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Agent card payments compared: Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Ramp and Slash

March 12, 2026

Key takeaways

  • Visa's Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard's Agent Pay are setting the network-level standards for how AI agents transact using tokenized card credentials, but they're infrastructure layers that require platform partners to build on top of.
  • Stripe Issuing, Ramp, and Slash each offer agent-facing card products, but they differ significantly in scope from corporate expense management to developer-first banking APIs.
  • Crossmint provides the full agent payments stack: agent wallets, virtual cards, stablecoin onramps, orchestration, and verifiable credentials. Allowing agent platforms and builders can give their agents financial superpowers through a single API.

Introduction

AI agents that can browse, reason, and plan are now everywhere. But most of them can't spend a dollar. The moment an agent needs to pay for an API call, book a flight, or purchase inventory, it hits a wall: traditional payment infrastructure was built for humans, not machines.

A new category of "agent cards" is emerging to solve this. Card networks like Visa and Mastercard are building agent-native tokenization and authorization frameworks. Fintechs like Stripe, Ramp, and Slash are issuing virtual cards with agent-compatible APIs.

But these products serve different audiences, solve different problems, and sit at different layers of the stack. Some are network-level primitives that need a platform like Crossmint to build on top of them. Others serve use case specific verticals. This guide breaks down what each agent card payments solution actually does, who it's built for, and how they compare so you can make the right infrastructure decision for your agents.

The card networks: Visa and Mastercard

What is Visa Intelligent Commerce?

Visa launched its Intelligent Commerce initiative in 2025, building the infrastructure for AI agents to transact securely across the Visa network. The approach centers on AI-ready card credentials that tokenize replacements for standard card numbers which agents can use without ever touching raw card data. These credentials come with built-in controls: users can preset dollar limits, restrict merchant categories, or require real-time approval prompts.

Visa also introduced the Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP) in October 2025, an open framework that helps merchants distinguish between malicious bots and legitimate AI agents acting on behalf of consumers. Pilot programs with partners including Ramp, Skyfire, and others have already completed hundreds of real-world agent-initiated transactions. Visa expects millions of consumers to use AI agents for purchases by late 2026, with global pilots expanding across Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America.

What is Mastercard Agent Pay?

Mastercard launched its Agentic Payments Program in April 2025, introducing Agentic Tokens which are dynamic digital credentials that let AI agents transact safely on behalf of consumers. The Agent Pay Acceptance Framework defines the technical and governance standards for how agents interact with existing card payment systems.

Mastercard has moved fast on distribution. Citi and US Bank cardholders were enabled for Agent Pay transactions in 2025, with all US Mastercard cardholders equipped by November 2025 and global rollout following. In early 2026, Santander and Mastercard completed what they called Europe's first live end-to-end payment executed by an AI agent. Mastercard also partnered with PayPal and OpenAI, making Agentic Tokens usable within ChatGPT's commerce features and PayPal's wallet. Fiserv integrated Agent Pay into its merchant platform, broadening acceptance.

The fintechs: Stripe, Ramp, and Slash

What is Stripe's agent card offering?

Stripe's approach to agent cards is tightly coupled with its broader Agentic Commerce Suite. Through Stripe Issuing, developers can programmatically create virtual cards via the Stripe Agent Toolkit - an agent can spin up a scoped, single-use virtual card for a specific purchase. Stripe also built Shared Payment Tokens (SPTs), a new payment primitive that lets agents initiate payments using a buyer's permission and preferred payment method without exposing credentials. SPTs can be scoped to a specific business, time-limited, amount-capped, and revoked at any time.

Stripe's strength is its developer ecosystem and the fact that it co-developed ACP with OpenAI. If you're building agents that need to process payments through Stripe-powered merchants, the integration is native.

What are Ramp Agent Cards?

Ramp launched Agent Cards which are virtual cards specifically designed for AI agents to spend on behalf of businesses. Built on Visa Intelligent Commerce, Ramp Agent Cards come with real spend limits, merchant controls, and full transaction visibility. The product fits within Ramp's broader AI agent ecosystem, which includes policy agents, AP automation agents that code invoices and recommend approvals, and automatic card payment agents that fill card details into vendor portals.

Ramp's strength is corporate expense management. Their agent card solution is purpose-built for businesses that want their AI agents to handle procurement, vendor payments, and expense workflows with human oversight.

What is Slash's agent card product?

Slash offers agent-native banking and cards via MCP (Model Context Protocol). Any MCP-compatible AI agent like Claude, GPT, Cursor, or custom agents can access Slash's full API to create virtual and physical cards, set spending limits, send payments via ACH, manage invoices, and query transaction history. Slash provides unlimited virtual cards with up to 2% cashback, fine-grained spend controls, and stablecoin on/off ramps built into the platform.

Slash's strength is its breadth as a business neobank with native AI integration. It covers cards, banking, treasury, and crypto in one platform for businesses.

