Who's building agentic commerce in 2026: AI agents, retailers, payments and gifting

• You approve the exact total. Nothing is bought until you do, and if the store's total at checkout differs from what you approved by more than 3 cents, Gratos stops before paying.
• The address link. If you don't have their address, Gratos gives you a link to send them and they fill it in themselves. It's saved to that person, so the next gift can go to any supported store without asking again.
• It knows your people. Save each person's likes, dislikes, sizes, dates and the things never to send them ("no candles"). Gratos stores no allergies or health details.
• Real stores, at the store's price. Gifts come from supported stores, at the store's own checkout total, with no markup. Gifts from several stores need one approval and one payment step; each store charges separately.
• Gratos never sees your card number. Your card is saved as a card-network token, and each purchase uses its own one-time cryptogram.
• Where it works. On the web and by text today. Gratos for iPhone is coming to the App Store. Gratos also works in Slack; we set it up with your team.
• For teams, and the fee. Workspaces with owner, admin and member roles, and gift campaigns. No Gratos fee right now. We'll tell you before that changes.

Status as of October 29, 2026, as each company describes it. "Shipped" means a person can use it today, even if access is limited; "preview" and "announced" mean it is not generally available.

Sources, all read October 29, 2026:

• Muse. Stripe said on September 8, 2026 that Meta integrated Link's wallet for agents with Muse; Muse checks out at more than 1 million businesses that accept Link, elsewhere "Link issues Muse a single-use virtual card scoped to the approved purchase", and consumers "are asked to approve the transaction total directly in the chat interface" (Stripe).
• Claude Duet. Anthropic's help center says Link "is available in Claude Duet, a research preview for Pro and Max plans in the US", that "each purchase uses a one-time card that only works for that purchase", that Duet "can't pay with Link until you approve the amount in the Link app", and that it "can't make recurring payments with Link" (Anthropic: Link). For a store-checkout wallet, Duet "is designed to ask before each purchase", pays "using a one-time card that is scoped to the approved amount", and "some sites can block Claude Duet from paying" (Anthropic: store-checkout wallet). The research preview and its waitlist were reported by TechCrunch on October 22, 2026.
• Google. Universal Cart "is rolling out in the U.S. across Google Search and in the Gemini app"; shoppers pay with Google Pay or move items to the merchant's own cart, merchants "remain the seller of record", and checkout is "powered by the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)" (October 15, 2026, Google). For what UCP is, see What is UCP?.
• Copilot. "Copilot Checkout is now available in the U.S. on Copilot.com", with "no redirect", and "merchants stay the merchant of record"; partners include PayPal and Stripe (January 8, 2026, Microsoft). After the buyer gives payment details, Stripe issues a Shared Payment Token so the seller never receives the card (Stripe, January 8, 2026).
• Perplexity. PayPal said on November 25, 2025 that US users of Perplexity's shopping experience can check out in chat "in just a few simple clicks", with the retailer as merchant of record (PayPal).
• Amazon. Alexa for Shopping is "available to U.S. customers on the Amazon Shopping app and website"; it offers "Auto Buying items at a set price" and scheduled actions that add items "so all you have to do is review and check out", and "for eligible products, the Buy for Me agentic AI feature handles the entire purchase on your behalf using your primary address and credit card" (Amazon). TechCrunch reported the launch on May 13, 2026.
• ChatGPT. On March 24, 2026 OpenAI said the initial Instant Checkout "did not offer the level of flexibility" it wanted; merchants now use their own checkout, and those who want a deeper integration build ChatGPT apps (OpenAI). See What happened to ACP? for the protocol side.
• Instinct. An invite-only agent that works over text message and launched in August 2026, as reported by TechCrunch on September 28, 2026. Stripe says its Link agent wallet powers payments for Instinct and for xAI's Grok Bot (Stripe, September 8, 2026).
• Apple. As of October 29, 2026 we found no Apple product that lets an AI agent check out for a person.
• Gratos. Our own product; see How Gratos buys and Terms, §3.5.

