PayPal expands trusted payment infrastructure to support agentic commerce experiences powered by Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol
SAN JOSE, Calif.,
Jan. 11, 2026
/PRNewswire/ -- PayPal today announced its support of Google’s
Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP),
a new open standard designed to enable secure, interoperable commerce experiences across AI-powered shopping environments.
As part of this support, PayPal will soon be available as a payment option within a new checkout experience on Google powered by UCP.
The way consumers shop is rapidly evolving as AI agents increasingly help people discover, compare, and decide what to buy.
To support this shift, commerce infrastructure must be open, secure, and interoperable.
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol represents a major milestone for the industry, enabling merchants to make their products
discoverable and purchasable within AI-powered experiences such as Google Search and the Gemini app.
“The next generation of commerce will be defined by how well we build open, trusted infrastructure that serves everyone,”
said Michelle Gill, GM of Small Business and Financial Services at PayPal.
“Supporting and collaborating with Google on UCP reflects our role in bringing a trusted payments experience layer that makes
agentic commerce a reality for consumers.”
For merchants, one of the biggest challenges of agentic commerce is fragmentation across platforms.
PayPal addresses this challenge by acting as a trusted infrastructure layer, connecting hundreds of millions of consumers
and tens of millions of merchants through reliable payments, fraud protection, and buyer and seller protections.
As commerce becomes more agent-driven, these foundations become even more critical.
“Protocols like UCP turn agentic commerce into something merchants can actually adopt at scale,”
said Prakhar Mehrotra, Senior Vice President and Head of AI at PayPal.
“Interoperability allows retailers to connect once and reach many environments, while maintaining trust, transparency, and control.”
Over the past year, agentic commerce has moved from a theoretical concept to practical reality.
For this new model to scale, industry alignment around shared standards is essential.
“For agentic commerce to scale, it’s critical for the industry to align on a common set of standards,”
said Ashish Gupta, VP/GM, Merchant Shopping at Google.
“We are proud to have PayPal endorse the Universal Commerce Protocol as the foundation for that future.”
PayPal’s collaboration with Google on UCP reinforces its belief that the next era of commerce should be open, trusted,
and built together—focused not on controlling interfaces, but on enabling the ecosystem to work seamlessly.
For more information about PayPal’s agentic commerce offerings and approach, visit
https://www.paypal.com/us/business/ai.
About PayPal
PayPal has been revolutionizing commerce globally for more than 25 years. Creating innovative experiences that make moving money,
selling, and shopping simple, personalized, and secure, PayPal empowers consumers and businesses in approximately 200 markets
to join and thrive in the global economy. For more information, visit
https://www.paypal.com,
https://about.pypl.com, and
https://investor.pypl.com.
Media Relations Contact
mediarelations@paypal.com
SOURCE PayPal Holdings, Inc.