Innovation Visa introduces card specification and SDK for Machine Payments Protocol

In support of Stripe and Tempo’s Machine Payments Protocol, Visa enables card-based payments for trusted autonomous agent payments

03/18/2026

AI agents aren’t just answering questions. They're executing tasks, coordinating services, consuming APIs, purchasing compute and completing automated B2B workflows – including micropayments for API calls, cloud resources and machine-to-machine services from the command line. As agents become more capable, the payments infrastructure supporting them must also evolve to enable Command Line Commerce.

Today is a meaningful step in that evolution. In support of the launch of Tempo’s mainnet, its blockchain where agents can execute payment flows, and the introduction of the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), a new open standard announced by Stripe and Tempo for machine-to-machine payments, Visa is extending MPP to support card-based payments on its global network, and enabling it on the Visa Acceptance Platform.

As a design partner on MPP, Visa is releasing:

• Card-Based MPP Spec: Visa’s full technical specification that defines how tokenized card credentials are passed, authenticated and processed inside MPP-compatible workflows. This specification allows merchants, PSPs and acquirers to participate in these payment flows. Openly available, processor-agnostic, the spec is now live, along with developer documentation.
• Visa Software Development Kit (SDK) for Card-Based MPP Spec: An SDK that implements the spec and gives developers a clear path to building card-based transactions for MPP and merchants the ability to accept cards via MPP. The SDK is designed for programmatic, terminal-native environments and can be accessed here.
• The card spec and SDK are built on top of Visa's existing AI commerce infrastructure, Visa Intelligent Commerce and the Trusted Agent Protocol. Together, they provide the tokenization, authentication, and agent identity verification designed to make card-based machine payments secure and trustworthy at scale.

“We’re entering a moment where agents can make decisions, move resources and pay for services on their own. But for these kinds of payments to scale, security isn’t optional, it has to be built into every layer – from authentication and data privacy to fraud prevention,” said Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products & Strategic Partnerships, Visa. “By extending Visa’s network, we’re bringing trust and resilience into these new forms of commerce so that machine-based payments can be secure, open, programmable and built on shared standards.”

What  this  solves

MPP defines the flow: an agent requests a resource, the merchant or service responds with a payment requirement, the agent authorizes the payment as part of the same interaction, the merchant or service delivers. No browser. No checkout redirect.

Visa built a card-native extension to MPP to give developers and agentic builders more choice in how to make payments. While stablecoin rails are opening new possibilities for programmable, on-chain payments; today, most commerce transactions happen with cards. By extending MPP to enable cards, we’re connecting these systems so agents can transact seamlessly across existing and emerging payment networks.

Visa MPP card spec fills that gap. It's what makes MPP a genuinely universal standard – one that can work across merchants, processors, and payment preferences.

As a design partner of MPP, Visa is helping the ecosystem adapt trusted payment systems to new environments and emerging transaction models. While remaining protocol-agnostic, Visa built its card-based MPP specification to complement existing emerging agent payment standards, including protocols like x402. Our ultimate goal is for agents and developers to support multiple payment networks and to have the flexibility to pay or be paid in the way that meets their needs.

What’s next

The infrastructure for agentic commerce is being built now, and the choices made today about which credentials agents use, which merchants they can reach and how payments are governed will shape the space for years.

With Visa’s participation, the industry can unlock new efficiencies without sacrificing resilience, security or reliability.