Head-to-head
Visa IC vs Mastercard Agent Pay
Visa has written agentic duties into its public Core Rules (section 4.1.23, April 2026) and runs Intelligent Commerce Connect in pilot for TAP, MPP, ACP and UCP traffic. On PayPal the matrix reads Visa IC no statement found and Mastercard Agent Pay announced, and the two split on 5 more columns.
The sourced difference
Visa has written agentic duties into its public Core Rules (section 4.1.23, April 2026) and runs Intelligent Commerce Connect in pilot for TAP, MPP, ACP and UCP traffic. Mastercard's public rulebooks (June 2026) contain no agentic provision; its program relies on agentic tokens, the acceptance framework and the new probability score. usa.visa.com, read 4 Nov 2026.
Verdicts by reader type
- Head of ecommerce engineering
- Visa traffic needs an Agentic Payment Provider registered with Visa; check your agent partners.
- Payments lead
- Visa liability is written down (cardholder responsible for the agent); Mastercard's is not yet.
- Marketplace operator
- Ask both networks how they flag agent transactions in your settlement files.
Side by side
| Measure | Visa IC | Mastercard Agent Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Protocol | Protocol |
| Operator | Visa | Mastercard |
| Homepage | visa.com | mastercard.com |
| Matrix cells with a stated status | 1 live, 1 pilot, 6 announced | 1 live, 1 pilot, 8 announced |
| Published pricing | No pricing statement on file | No pricing statement on file |
| A limit worth knowing | Does not publish pricing for Intelligent Commerce Connect. | Does not appear in the public Mastercard Rules or Transaction Processing Rules (June 2026 editions). |
| Merchant of record | Merchant | Merchant |
| Dispute rules | Yes | Evidence only |
| Live surfaces | None confirmed | None confirmed |
| Cost | Not published | Not published |
Column by column: where the statuses differ
6 of 27 columns read differently for Visa IC and Mastercard Agent Pay on 4 Nov 2026.
Read the profiles
Sources
- Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, 24 October 2026, read 4 Nov 2026
- Visa Intelligent Commerce, read 4 Nov 2026
- Mastercard Agent Pay, read 4 Nov 2026
- Find and Buy with AI: Visa Unveils New Era of Commerce, read 4 Nov 2026
- Visa opens the door to AI-driven shopping (Intelligent Commerce Connect), read 4 Nov 2026
- mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2025/april/mastercard-unveils-agent-pay-pioneering-agentic-payments-technolog, read 4 Nov 2026
- Mastercard Agent Pay Acceptance Framework, read 4 Nov 2026
Last reviewed