Mastercard opens early access to AI agent payments following pilots with Coinbase, Base and Cloudflare

Mastercard is giving developers early access to Agent Pay for Machines following end-to-end pilots with Cloudflare, Ant International, BVNK, AIsa, Base, and Coinbase.

Mastercard first announced Agent Pay for Machines in June, including support for spending controls and card, bank account, and stablecoin payments. The firm is now asking developers to test its APIs and provide feedback on what they want added, though the project remains in a pilot stage and has not yet been made commercially available.

During a demonstration at Cloudflare Connect, marketing agency Hype gave an AI agent a sample assignment to prepare a campaign for a protein bar launch. The job involved buying social media research from AIsa and getting eight campaign images from Cloudflare AI Gateway, within a budget approved by Hype. The demonstration involved nine payments to the two providers.

Coinbase and Base handle the crypto side

The agent used the Coinbase-incubated x402 protocol to pay for the services. The x402 standard takes its name from the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code and allows websites, APIs, and AI agents to request and receive payments through blockchain-based and traditional payment rails.

When a merchant requested payment, it returned an HTTP 402 response. The merchant verified the agent's signed payment voucher before delivering the service. Mastercard said payment vouchers can be batched and redeemed later, rather than settling each payment individually.

Coinbase Developer Platform supplied the wallet infrastructure used to fund the agent in the Hype pilot, and Base was the onchain settlement network.

Stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK, acquired by Mastercard in August, acted as the agent wallet and used Mastercard's Global Money Platform to process payments and settlement in fiat or stablecoins. Sellers can receive payment in their preferred currency, token, or rail.

"The web gave software a way to communicate. APIs gave software a way to use services. Now AI agents need a way to pay for them," Mastercard said in a statement shared with The Block. "That's what we're building."