# Mastercard Agent Pay vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) (slim)

> Machine Payments Protocol scores 81.1 (A) to Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-mpp.md (~2,350 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-mpp.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastercard-agent-pay-vs-mpp
- 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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Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) scores 81.1 (A) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent payment protocols.

- Mastercard Agent Pay: E 42.5, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.min.md
- Machine Payments Protocol (MPP): A 81.1, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mpp.min.md
- 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. Also No incidents deducted, where Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) loses 3 points for them.
- Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), good for Sellers who want stablecoins and cards behind one 402, or Stripe settlement into a fiat balance, and for agents making many small calls through sessions. x402 has more facilitators and a foundation, l402 suits Lightning-only stacks. Ahead on Reliability, 85 against 40; Schema & documentation, 89 against 47; Agent ergonomics, 91 against 38; Security & auth, 79 against 71; Payments & pricing, 94 against 25; Maintenance & community, 95 against 23; Transparency & trust, 45 against 36. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 2.0 out of 5.

| Category | Mastercard Agent Pay | Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 40 | 85 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 47 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 38 | 91 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 71 | 79 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 25 | 94 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 23 | 95 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 36 | 45 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Mastercard Agent Pay | Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Mastercard | Tempo and Stripe |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Licence | Agent Pay is a closed Mastercard network programme. Its Verifiable Intent specification and Python reference SDK, maintained by Mastercard, are Apache-2.0 | CC0-1.0 (spec) |
| Last release | 2026-06-10 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated |  | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | no document linked |
| Popularity | none | 93 stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (4) | 4/5 (2) |