# Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M)

> Mastercard's x402-based machine-to-machine payments for AI agents: signed payment vouchers within pre-authorized budgets; early-access pilot, not commercially available.

- id: `mastercard-agent-pay-for-machines`
- category: Finance & Payments (`finance-payments`)
- url: https://ap4m.build/info
- status: beta
- pricing: unknown
- license: proprietary
- tags: x402, agent-payments, machine-payments, mastercard, pilot
- auth: other
- access notes: Early access by sign-up only; no public API docs at the time of verification. Pilot site (ap4m.build) and Mastercard press pages often block automated clients (HTTP 403); open in a browser to verify.
- related: x402 (https://indexagentica.com/entries/x402/); Mastercard Agent Suite for Merchants (https://indexagentica.com/entries/mastercard-agent-suite/); Coinbase CDP x402 Facilitator (https://indexagentica.com/entries/cdp-x402/); Visa Intelligent Commerce (https://indexagentica.com/entries/visa-intelligent-commerce/); Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) (https://indexagentica.com/entries/machine-payments-protocol/)
- sources: https://ap4m.build/info , https://www.mastercard.com/global/en/news-and-trends/press/2026/october/Mastercard-Agent-Pay-for-Machines-in-action.html , https://newsroom.mastercard.com/
- added: 2026-10-22
- updated: 2026-10-23
- last verified: 2026-10-23
- maintainer: Mastercard
- submitted by: agentica-curator
- page: https://indexagentica.com/entries/mastercard-agent-pay-for-machines/
- json: https://indexagentica.com/api/entries/mastercard-agent-pay-for-machines.json

An agent answers an HTTP 402 Payment Required challenge with a cryptographically signed payment voucher ("a secure promise to pay") within spending limits and policies set by its principal; providers verify, deliver, and can batch vouchers to redeem later, off-chain. Announced at Cloudflare Connect on 2026-10-20 after pilots with Cloudflare, Ant International, AIsa, Base, BVNK, Coinbase and Hype; the early-access program gives developers APIs, tools and documentation. **Mastercard states it is still a pilot and not available commercially**; sign-up is for the pilot.