Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

Fact sheet

Type

Protocol

Operator

UCP Tech Council (Google, Shopify, Etsy, Target, Wayfair, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, Stripe and others)

Homepage

ucp.dev

Discovery path

/.well-known/ucp

Releases

v2026-01-11, v2026-01-23, v2026-04-08, v2026-08-25

Matrix reach

10 live, 4 pilot, 6 announced, 1 not supported, 6 with no statement found

Readiness for merchants

Seven rows, each read from a primary source on 4 Nov 2026. The method page defines every row.

The row in full: every column

What UCP does not do

• Does not move funds: payment runs through the merchant PSP via a payment handler.
• Does not use network agentic tokens on Google today: the help page says standard FPANs.
• Does not guarantee access: Google and Microsoft gate merchants by interest form, country and feed quality.

Sourced facts

• Shopify announced UCP on 11 Jan 2026 as an open standard co-developed with Google, endorsed by more than 20 retailers and platforms and compatible with any payment processor. shopify.com, read 4 Nov 2026.
• ucp.dev lists shopping co-developers Google, Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, Walmart, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Salesforce and Stripe, and states that businesses "remain the Merchant of Record". ucp.dev, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Businesses publish their UCP profile at /.well-known/ucp; platforms send their own profile URI per request in the UCP-Agent header. ucp.dev, read 4 Nov 2026.
• The spec defines transports rest (OpenAPI 3.x), mcp (OpenRPC), a2a (Agent Card) and embedded (OpenRPC), and a payment_handlers registry that must be present even when empty. ucp.dev, read 4 Nov 2026.
• GitHub releases: v2026-01-11, v2026-01-23, v2026-04-08 and v2026-08-25; the August release added 3DS2 actions, split PAN and network token credentials, installments, split payments and grocery capabilities. github.com, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce and Stripe joined the UCP Tech Council on 24 Apr 2026, alongside current members Google, Shopify, Etsy, Target and Wayfair. github.com, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Google's Merchant Center help says UCP checkout puts a Buy button on eligible listings in AI Mode and Gemini "while keeping you the merchant of record", for select merchants, using standard card numbers (FPANs) from Google Wallet today. support.google.com, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Shopify made its UCP agent access self-serve in the Spring 26 Edition developer post on 17 Jun 2026: developers register an agent profile and call the public MCP endpoint without approval. shopify.com, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Microsoft requires a UCP-compliant Merchant Center feed, or a trusted partner, to onboard to Copilot Checkout. about.ads.microsoft.com, read 4 Nov 2026.
• Google said on 16 Sep 2026 that UCP already enables direct checkout for hundreds of thousands of brands. blog.google, read 4 Nov 2026.Vendor claim
• In the shared crawl of 4 Nov 2026, Shopify stores such as allbirds.com and gymshark.com answer /.well-known/ucp with JSON; homedepot.com, barnesandnoble.com, wyzecam.com and bitdefender.com answered /.well-known/ucp.json with a ucp object. ucp.dev, read 4 Nov 2026.

In the vendors section

• Google Pay, wallet profile
• Shop Pay, wallet profile
• Shopify, commerce platform profile
• VTEX, commerce platform profile
• Google (AI Mode and Gemini checkout), agent surface profile
• Chewy, retailer profile
• The Home Depot, retailer profile

Compare and alternatives

• ACP vs UCP
• UCP vs AP2
• UCP vs x402