Mastercard has launched early access to Agent Pay for Machines, a tool designed to let autonomous artificial intelligence agents purchase digital services.

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The new offering builds on x402, an open protocol that allows digital services to request payment online, and “connects it with the trust, security and reach of the Mastercard network,” the company said in a new release provided to PYMNTS Tuesday (Oct. 20).

“AI agents are becoming more capable, reliable and able to work with one another. Increasingly, they also need to pay for things,” the release said. “But how does an agent actually pay?”

Paid digital services normally require an account, API key, prepaid credits or billing relationship with a provider, Mastercard said.

“That’s fine if an agent is using one or two services, but grows more complicated when the agent needs to pick between different services as a task unfolds, paying only for what it uses along the way,” the company added.

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“Then there’s trust. Who gave the agent permission to spend? How much can it spend? What can it spend that money on? And who is it paying?”

Mastercard says Agent Pay for Machines addresses these questions, with the company planning to showcase its abilities at the Cloudflare Connect event this week.

“At Cloudflare Connect, we’re bringing this to life with Hype, a marketing agency launching a protein bar campaign,” the release said.

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