# Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

> An open-source standard from Google for agentic commerce across the full shopping journey — discovery, cart, checkout, and post-purchase support. Co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, and endorsed by 20+ ecosystem partners including Adyen, Mastercard, Stripe, and Visa. Compatible with A2A, AP2, and MCP. Powers checkout on Google AI Mode in Search and Gemini. Live since January 2026; expanded globally with cart, catalog, and identity-linking capabilities.

> **Unverified draft.** This entry is seeded but not yet verified against primary sources.

## At a glance

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Name | UCP |
| Layer | agent-communication |
| Category | framework |
| Status | draft |
| Created by | Google |
| Launched | 2026-01 |
| Rails | — |
| Settlement | Delegates payment to pluggable payment handlers (Google Pay, Shop Pay, card processors); UCP standardizes the commerce session, not settlement. |
| Reversible | — |
| Human in loop | optional |
| D2C fit | strong |
| B2B fit | moderate |
| Spec | https://github.com/Universal-Commerce-Protocol |
| Last verified | 2026-09-23 |

## Sources

_No sources yet — unverified draft._

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_Source: payful.ai — independent editorial reference. Verified 2026-09-23._