Written by
Mandy Spivey02/10/2026
Key highlights:
Google agentic checkout lets shoppers buy eligible products directly inside AI Mode and Gemini, without visiting your site.
Google agentic checkout runs on the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), the open standard Google announced in January 2026.
You remain the merchant of record with Google agentic checkout, keeping the customer data, settlement, fulfilment, returns, and support.
Merchants enable it through Google Merchant Centre, a product-level eligibility attribute, and Google's UCP interest form.
Status: early access for select U.S. merchants, with onboarding rolling out gradually across the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
First off, what is Google Agentic Checkout?
Google agentic checkout is a feature powered by the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) that lets a shopper complete a purchase from an eligible product listing inside AI Mode in Google Search or the Gemini app. The shopper pays with Google Pay without ever visiting your website, while you remain the merchant of record. The transaction moves onto Google’s surface; the order, the customer, and the data stay yours.
That shift changes the merchant question. AI agents are no longer just recommending products across online retail; they’re completing purchases. The question is no longer just “will I be discovered?” but “can a shopper buy from me without leaving Google?”
This shift may feel sudden, as agentic commerce has moved from concept to checkout. Among the platforms building agentic checkout, Google’s is the one most likely to touch your existing Merchant Centre setup first.
Worth noting, this is no longer theoretical either: AI traffic to U.S. retail sites grew 393% year over year in Q1 2026, and by March 2026 it converted 42% better than non-AI traffic.
This guide covers what Google agentic checkout is, how it differs from Google’s earlier buy-on-your-site approach, who is eligible, exactly how to turn it on (available now in early access), and who owns the customer.
Psst. For protocol depth, see our Universal Commerce Protocol explainer.
How Google agentic checkout works in AI Mode and Gemini
In a nutshell, agentic checkout works in AI Mode and Gemini via the following steps:
The transaction completes on Google’s surfaces (AI Mode in Search and Gemini), inside the Google Pay flow.
You stay the merchant of record: settlement, the customer record, and post-purchase are yours.
This is distinct from Google’s November 2025 agentic checkout feature, which bought on the merchant’s own site.
All of this is powered by UCP, the open protocol.
Start with the fact that anchors everything else: in every UCP-powered transaction, you remain the merchant of record. Google provides the surface and the payment flow; you receive the order, settle funds through your own payment provider, and own the customer relationship.
The transaction completes on Google’s surfaces.
With your product in the mix but the engagement taking place within Google, you might be wondering where the transaction happens.
In short: On Google.
A shopper completes a Google agentic checkout purchase inside AI Mode in Search or the Gemini app, within the Google Pay flow, and never needs to open your website. To better illustrate this, here’s the buyer flow, straight from Google’s Merchant Centre Help:
A shopper asks AI Mode or Gemini a shopping question.
An eligible product listing appears with a Buy button.
Tapping Buy may create an account with your store.
A review screen pre-fills payment from Google Pay and shipping details from Google Wallet (currently standard FPANs).
The shopper confirms the purchase inside the Google Pay flow.
You receive the order and handle fulfilment, returns, and customer support.
Not only is this illustrative of the Google process, it’s also a great, live example of the ecommerce AI agent pattern: the assistant does the buying, the merchant does the selling.
The eligible listings themselves surface from Google’s Shopping Graph, while Google builds the product dataset from merchant feeds and the wider web. Today the flow runs in AI Mode in Search and Gemini on the web, with the Gemini app “coming soon” per Google’s developer guide.
Product eligibility covers the U.S., Canada, and Australia, and checkout is currently live for select U.S. merchants. Since May 2026, UCP-powered checkout has also begun appearing on standard Search product listings. Buyers must be signed in, 18 or older, and using English at launch; ID-verified categories such as alcohol and tobacco are excluded.
You’ll see the same flow described as Google AI Mode checkout, Gemini checkout, or Google UCP checkout. All three names point back to this single UCP-powered feature.
You remain the merchant of record.
The charge appears under your store’s name, funds settle through your existing PSP, and the customer record lands in your systems. (Don’t worry, we’ll cover payments, data, and returns in detail later in this article.)
How this differs from the earlier “buy on your site” approach.
Google has shipped two features under similar names, and Merchant Centre Help flags them as distinct. At its November 2025 debut, Google’s agentic checkout feature completed the purchase on the merchant’s own website using Google Pay.
From January 2026, UCP-powered checkout moved the transaction onto Google’s surfaces, with the merchant as merchant of record. Both also differ from the older Merchant Centre checkout button, which likewise kept the transaction on your site.
Agentic checkout feature (November 2025)
The purchase completes on the merchant’s own website.
Google’s agent navigates your existing checkout using Google Pay.
UCP-powered checkout (January 2026 onward)
The purchase completes inside AI Mode or Gemini, in the Google Pay flow.
You remain the merchant of record, and funds settle through your PSP.
