AP2

Pending

Agent Payments Protocol — Google

Overview

AP2 is Google's Agent Payments protocol that enables AI agents to transact with service providers within Google's ecosystem. It provides a credential-based payment framework where agents receive budget-capped credentials from their principals (users or organizations) and spend them autonomously across a network of 180+ partner service providers.

How It Works

In the AP2 model, a "principal" (the user or organization controlling the agent) issues credentials to the agent with embedded spending limits, time constraints, and scope restrictions. When the agent needs to pay for a service, it presents these credentials to the service provider. The provider verifies the credentials with Google's AP2 infrastructure, processes the request, and charges the principal's account.

AP2 supports delegated authority chains — Agent A can delegate a portion of its budget to Agent B, which can further delegate to Agent C. Each delegation narrows the spending scope, creating a tree of constrained budgets that prevents runaway spending.

The protocol integrates with Google Pay for consumer-facing payments and Google Cloud Billing for enterprise accounts, giving it access to Google's existing payment infrastructure and compliance framework.

How SettleGrid Integrates

SettleGrid acts as an AP2 credentials provider. When an agent presents AP2 credentials, SettleGrid verifies the SettleGrid-issued AP2 credential (the issuer must be settlegrid.ai — there is no call to Google's infrastructure), checks the embedded budget cap, and executes your tool. Developers do not need to implement any AP2-specific logic — the SettleGrid protocol adapter handles credential verification and budget checking. AP2 settlement is dark-gated and in development.

Key Specs

Protocol	AP2 — Agent Payments Protocol
Backer	Google
Detection Header	Authorization: AP2 <credential>
Identity Type	ap2-credential
Payment Type	delegated-budget
Status	Pending

Code Example

Here is how a developer's tool works with AP2 via SettleGrid:

ap2-example.tstypescript

import { settlegrid } from '@settlegrid/mcp'

const sg = settlegrid.init({
  toolSlug: 'document-analysis',
  pricing: { defaultCostCents: 15 },
  // AP2 credentials are validated automatically
  // Google agents pay via delegated budgets
})

const analyze = sg.wrap(async (args: { documentUrl: string }) => {
  const summary = await analyzeDocument(args.documentUrl)
  return { content: [{ type: 'text', text: summary }] }
}, { method: 'analyze-document' })

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AP2