{ "data": { "a": { "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" } }, "answer": "x402 scores 79.7 (A) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "b": { "slug": "x402", "name": "x402", "vendor": "x402 Foundation (Linux Foundation)", "vendorUrl": "https://x402.org", "kind": "protocol", "category": "pay-per-call", "summary": "Protocol for per-request stablecoin payments using HTTP 402.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/x402", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/x402.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/x402.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/x402.json", "repo": "https://github.com/x402-foundation/x402", "license": "Apache-2.0", "transports": [], "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@x402/core" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@x402/fetch" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "x402" }, { "registry": "go", "name": "github.com/x402-foundation/x402/go" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account. A funded wallet signs each payment. Facilitators may screen addresses (Coinbase CDP runs OFAC and KYT checks).", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "No protocol fee. The Coinbase CDP facilitator settles 1,000 transactions a month free, then $0.001 each, and pays gas in the exact scheme. Stripe charges 1.5% for x402 with gas included (https://docs.cdp.coinbase.com/x402/core-concepts/facilitator).", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "spec", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "A payment protocol, not a tool that accepts payment.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 6400, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-01" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.x402.org", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.x402.org/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "payments.protocol", "payments.x402", "payments.stablecoin" ], "tags": [ "protocol", "open-source", "stablecoin", "account-free", "foundation" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-30", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 79.7, "grade": "A", "agentReady": true, "rank": 0, "ranked": false, "notRankedWhy": "A protocol, graded on the same scale but not ranked against tools", "rankOf": 1098, "categoryRank": 2, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 84, "maintenance": 93, "payments": 97, "reliability": 87, "schema": 86, "security": 67, "transparency": 65 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "high", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": -3, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-03-06, GHSA-qr2g-p6q7-w82m (high). Facilitators processing Solana payments on @x402/svm before 2.6.0, Python x402 before 2.3.0 or Go before 2.5.0 were exposed. Keys and funds weren't affected, and the fix and advisory were public, so we deduct 2 (https://github.com/x402-foundation/x402/security/advisories/GHSA-qr2g-p6q7-w82m)", "2026-05-12, five attacks on x402 validated on local chains, Base Sepolia and live endpoints, across authorisation, binding, replay and web handling, causing unpaid service or paid-but-denied outcomes. Some related fixes appear in the repository (origin binding for sign-in, SSRF in Bazaar), but we couldn't confirm all five are closed, so we deduct 1 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11781)" ], "verdict": "No account and no protocol fee, a funded wallet is enough. Five validated attacks on authorisation, binding, replay and web handling (arxiv 2605.11781).", "bestFor": "The default for an agent paying APIs per call in stablecoins without accounts, and the protocol most sellers in this directory speak.", "strengths": [ "No account and no protocol fee, a funded wallet is enough", "Reference SDKs in TypeScript, Python, Go and Java, released weekly", "15 public facilitators listed in the docs, several with no fees", "Exact, upto, auth-capture and batch-settlement schemes, with exact specs for 17 networks", "Standard error codes, including a non-terminal settlement_pending with the transaction hash" ], "weaknesses": [ "Five validated attacks on authorisation, binding, replay and web handling (arxiv 2605.11781)", "A high-severity facilitator advisory on Solana handling in March 2026", "Spend budgets sit outside the spec, only the upto scheme caps an amount", "The FAQ and the exact-scheme spec disagree on who pays gas", "Security reports still go to Coinbase's HackerOne rather than a foundation channel" ], "agentNotes": [ "Decode PAYMENT-REQUIRED and check amount, asset and payTo against what you expected before signing", "Use the upto scheme when the final price isn't known, and cap it", "On settlement_pending, look up the returned transaction hash before paying again", "Use a production facilitator for Base mainnet, x402.org/facilitator is testnet only", "Give the agent its own wallet with a small balance, never a treasury key" ], "metrics": { "kind": "spec", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 4.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "high", "grade": "A", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 79.7 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 84, "maintenance": 93, "payments": 97, "reliability": 87, "schema": 86, "security": 67, "transparency": 72 }, "provenanceScore": 57 }, "connect": { "install": "npm i @x402/fetch # or: pip install x402", "http": "curl -i https://api.exa.ai/search -H \"content-type: application/json\" -d '{\"query\":\"x402\"}'\n# 402 Payment Required, PAYMENT-REQUIRED: \u003cbase64 JSON of accepted schemes\u003e\n# retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE: \u003cbase64 signed payment\u003e" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/payments.protocol", "tool": "https://letme.dev/x402" }, "area": "payments", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "CDP facilitator after 1,000 a month", "unit": "tx", "usd": 0.001 }, { "item": "Stripe x402 processing", "unit": "pct", "usd": 1.5, "note": "gas included" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "x402, a Series of LF Projects, LLC", "domain": "x402.org", "domainRegistered": "2025-02-20", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/x402-foundation/x402/blob/main/typescript/packages/core/CHANGELOG.md", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-09-26", "score": 57 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/x402.json", "live": { "slug": "x402", "versions": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@x402/core", "version": "2.28.