Stripe said AI agents are increasingly using its payment service to process transactions for users, according to Upstarts Media. In September, the number of transactions grew 38-fold and payment volume grew 20-fold. Stripe has not disclosed how many purchases or how much money are behind those figures.
The growth started from a small base, so it says little about the actual scale, according to the report. Stripe executive Dan Hill said the volume is now becoming significant. About 70 agents were using the service when Stripe ran the analysis.
Hill said that number has since grown to around 200, including Meta's Muse and Grok Bot.
Most agents spend about $100 per transaction, according to Hill, but some users have them book flights or buy furniture worth thousands of dollars. Retail made up 36 percent of transactions and 32 percent of volume.
Travel came next with 28 percent of volume. Link does not give agents the user's real credit card number. Instead, it issues a separate 16-digit number, and users can set spending limits.
"Stripe hasn't disclosed how many purchases or how much money are behind those figures," said Dan Hill, Stripe executive. Hill admitted Stripe won't stay the only option and names PayPal and Shopify's Shop Pay as competitors. He said the market is still in its very early days.
The announcement follows a report by Upstarts Media on AI agents using Stripe's payment service. The source itself frames the significance by highlighting the growing role of AI agents in commerce.
Stripe did not say how many purchases or how much money are behind those figures, and it raised the question of whether it will remain the only option for AI agent payments.
The source says the market is still in its very early days.
Source: thedecoder
