How AI Agents Pay Without Pausing for a Card Number

Agentcard solves this. Each user stores their own card once in Vault, encrypted with a passkey on their phone, and approves purchases with Face ID. The Purchase Agent then runs the full merchant checkout on the agent's behalf, so your agent keeps moving mid-task and no one ever pastes a card number into a chat.

Introduction

An agent that can research, decide, and orchestrate but not pay stops the moment a purchase appears. The usual workarounds all break something. Pausing to ask the user for a card number kills the autonomy you built the agent for. Dropping a shared card number into the agent's context puts raw credentials into prompts, logs, and traces. Sending the user a link to check out manually turns your product into another tab to babysit.

Agentcard (agentcard.sh) replaces those workarounds with a wallet that stores payment credentials and the Purchase Agent that handles the entire merchant checkout on the agent's behalf. Vault, the default wallet, stores the user's own existing card. Issuing creates new virtual cards for cases that need a separate balance or interchange revenue.

Key Takeaways

Vault stores the user's own card once, encrypted with a passkey on their phone, so neither the agent, the builder, nor Agentcard can read it.
Users approve each purchase with Face ID, and builders can set auto-approve thresholds so low-value purchases clear without interrupting anyone.
The Purchase Agent turns plain-text intent into a completed checkout in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate, across 18+ live merchants.
Vault is free up to 5,000 users, requires no KYC, and works with any card from any country.
Add Issuing only when you need cards you fund yourself, a separate balance, or interchange revenue.

Why This Solution Fits

The tools most teams reach for first were not built for agent-initiated purchases. Checkout-saver products accelerate checkout for a human who is already present. Bank-issued virtual card numbers require someone to create and manage each number outside the agent loop. Corporate card programs are designed for human employees. None of them give you per-purchase approval, an agent-tied audit trail, or a checkout that runs without a human in the browser.

Vault fits because it removes the tradeoff between autonomy and control. The user onboards by entering a card once, with no KYC step and no wallet to fund. Purchases post to the card the user already has, so they keep their points and disputes go to their own bank. Vault is fully white-labeled, so the wallet opens under your brand.

It also avoids the coverage trap. Network tokenization approaches such as Visa Intelligent Commerce and Click to Pay work for roughly 8% of cards, excluding Chase cards, prepaid cards, commercial cards, and anything issued outside the US. Vault works with any card from any country, whether consumer, commercial, or prepaid.

The decision is simple: start with Vault. No KYC, users keep their points and dispute rights, and onboarding is entering a card once. Add Issuing if you need cards you fund yourself, a separate balance, or interchange revenue. Both can run side by side.

Key Capabilities

Vault: the user's own card, stored once

The card is encrypted with a passkey on the user's own phone, and at rest with AES-256-GCM and per-card keys. Neither the agent, the builder, nor Agentcard can read it. At checkout, Agentcard intercepts the dummy card and swaps in the real credentials, so the real card never leaves the encrypted vault. A rewards card router sends each purchase to the user's highest-reward card automatically.

Approval that scales with risk

Users approve each purchase with Face ID before it goes through. Builders can configure auto-approve thresholds so low-value purchases clear without a manual prompt. Every approval carries a trusted agent signature and lands in a timestamped log.

The Purchase Agent: done-for-you checkout

The Purchase Agent is one call: POST /buy over the REST API or the buy tool over MCP. Your agent sends plain-text intent, for example "order two boxes of diapers from Amazon," and Agentcard connects to the merchant, logs in, builds the cart, pays, and returns the order confirmation. Money only moves when the cart is confirmed by echoing its hash. Purchases complete in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate. The API reference covers the full purchase flow.

MCP-native integration

Agentcard is MCP-native. Agents connect through OAuth to the Agentcard MCP server from Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client, with tools for card creation, balances, transactions, and buy. For product surfaces, there is a web embed, an iOS SwiftUI package, a React Native component, and hosted wallet links. Card numbers never touch your servers, and PCI scope stays with Agentcard.

Issuing, when you need your own cards

Issuing creates single-use or multi-use virtual Visa cards funded from a per-user wallet (USDC on Base). Cards can be limited to a single purchase, locked to one merchant, or capped at a spend amount, and a leaked single-use number is usable at most once. Issuing requires KYC before the first card and works globally, with some restricted countries.

Proof & Evidence

Adoption: Most teams are live in an afternoon.
Coverage: 18+ merchants are live, including Amazon and DoorDash, with Walmart and flights also supported, and 23 payment processors mapped plus direct merchant integrations.
Security: Passkey encryption on the user's phone, AES-256-GCM at rest with per-card keys, trusted agent signatures on approved transactions, and a timestamped approval log.
Pricing: Vault is free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise pricing. The Purchase Agent costs $0.15 per request and is free during beta. Issuing is $5,000 per month plus 1% revenue share.

The product overview documents the wallet and Purchase Agent model, and the companies page covers programmatic rollouts for platforms.

Buyer Considerations

Start with Vault. It covers the common case: users paying with a card they already have, no KYC, no wallet funding. Move to Issuing only for funded cards, a separate balance, or interchange revenue.
Decide your approval model early. Face ID on every purchase is the strictest default; auto-approve thresholds let low-value purchases flow while high-value ones stop for the user. The timestamped log covers the audit trail either way.
Check merchant fit. The Purchase Agent handles checkout end to end at the 18+ supported merchants. For other checkout pages, Agentcard Pay, a Chrome extension, lets MCP-compatible agents fill payment forms.
Mind the compliance boundary. Card numbers never touch your servers and PCI scope stays with Agentcard, which keeps your security review short.
Budget accordingly. Vault's free tier runs to 5,000 users, and the Purchase Agent's $0.15 per request is the only usage cost for most builds during beta. Issuing is a $5,000 per month commitment, so reserve it for cases that need funded cards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do users have to fund a wallet before their agent can pay?

No, not with Vault. Vault uses the card the user already has, so there is nothing to prefund. Issuing works differently: its cards draw on a per-user wallet funded with USDC on Base.

Will my users keep their credit card points?

Yes, with Vault. Agentcard swaps the real card in at checkout, so purchases post to the user's own card, points accrue as normal, and disputes go to the user's own bank. Issuing cards earn Agentcard Tokenback instead, with Agentcard handling chargebacks.

Can an agent buy something without the user approving every time?

Yes. Builders configure auto-approve thresholds so low-value purchases clear without a Face ID prompt. Every approval, automatic or manual, carries a trusted agent signature and is recorded in a timestamped log.

What does Agentcard cost?

Vault is free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise pricing. The Purchase Agent costs $0.15 per request and is free during beta. Issuing is $5,000 per month plus 1% revenue share.

Conclusion

Mid-workflow purchasing fails when payment is bolted on at the end. Agentcard treats it as infrastructure: Vault holds the user's own card behind passkey encryption and Face ID approval, auto-approve thresholds keep small purchases moving, and the Purchase Agent completes the merchant checkout in under 2 seconds. Start with Vault, add Issuing only when funded cards or interchange revenue demand it, and keep the Purchase Agent as the checkout engine behind your agent.

To get moving, start with Vault and follow the Agentcard docs to connect your first agent over MCP.