Google launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to enable agentic commerce, where AI-driven shopping agents can complete tasks end to end, from product discovery to checkout and post-purchase management. UCP is designed to meet the needs of both retailers and customers, keeping the full customer relationship front and center across the entire journey, from initial discovery to purchase decisions and beyond.
Announced at the National Retail Federation annual conference, UCP provides a secure, standardized method for AI agents to connect with business backends across the commerce ecosystem. Businesses expose capabilities, which can be extended with features such as discounts, and agents dynamically discover available services and payment options through business profiles. Payments are separated between instruments and processors, supporting multiple payment providers. Communication is supported across standard APIs, Agent2Agent, and Model Context Protocol bindings. Sample implementations, including a Python server and software development kit containing product data, demonstrate how agents can discover capabilities and execute checkout flows.
American Express highlighted the protocol’s potential to streamline commerce in a LinkedIn post:
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is a new open standard for agentic commerce designed to reduce fragmented shopping journeys and help connect retailers and consumers for more seamless experiences. UCP will soon power new checkout experiences in AI Mode in Google Search and the Gemini app. Open standards like this are critical to building more secure, trusted commerce.
UCP defines core commerce capabilities, including product discovery, cart management, checkout, and post-purchase workflows, as Google described in an under-the-hood technical blog post. Agents query business profiles to identify available services and negotiate supported features, reducing the need for bespoke integrations. This approach allows businesses to retain control over pricing, inventory, and fulfillment logic while enabling AI agents to operate autonomously.
UCP high-level architecture (Source: Google Blog Post)
The protocol includes a security architecture in which credential providers tokenize payment and identity information, and payment service providers handle transaction processing. This separation allows agents to operate without accessing raw payment or personal data. UCP is transport agnostic and supports standard API interactions as well as agent-focused bindings for conversational interfaces, AI assistants, and automated workflows. Early implementations appear in AI-powered search and assistant platforms, where eligible retailers can offer direct checkout experiences without redirecting users to external websites.
Purchase Flow Demonstration Using an AI Agent (Source: Google Blog Post)
UCP was co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, and is endorsed by more than 20+ additional partners across the commerce ecosystem, including Adyen, American Express, Best Buy, Flipkart, Macy’s, Mastercard, Stripe, The Home Depot, Visa, and Zalando.
The UCP roadmap focuses on establishing a comprehensive, global commerce standard that extends beyond isolated transactions. Initiatives include multi-item checkout, cart management, loyalty programs, post-order workflows, and personalized cross-sell and upsell options, all while keeping business logic central. Early implementations enable checkout from eligible U.S. retailers directly within Google surfaces during product research. The protocol will expand to markets including India, Indonesia, and Latin America. Google and partners invite feedback to refine the protocol, shaping interoperable, AI-driven commerce.