Some retailers build their own entry point for agents, some sell through agent apps, and one large retailer has blocked an outside agent. As of October 29, 2026:

• Walmart announced the Walmart Agent Gateway on October 21, 2026, a way for agents to shop over MCP (Walmart says its new tools cover Walmart and Sam's Club), starting "with a beta for companies and developers". It also announced Agent Profiles, "launching in the next month": each agent gets its own profile in the customer's account, the customer can "require approval for every purchase" or let the agent buy within a spending limit such as $50, $100 or $200 (approval is required by default), the agent's purchases are shown separately, and agents do not receive card information (Walmart, read October 29, 2026). The Gateway is a beta; Agent Profiles are announced, not yet live.
• Amazon sells through its own agents (Alexa for Shopping and Buy for Me, above). On the night of September 20, 2026 it blocked Meta's Muse from amazon.com, with a block page saying "continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use", as reported by Search Engine Journal on September 29, 2026, citing GeekWire (read October 29, 2026). In its separate lawsuit against Perplexity's Comet browser, a US appeals court overturned an injunction against Comet, and "the underlying lawsuit continues", as reported by The Next Web on August 5, 2026 (read October 29, 2026).
• Target has an app in ChatGPT, introduced on November 25, 2025, where people fill a cart and "purchase them with your Target account" (Target, read October 29, 2026). It is also named in Google's Universal Cart launch (Google, read October 29, 2026).
• Etsy co-developed UCP with Google and others (Google, January 11, 2026), sells through Copilot Checkout (Stripe, January 8, 2026), and said in its April 29, 2026 shareholder letter that it "recently developed an Etsy App in ChatGPT" (Etsy), all read October 29, 2026.
• Instacart launched an app in ChatGPT on December 8, 2025, with checkout inside the ChatGPT conversation, "Powered by Stripe" and "Built on Agentic Commerce Protocol" (Instacart, read October 29, 2026).
• DoorDash launched a grocery app in ChatGPT on December 17, 2025; people "open your cart in the DoorDash app so you can review items, make adjustments, and complete your purchase", so checkout happens in DoorDash, not in the chat (DoorDash, read October 29, 2026).
• Store platforms that host many independent shops can list them on agent channels by default. Microsoft said on January 8, 2026 that merchants on one such platform would be enrolled in Copilot Checkout automatically after an opt-out window (Microsoft, read October 29, 2026).

They give agents a way to pay without handing over the card number, and a way to check that the person agreed. For how these programs fit with the protocols, see How do card networks handle agent payments?. As of October 29, 2026:

• Visa announced Intelligent Commerce Connect on April 8, 2026, one integration that accepts several agent protocols; it is a pilot with seven partners (Visa, read October 29, 2026). On June 10, 2026 Visa announced an Agentic Directory of agents and merchants it has verified, and a collaboration with OpenAI; the release gives no launch date (Visa, read October 29, 2026).
• Mastercard runs Agent Pay. On September 30, 2026 it said it is testing in the US "a probability score indicating the likelihood that a transaction was initiated by an AI agent", and working with Skyfire and Cloudflare (Mastercard, read October 29, 2026). It announced Agent Pay for Machines, for agents paying other services, in June 2026 (Mastercard, read October 29, 2026); early access after pilots was reported by The Block on October 20, 2026 (read October 29, 2026).
• American Express announced an ACE (Agentic Commerce Experiences) developer kit and Agent Purchase Protection on April 14, 2026, as reported by Digital Commerce 360 (read October 29, 2026), and an Intent Intelligence Framework, as reported by TechCrunch on October 13, 2026 (read October 29, 2026).
• Stripe said on April 29, 2026 that sellers "can now sell through AI agents" with its Agentic Commerce Suite, that people "can now grant agents the ability to pay with Link's agent wallet", and that agents can pay over the Machine Payments Protocol; Issuing for agents (single-use virtual cards) was previewed, not launched (Stripe, read October 29, 2026). Stripe co-developed ACP with OpenAI (Stripe, September 29, 2025, read October 29, 2026).
• On October 28, 2025 PayPal announced Agent Ready, for merchants to accept payments on AI surfaces, which it said "will become available in early 2026", and Store Sync, for listing products in AI channels (PayPal, read October 29, 2026). We found no later PayPal announcement confirming Agent Ready's general availability. PayPal processes payments for Perplexity's Instant Buy and is a Copilot Checkout partner (sources above).
• Adyen launched Adyen Agentic (Agentic Feed, Agentic Cart and Agentic Payments) on June 16, 2026, in limited availability for US enterprise merchants. Adyen says it is compatible with Meta's AI checkout, and that Adyen endorses UCP, AP2 and ACP (Adyen, read October 29, 2026).
• Startups: Crossmint's Agent Commerce Toolkit, for agents paying by card at online stores, is "live and self-serve" (October 8, 2026, Crossmint); Skyfire is working with Mastercard to extend its Know Your Agent service into Agent Pay (September 30, 2026, Mastercard), both read October 29, 2026.

