--- title: "Visa TAP vs Mastercard Agent Pay | Agent Ready Checkout" description: "Visa TAP vs Mastercard Agent Pay: Both sign agent requests with Web Bot Auth (HTTP Message Signatures) so a CDN can verify. Verdicts by reader type." canonical: https://agentreadycheckout.com/compare/visa-trusted-agent-protocol-vs-mastercard-agent-pay site: "Agent Ready Checkout" last_updated: 2026-11-04 section: "Head-to-heads" --- # Visa TAP vs Mastercard Agent Pay | Agent Ready Checkout > Visa TAP vs Mastercard Agent Pay: Both sign agent requests with Web Bot Auth (HTTP Message Signatures) so a CDN can verify. Verdicts by reader type. Source: https://agentreadycheckout.com/compare/visa-trusted-agent-protocol-vs-mastercard-agent-pay Site: Agent Ready Checkout Last reviewed: 2026-11-04 Head-to-head # Visa TAP vs Mastercard Agent Pay In short Both sign agent requests with Web Bot Auth (HTTP Message Signatures) so a CDN can verify the agent. On PayPal the matrix reads Visa TAP no statement found and Mastercard Agent Pay announced, and the two split on 7 more columns. For a head of ecommerce engineering: One Web Bot Auth verification at the CDN covers both; Cloudflare validates them. ## The sourced difference Both sign agent requests with Web Bot Auth (HTTP Message Signatures) so a CDN can verify the agent. TAP is an identity protocol with public GitHub code; Agent Pay adds Mastercard agentic tokens, a Dynamic Token Verification Code in normal card fields, and since 30 Sep 2026 a probability score for AI-initiated transactions in US testing. [blog.cloudflare.com](https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-agentic-commerce/), read 4 Nov 2026. ## Verdicts by reader type Head of ecommerce engineering One Web Bot Auth verification at the CDN covers both; Cloudflare validates them. Payments lead Agent Pay touches authorisation through tokens; TAP alone does not. Marketplace operator Allow both signatures through your bot rules before you block agents. ## Side by side | Measure | Visa TAP | Mastercard Agent Pay | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Protocol | Protocol | | Operator | Visa | Mastercard | | Homepage | github.com | mastercard.com | | Matrix cells with a stated status | 0 live, 1 pilot, 5 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 move money or tokenise a card by itself. | Does not appear in the public Mastercard Rules or Transaction Processing Rules (June 2026 editions). | | Merchant of record | N/a | Merchant | | Dispute rules | None in spec | Evidence only | | Live surfaces | None confirmed | None confirmed | | Cost | No fee published | Not published | ## Column by column: where the statuses differ 8 of 27 columns read differently for Visa TAP and Mastercard Agent Pay on 4 Nov 2026. | Column | Visa TAP | Mastercard Agent Pay | | --- | --- | --- | | PayPal | no statement found | announced | | Braintree | no statement found | announced | | Worldpay | announced | no statement found | | Coinbase | announced | no statement found | | Crossmint | no statement found | live | | Skyfire | no statement found | announced | | PayOS | no statement found | announced | | Google AI Mode | no statement found | announced | | | | 8 differences | | | ## Read the profiles - [Visa Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP)](https://agentreadycheckout.com/protocols/visa-trusted-agent-protocol) - [Mastercard Agent Pay](https://agentreadycheckout.com/protocols/mastercard-agent-pay) ## Sources 1. [Cloudflare: Secure agentic commerce](https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-agentic-commerce/), read 4 Nov 2026 2. [Visa Trusted Agent Protocol repository](https://github.com/visa/trusted-agent-protocol), read 4 Nov 2026 3. [Mastercard Agent Pay](https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/business/artificial-intelligence/mastercard-agent-pay.html), read 4 Nov 2026 4. [Visa Introduces Trusted Agent Protocol](https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.releaseId.21716.html), read 4 Nov 2026 5. [mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2025/april/mastercard-unveils-agent-pay-pioneering-agentic-payments-technolog](https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2025/april/mastercard-unveils-agent-pay-pioneering-agentic-payments-technology-to-power-commerce-in-the-age-of-ai.html), read 4 Nov 2026 6. [Mastercard Agent Pay Acceptance Framework](https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/stories/2025/agentic-commerce-framework.html), read 4 Nov 2026 Last reviewed 4 Nov 2026 ## Edition Matrix edition of 4 Nov 2026. Reviewed 4 Nov 2026, [6 sources](#sources-h). ## Method [How cells, sources and read dates are defined](https://agentreadycheckout.com/method)