On March 18, 2026, payment infrastructure company Stripe announced the launch of the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), an open standard jointly developed with Tempo. MPP provides programmatic payment solutions for internet-native AI agents, supporting microtransactions, pay-as-you-go, and recurring payments. Stripe users can accept MPP payments with just a few lines of code through the PaymentIntents API.
When an agent requests resources from a service, the server returns a payment request, and upon authorization, the resource is delivered immediately. Real-world applications include Browserbase allowing agents to start headless browsers and pay per session, and agents ordering physical items like sandwiches in New York City. MPP is a key component of Stripe's 'Agentic Commerce Suite,' marking the payments industry's full embrace of the AI agent economy and enabling explosive growth in usage-based models.