How they compare

Who they're built for

  • Visa / Mastercard: Issuing partners, payment processors, and platform partners that want to enable agent-initiated transactions on top of existing card network rails
  • Stripe: Developers building agent-powered commerce applications on Stripe's payment infrastructure
  • Ramp: Finance teams at businesses that want AI agents to handle corporate spend management
  • Slash: Businesses that want an AI-native neobank with card, banking, and crypto capabilities
  • Crossmint: Agent platforms and builders that need to give AI agents full financial infrastructure through one API

Card issuance model

  • Visa / Mastercard: Visa issues AI-ready tokenized card credentials via Intelligent Commerce; Mastercard issues Agentic Tokens via Agent Pay; both delivered through issuing partners
  • Stripe: Programmatic virtual card creation via Stripe Issuing and Agent Toolkit
  • Ramp: Corporate virtual cards for business agents via Ramp's platform
  • Slash: Unlimited virtual/physical cards created via MCP-compatible API
  • Crossmint: Virtual card numbers derived from Visa/Mastercard, issued to agents with scoped permissions, spending controls, and merchant whitelisting

Stablecoin support

  • Visa / Mastercard: Visa has active stablecoin settlement pilots; Mastercard exploring crypto settlement through separate initiatives; neither offers native stablecoin support within their agent frameworks today
  • Stripe: x402 integration for USDC on Base; primarily fiat-focused
  • Ramp: Fiat corporate cards only; no native stablecoin support
  • Slash: Built-in stablecoin on/off ramps; fiat-to-crypto conversion within the platform
  • Crossmint: Fiat and stablecoin wallets; stablecoin onramps in 150+ countries; USDC support across 50+ chains

Can other platforms build on it?

  • Visa / Mastercard: Yes - they're infrastructure layers designed for partners to build on
  • Stripe: Yes - via Stripe Issuing and the Agent Toolkit API
  • Ramp: No - designed for Ramp's own corporate customers
  • Slash: No - designed for Slash's own business banking customers
  • Crossmint: Yes - built as infrastructure for agent platforms, with APIs for wallets, cards, onramps, checkout, and credentials

Building an agentic product or platform? Crossmint gives your agents everything they need to transact. Reach out to us here.

Why platforms choose Crossmint for agent cards

The products above each solve a piece of the agent payments puzzle. But none of them provide the full stack that an agent platform or builder needs to give their agents complete financial capabilities. Crossmint provides an all-in-one platform for agent payments for agentic platform builders. Companies like MoneyGram and Western Union trust Crossmint for stablecoin and financial infrastructure.

Through a single API, agent platforms get:

  • Agent virtual cards - Issue virtual Visa and Mastercard numbers to your agents, letting them pay at any merchant that accepts cards. Scoped permissions and guardrails control spending limits, merchant access, and transaction caps.
  • Agent wallets - Fiat and stablecoin wallets purpose-built for AI agents. Non-custodial stablecoin wallets with programmable guardrails (spending limits, merchant whitelisting, approval requirements, auditable logs). Virtual card wallets that hold tokenized card details securely without exposing raw card data.
  • Agent payments - Allow agents to pay for tools, APIs, services, physical goods, flights, and more using cards or stablecoins. Support for Amazon, Shopify, and other major merchants at retail price. Crossmint acts as Merchant of Record and handles returns and chargebacks. Zero operational overhead.
  • Stablecoin onramps - Fund agent wallets by connecting any major debit or credit card. Top up virtual cards or stablecoin wallets directly. Fiat payments supported globally, stablecoin onramps available in 150+ countries.
  • Secure by design - Agent wallets use a dual key architecture to balance security, autonomy, compliance, and ease of use. Humans set spending permissions and approve transactions; agents can only request payment actions within those guardrails.

We also created lobster.cash alongside Visa, Circle, Solana, and Stytch to provide an open payment standard for OpenClaw agents which demonstrates how this full-stack approach works in production.

As the agent card landscape evolves, Crossmint's infrastructure means your integration doesn't need to change. You build with one API surface and gain support for new network standards, card products, and payment protocols as they go live.

Building an agentic platform or product? Reach out to us to learn more about our all-in-one agentic payments platform. We'll help you figure out the right setup for your agents and get you live fast.

Final verdict

Visa Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard Agent Pay are setting the standards for how agents use card rails but they're infrastructure that platform partners build on, not products you integrate directly. Stripe is the best choice for developers already in the Stripe ecosystem who need programmatic card issuance. Ramp and Slash are strong for businesses that want AI-native expense management and banking.

But if you're building an agent platform or product and need to give your agents the full financial capabilities of wallets, virtual cards, stablecoin onramps, checkout at millions of merchants, and verifiable credentials through a single integration, then Crossmint is designed for you.

FAQs

What are agent cards and how do they work?

Agent cards are virtual card credentials designed for AI agents to use programmatically. Unlike traditional cards tied to a human cardholder, agent cards use tokenized credentials with built-in controls like spending limits, merchant restrictions, time bounds, and audit trails so agents can transact on behalf of users without accessing sensitive payment data directly.

Which card networks support AI agent payments?

Both Visa and Mastercard have launched agent payment frameworks. Visa's Intelligent Commerce uses tokenized AI-ready credentials and the Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP) to distinguish legitimate agents from bots. Mastercard's Agent Pay uses Agentic Tokens and has enabled all US Mastercard cardholders for agent-initiated transactions, with global rollout ongoing. Both networks work through issuing partners rather than directly with agent platforms.

Can AI agents use virtual cards to buy things?

Yes. Multiple platforms now offer virtual cards that agents can use programmatically. Stripe Issuing lets developers create single-use virtual cards via API. Ramp offers Agent Cards with corporate spend controls. Slash provides unlimited virtual cards via MCP. Crossmint derives virtual card numbers from Visa/Mastercard with scoped permissions built for agent platforms.

Which platform combines agent cards with stablecoin payments?

Crossmint provides both virtual cards (via Visa and Mastercard) and stablecoin wallets through a single API. Agents can pay with cards at any merchant that accepts Visa or Mastercard, and with stablecoins at crypto-native endpoints. All from the same platform, with unified spending controls and audit trails.