Several gifting companies let an AI assistant send gifts through MCP, the protocol AI assistants use to call outside tools. Here is what each says about approval, where it says something. As of October 29, 2026:

• Goody offers a Gifting MCP for business gifting. Its documentation says the server "exposes 28 tools", interactive clients sign in with OAuth, tools need Read, Write or Send gifts permissions, and production and a sandbox are separate environments, each backed by a Goody for Business account. On approval: the person sees the full price before any charge, and "nothing is charged until you say yes"; recurring autogifts are "always created paused until you activate it" (Goody docs, read October 29, 2026). Goody announced the MCP in a press release dated June 25, 2026 (National Law Review, read October 29, 2026).
• Sendoso offers a Sendoso MCP in beta ("Join the beta"), available in ChatGPT, Claude, Databricks, Gong and Outreach, with Cursor, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity and others listed as coming soon. On approval: "Every real send requires your explicit sign-off", and Sendoso handles address capture (Sendoso, read October 29, 2026). Its Oso agent launched on March 18, 2026 as an analytics assistant; Sendoso says "every action still goes through you" (Sendoso, read October 29, 2026).
• Snappy has an AI Gifting Assistant that builds a curated collection for an occasion and a spend limit; "Recipients then select the gift they love most" (Snappy, read October 29, 2026). Its MCP server includes tools to create a campaign and to send gifts within a campaign's budget; the endpoint comes from the customer's Snappy account manager. The MCP documentation covers sign-in and the tools, and does not discuss approval (Snappy docs, read October 29, 2026).
• Giftronaut offers an MCP for gift cards that works with Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients. It "prepares each order as a draft that you confirm before it sends"; drafts expire after about an hour, and "MCP rejects sandbox credentials, so every send is a real send" (August 20, 2026, Giftronaut, read October 29, 2026).
• GiftRoam describes itself as an MCP server that "Claude, ChatGPT and any MCP client" can use to search gifts and check delivery, then "hand you a secure checkout link". The buyer enters the recipient's details and pays on GiftRoam's own checkout, processed by Stripe; GiftRoam's example checkout link is marked "30 min · single use" (GiftRoam, read October 29, 2026).
• Printify has an app in ChatGPT that designs a custom T-shirt, hoodie or tote bag and ships it. "Orders are placed only after your confirmation", and "checkout is secure and handled outside ChatGPT by Printify" (Printify, read October 29, 2026).

General agents can also buy gifts from ordinary online stores. Muse and Claude Duet, for example, pay with one-time cards after the person approves (sources above). Gratos is an AI gifting assistant for people and teams.

Funding and deals in 2026:

• Instinct raised a $1 billion Series C at a $10 billion valuation, with Sequoia, Benchmark and Coatue among the investors, about a month after a round at $2.5 billion, as reported by TechCrunch on September 28, 2026 (read October 29, 2026).
• PayPal announced on January 22, 2026 that it would acquire Cymbio, which connects brands to marketplaces and AI shopping platforms; the deal closed on February 5, 2026, and terms were not disclosed (PayPal, read October 29, 2026).
• We found no 2026 funding round announced by Goody, Sendoso or Snappy.

Forecasts. These are estimates made in late 2025 about 2030, not measured results, and each firm defines "agentic commerce" differently:

• McKinsey (October 2025): up to $1 trillion in orchestrated US retail revenue by 2030, and $3 trillion to $5 trillion globally, as reported by Digital Commerce 360 (read October 29, 2026).
• Morgan Stanley (December 9, 2025): up to $385 billion in US online sales by 2030, as reported by Digital Commerce 360 (read October 29, 2026).
• Bain (December 17, 2025): $300 billion to $500 billion in US sales by 2030, or 15% to 25% of e-commerce, counting purchases that an AI agent starts, shapes or completes but not AI search alone (Bain, read October 29, 2026).

These questions apply to any agent or service that buys gifts for you:

• Do you approve the exact total? Check whether you see the final price, with tax and shipping, before you are charged, and what happens if it changes. Some services ask before every purchase; others let you set a limit in advance. Agentic commerce protocols explained compares the two.
• Can it handle repeat or scheduled gifts? Some wallets pay only for one approved purchase at a time; Anthropic's help center, for example, says Claude Duet "can't make recurring payments with Link" (Anthropic, read October 29, 2026).
• Does it know the recipient? A good gift depends on the person: their tastes, sizes and the dates that matter. Check what the service remembers and who can see it.
• How does it handle the address? Some services ask you for the recipient's address at checkout, and some collect it from the recipient. Check who sees the address and when.
• Who is the seller? Many agent purchases leave the store as the merchant of record, so returns and support go through that store. Check where you would go if a gift arrives damaged or needs to go back.
• Which stores can it reach? Not every store accepts outside agents; Amazon, for example, has blocked one (see above).