Shared Payment Token
A Shared Payment Token, or SPT, is a payment credential from Stripe that an AI agent hands to a seller instead of card data. The token lets the seller charge the payment method of the buyer once, and it is bound to the Stripe profile of that seller. Limits on currency, maximum amount and expiry time stop the seller from charging more or later than the buyer approved.
Stripe introduced the token with the Agentic Commerce Protocol for Instant Checkout in ChatGPT in September 2025. Since March 2026 an SPT can also carry network tokens of Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce, and buy now, pay later from Affirm and Klarna. Sellers in the United States, Canada and selected European countries can use it.
How a Shared Payment Token works
The agent platform collects the payment method of the buyer and asks Stripe for a token that names one seller and sets the usage limits currency, max_amount and expires_at. The platform sends that token to the seller, as the Stripe documentation describes.
The seller creates a PaymentIntent with the token, and Stripe copies the payment method into the account of the seller for that one payment. The seller never sees the card number of the buyer at any step of the purchase.
Network tokens and buy now, pay later
On 3 March 2026 Stripe extended SPTs to more payment methods. A Shared Payment Token can now carry the network tokens of Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce, so the issuing bank sees that an agent started the payment.
The same update added buy now, pay later from Affirm and Klarna. A buyer can therefore split an agent purchase into installments, and the seller still receives one Shared Payment Token.
Sellers with another payment processor
Stripe documents a route in which the seller passes the payment credential behind the token to another payment processor. A merchant that runs its card payments elsewhere can therefore accept agent purchases without moving its acquiring. This route fits retailers that already split card payments across several providers with payment orchestration.
SPT and the Agentic Commerce Protocol
The Agentic Commerce Protocol of OpenAI and Stripe defines how an agent passes a delegated payment to a seller, and the Shared Payment Token is the implementation of Stripe for that step. Stripe uses SPTs in its Agentic Commerce Suite, which connects sellers with several AI agents through one integration.
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What is a Shared Payment Token?
A Shared Payment Token is a Stripe credential that lets one seller charge the payment method of a buyer within set limits. AI agents pass it to the seller, so no card number leaves the agent platform.
How does an SPT differ from a network token?
A network token replaces a card number for one merchant inside the card network. An SPT is a Stripe grant to one seller with limits on amount and time, and it can carry a network token inside.
Who can accept Shared Payment Tokens?
Stripe offers SPTs in public preview to sellers in the United States, Canada and selected European countries. Sellers need a Stripe account or a route to forward the credential to their own processor.
Shared Payment Tokens and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers Shared Payment Tokens and the other building blocks of agentic payments in its Payments & Digital Money track. Finance Loop is a media partner of Capital & Code in Frankfurt, a conference whose program includes AI and agentic payments.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.