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T01:28:59.255567939Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@x402/fetch", "version": "2.28.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T01:29:00.052624114Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "x402", "version": "2.25.0", "released": "2026-09-29", "seenAt": "2026-10-16T01:29:01.475890408Z" } ], "githubStars": 6721, "npmWeekly": 414035, "pypiWeekly": 76194, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://x402.org/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T15:48:10.875795166Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.x402.org/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-16T14:20:51.952063549Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "x402.org", "registered": "2025-02-20", "source": "https://rdap.publicinterestregistry.org/rdap/domain/x402.org", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:20:47.88852676Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/x402-foundation/x402/main/typescript/packages/core/CHANGELOG.md", "kind": "changelog", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T22:05:19.267341468Z", "changedAt": "2026-09-30T13:10:50.25107695Z", "fingerprint": "c6db0dd5efbf" }, { "url": "https://docs.x402.org/guides/migration-v1-to-v2.md", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T21:56:45.861090259Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-02T15:20:40.840729903Z", "fingerprint": "c1eede7ddb9c" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-16T14:20:51.952063549Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "Payment protocol", "b": "Payment protocol", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Visa", "b": "x402 Foundation (Linux Foundation)", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "None", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Freemium", "b": "Free", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "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", "b": "Apache-2.0", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-06-08", "b": "2026-09-30", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "no document linked", "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": "none", "b": "6.4k stars", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "2.5/5 (4)", "b": "4.5/5 (2)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "x402 scores 79.7 (A) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Visa Intelligent Commerce or x402?" }, { "answer": "No open-source release is listed for Visa Intelligent Commerce. x402 is open source (Apache-2.0).", "question": "Are Visa Intelligent Commerce and x402 open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": null, "also": [ "No incidents deducted, where x402 loses 3 points for them" ], "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" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 87 against 42", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 86 against 54", "Agent ergonomics, 84 against 40", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 97 against 35", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 93 against 22" ], "also": [ "Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better", "No key needed to call it", "Open source", "Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.5 against 2.5 out of 5" ], "goodFor": "The default for an agent paying APIs per call in stablecoins without accounts, and the protocol most sellers in this directory speak.", "slug": "x402", "watchFor": "Five validated attacks on authorisation, binding, replay and web handling (arxiv 2605.11781)" } ], "job": { "capability": "payments.protocol", "name": "Agent payment protocols" }, "others": [ { "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-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/acp-vs-x402.json", "title": "Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-x402" }, { "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/amex-ace-vs-x402.json", "title": "American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-x402" }, { "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/ap2-vs-x402.json", "title": "Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-x402" }, { "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-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" }, { "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/mpp-vs-x402.json", "title": "Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) vs x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mpp-vs-x402" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 45, "edge": "x402", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 42, "weight": 16, "x402": 87 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 32, "edge": "x402", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 54, "weight": 13, "x402": 86 }, { "by": 44, "edge": "x402", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 40, "weight": 13, "x402": 84 }, { "by": 3, "edge": "visa-intelligent-commerce", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 70, "weight": 14, "x402": 67 }, { "by": 62, "edge": "x402", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 35, "weight": 10, "x402": 97 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 71, "edge": "x402", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 22, "weight": 7, "x402": 93 }, { "by": 3, "edge": "x402", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "visa-intelligent-commerce": 62, "weight": 7, "x402": 65 } ], "summary": "x402 scores 79.7 (A) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent payment protocols.", "tutorials": [ { "title": "Read an x402 price quote without signing a payment", "tool": "x402", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/x402/" } ], "verdicts": { "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.", "x402": "No account and no protocol fee, a funded wallet is enough. Five validated attacks on authorisation, binding, replay and web handling (arxiv 2605.11781)." