What is Agent payment credential?

An agent payment credential (also called a delegated payment token) is a scoped, single-transaction representation of a shopper's payment method that an AI agent passes to a merchant to complete an agentic checkout — instead of handing the merchant a raw card number. The credential is bounded to one order and one amount, so the merchant can charge it through its existing processor without the agent ever handling sensitive card data directly. Payment-industry protocols additionally bind the credential to a cryptographic proof that a human authorized the agent to spend (a mandate), which protects both the shopper and the merchant against unauthorized agent purchases. Delegated credentials are how agentic commerce keeps checkout secure while removing the human from the payment-entry step.