Visa Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP)
Visa's framework for verifying that a purchase request came from an authorized AI agent before approving payment.
What is Visa Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP)?
TAP is Visa's framework for verifying that a purchase request genuinely came from an AI agent acting on a real customer's behalf, rather than from a bot running a stolen card number or scraping a checkout page. It works by attaching a verifiable identity signal to the agent's request, so the merchant receiving it can check, before approving the payment, that the request is legitimate. This is meant to stop a wave of automated purchase attempts from being wrongly flagged as fraud, and stop real fraud from slipping through as if it were a legitimate agent.
Why it matters
Visa announced TAP on October 14, 2025, alongside Cloudflare, with twelve initial merchant and processor partners including Shopify, Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, Coinbase, and Microsoft. TAP works by having a verified AI agent sign cryptographic identity information into HTTP request headers as it browses and checks out, giving the receiving merchant or acquirer a way to cryptographically confirm the request came from a recognized, registered agent before authorization, distinct from Visa's separate Visa Intelligent Commerce program for agent-initiated card credentials. Visa targeted broader commercial rollout for Q1 2026, and by early 2026 reported more than 100 partners engaged, with dozens actively integrating TAP into production checkout flows.