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402.min.md" }, "markdown": "x402 scores 79.7 (A) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent payment protocols.\n\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- x402: grade A, 79.7/100, rank graded, not ranked against tools. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/x402.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/x402.json\n- All 30 checkout comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/checkout-protocols/index.md\n- All 26 pay per call comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pay-per-call/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\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\nAlso in its favour:\n- No incidents deducted, where x402 loses 3 points for them\n\nWatch for: The Intelligent Commerce Agent APIs are a restricted product, and VIC credentials come only through Visa's onboarding\n\n### x402 (A)\n\nGood for: The default for an agent paying APIs per call in stablecoins without accounts, and the protocol most sellers in this directory speak.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 87 against 42\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 86 against 54\n- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 40\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 97 against 35\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 93 against 22\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better\n- No key needed to call it\n- Open source\n- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.5 against 2.5 out of 5\n\nWatch for: Five validated attacks on authorisation, binding, replay and web handling (arxiv 2605.11781)\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Visa Intelligent Commerce | x402 | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 42 | 87 | x402 +45 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 86 | x402 +32 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 40 | 84 | x402 +44 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 67 | Visa Intelligent Commerce +3 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 97 | x402 +62 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 22 | 93 | x402 +71 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 65 | x402 +3 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |\n| **Total** | | **47.6 · D** | **79.7 · A** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Visa Intelligent Commerce | x402 |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Payment protocol | Payment protocol |\n| Vendor | Visa | x402 Foundation (Linux Foundation) |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | | |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | None |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | 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 | Apache-2.0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-06-08 | 2026-09-30 |\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 | none | 6.4k stars |\n| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 4.5/5 (2) |\n\n## Verdicts\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**x402.** No account and no protocol fee, a funded wallet is enough. Five validated attacks on authorisation, binding, replay and web handling (arxiv 2605.11781).\n\n## Before you call either\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### x402\n\n1. Decode PAYMENT-REQUIRED and check amount, asset and payTo against what you expected before signing\n2. Use the upto scheme when the final price isn't known, and cap it\n3. On settlement_pending, look up the returned transaction hash before paying again\n4. Use a production facilitator for Base mainnet, x402.org/facilitator is testnet only\n5. Give the agent its own wallet with a small balance, never a treasury key\n\n## Tutorials\n\n- [Read an x402 price quote without signing a payment](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/x402/), for x402\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Visa Intelligent Commerce or x402?\n\nx402 scores 79.7 (A) on agent readiness against Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.\n\n### Are Visa Intelligent Commerce and x402 open source?\n\nNo open-source release is listed for Visa Intelligent Commerce. x402 is open source (Apache-2.0).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"visa-intelligent-commerce\", \"b\": \"x402\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare visa-intelligent-commerce x402`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/visa-intelligent-commerce.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/x402.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Visa Intelligent Commerce or x402\n\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 Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/acp-vs-x402.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- [American Express Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amex-ace-vs-x402.md)\n- [Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-x402.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 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- [Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) vs Visa Intelligent Commerce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mpp-vs-visa-intelligent-commerce.md)\n- [Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) vs x402](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mpp-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": "Visa Intelligent Commerce vs x402", "url": "" } ], "description": "x402 scores 79.7 (A) to Visa Intelligent Commerce's 47.6 (D) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Visa Intelligent Commerce D 47.6", "x402 A 79.7", "scores" ], "h1": "Visa Intelligent Commerce vs x402", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402.png", "path": "/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Visa Intelligent Commerce vs x402 for AI agents (2026)", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-16", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/visa-intelligent-commerce-vs-x402" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2350, "slim": 680 }, "version": 1 }