Universal Commerce Protocol — Overview
Universal Commerce Protocol — Overview
Section titled “Universal Commerce Protocol — Overview”UCP defines building blocks for agentic commerce—from discovering and buying to post purchase experiences—allowing the ecosystem to interoperate through one standard, without custom builds.
The common language for platforms, agents and businesses
Section titled “The common language for platforms, agents and businesses”UCP was built by the industry, for the industry to solve for fragmented commerce journeys that lead to abandoned carts and frustrated shoppers, and enable agentic commerce.
Co-developed and adopted by industry leaders including Google, Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart.
Built for flexibility, security, and scale
Section titled “Built for flexibility, security, and scale”Agentic commerce demands interoperability. UCP is built on industry standards — REST and JSON-RPC transports; Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), Agent2Agent (A2A), and Model Context Protocol (MCP) support built-in — so different systems can work together without custom integration.
Key Features
Section titled “Key Features”Scalable and universal
Section titled “Scalable and universal”Surface-agnostic design that can scale to support any commerce entity (from small businesses to enterprise scale) and all modalities (chat, visual commerce, voice, etc).
Businesses at the center
Section titled “Businesses at the center”Built to facilitate commerce, ensuring retailers retain control of their business rules and remain the Merchant of Record with full ownership of the customer relationship.
Open and extensible
Section titled “Open and extensible”Open and extensible by design, enabling development of community-driven capabilities and extensions across verticals.
Secure and private
Section titled “Secure and private”Built on proven security standards for account linking (OAuth 2.0) and secure payment (AP2) via payment mandates and verifiable credentials.
Frictionless payments
Section titled “Frictionless payments”Open wallet ecosystem with interoperability between providers to ensure buyers can pay with their preferred payment methods.
Core Capabilities
Section titled “Core Capabilities”UCP is designed to facilitate the entire commerce lifecycle, from initial product discovery and search to final sale and post-purchase support. The protocol’s initial launch focuses on three core capabilities: Checkout, Identity Linking, and Order Management.
Checkout
Section titled “Checkout”Support complex cart logic, dynamic pricing, tax calculations, and more across millions of businesses through unified checkout sessions.
Identity Linking
Section titled “Identity Linking”OAuth 2.0 standard enables agents to maintain secure, authorized relationships without sharing credentials.
From purchase confirmation to delivery. Real-time webhooks power status updates, shipment tracking, and return processing across every channel.
Designed for the entire commerce ecosystem
Section titled “Designed for the entire commerce ecosystem”For Developers
Section titled “For Developers”Build the future of commerce on an open foundation. Join our community in evolving an open-source standard designed for the next generation of digital commerce.
For Businesses
Section titled “For Businesses”UCP empowers retailers to meet customers wherever they are—AI assistants, shopping agents, embedded experiences—without rebuilding your checkout for each. You remain the Merchant of Record and your business logic stays intact.
For AI Platforms
Section titled “For AI Platforms”Simplify business onboarding with standardized APIs and provide your audience with an integrated shopping experience. Compatible with MCP, A2A, and existing agent frameworks.
For Payment Providers
Section titled “For Payment Providers”Universal payments that are provable—every authorization backed by cryptographic proof of user consent. Open, modular payment handler design enables open interoperability and choice of payment methods.
Get started today
Section titled “Get started today”UCP is an open standard designed to let AI agents, apps, businesses, and payment providers interact seamlessly without needing custom, one-off integrations for every connection.