa Intelligent Commerce leads on security \u0026 auth and transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"l402\", \"b\": \"visa-intelligent-commerce\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare l402 visa-intelligent-commerce`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/l402.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.json\n\n## Other comparisons with L402 or Visa Intelligent Commerce\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 Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs L402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-l402.md)\n- [Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.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 Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs L402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-l402.md)\n- [Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [L402 vs Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md)\n- [L402 vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mpp.md)\n- [L402 vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-x402.md)\n- [Mastercard Agent Pay vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mpp-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Visa Intelligent Commerce vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-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 Visa Intelligent Commerce", "url": "" } ], "description": "L402 scores 60.5 (C) to Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "L402 C 60.5", "Visa Intelligent Commerce D 47.6", "scores" ], "h1": "L402 vs Visa Intelligent Commerce", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.png", "path": "/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "L402 vs Visa Intelligent Commerce for AI agents (2026)", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-16", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2300, "slim": 680 }, "version": 1 }