What UCP is, in one paragraph.
The Universal Commerce Protocol is an open standard announced 11 January 2026, at NRF, co-developed by Google with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart and endorsed by more than 20 companies, including Adyen, American Express, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Best Buy, and Home Depot.
Think of UCP as a shared commerce language: it standardises how agents and stores exchange product, cart, checkout, and post-purchase data, and it’s built to be compatible with A2A, AP2, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
This article focuses on Google enablement. For protocol depth, read the UCP explainer or browse our agentic AI in ecommerce hub.
Who is eligible for Google agentic checkout and what Google requires
UCP-powered checkout is in early access for select, participating merchants, not every Merchant Centre account. Google says Merchant Centre onboarding is “rolling out gradually in the coming months” across the U.S., Canada, and Australia, and coverage skews U.S.-first in practise.
Who can participate in Google Agentic Checkout today?
Google’s named participants include Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Wayfair, and Shopify merchants such as Fenty and Steve Madden. The list of current participants illustrates scale and changes as the rollout expands.
The May 2026 Google Marketing Live updates added agentic commerce momentum: the announced Google Universal Cart (a cross-surface cart), Merchant Centre AI performance insights, and conversational product attributes, new shopping features that sit alongside established ones like price-tracking and shoppable images.
Geographies: U.S., Canada, Australia (others announced).
Wondering if Google agentic checkout is available in your country? Product eligibility currently covers the United States, Canada, and Australia. Checkout itself is live for select U.S. merchants, and any other market is only announced, not shipped.
The Merchant Centre is still the hub.
Despite being a new workflow, everything runs through your existing BigCommerce Merchant Centre account.
Google’s baseline requirements are as follows:
An active Merchant Centre account in good standing.
Robust, current feeds: titles, GTINs, price, availability, shipping, a returns policy, and a support contact.
A Google Pay & Wallet Console account. A PSP not on the Google Pay API can still onboard. Direct processing requires PCI documentation and encryption.
Acceptance of the UCP Checkout Terms of Service (U.S.).
Products eligible in the U.S., Canada, or Australia.
Feed quality and structured data are the levers you actually control: your Merchant Centre feed is what keeps your products current in the Shopping Graph. So, get your product pages ready for agentic AI and tighten your product feed management. For BigCommerce merchants, Feedonomics-enriched feeds are how Merchant Centre data stays robust and up to date.
The native_commerce(checkout_eligibility) attribute.
The single most concrete fact in this rollout: only listings carrying the native_commerce(checkout_eligibility) product attribute display the Buy button (Merchant Centre Help). It’s set per SKU, so you can keep products discoverable but not buyable, which is useful for configurable items, subscription products, or age-gated goods.
How to enable Google agentic checkout for your store (available now in early access)
To enable Google agentic checkout, following these six steps:
Get your Merchant Centre account and feeds into good standing.
Flag eligible SKUs with the native_commerce attribute via a supplemental feed.
Confirm your PSP accepts Google Pay and set up the Google Pay & Wallet Console.
Submit Google’s UCP interest form.
Complete the technical integration and validate in the Merchant Centre sandbox.
Connect and publish through your platform’s early-access path.
Status: Still in early access (as of September 2026), available to select merchants only. Broader Merchant Centre onboarding is rolling out in the coming months.
Now, let’s take a more granular look at what it looks like to get into this programme.
Step 1: Get your Merchant Centre house in order.
Bring your account into good standing before anything else. Google checks the merchant-of-record basics: products eligible for free listings, a defined returns policy, and a visible customer support contact.
Clean structured data here also keeps your listings competitive in the Shopping Graph, and gaps stall every step downstream.
Step 2: Flag eligible SKUs with the native_commerce attribute.
Add the attribute through a supplemental data source rather than editing your primary feed, so Shopping ads and free listings stay undisturbed.
The attribute is product-level: choose which SKUs should be buyable in Google AI Mode and leave the rest discoverable only.
Step 3: Confirm your PSP supports Google Pay and set up the Google Pay & Wallet Console.
This is a capability check, not a fixed provider list: your PSP must be able to accept Google Pay tokens. You don’t need a Google Pay button on your own site, but you do need a Google Pay & Wallet Console account.
PayPal support on UCP has been announced but hasn’t shipped, so don’t plan around it yet.
Step 4: Submit Google’s UCP interest form.
Register through Google’s early-access interest form (see Google’s onboarding page). Google validates merchants and enables Gemini checkout gradually, with no fixed turnaround, so submit early and keep your feed clean while you wait.
Step 5: Complete the technical integration and validate in the Merchant Centre sandbox.
Work through the UCP developer guide. Native checkout, the default path, lets Google call your checkout APIs directly, while the embedded iframe option is reserved for specific approved merchants with bespoke checkouts.
Once selected, use the Merchant Centre UCP integration tab and sandbox to validate your UCP profile, identity linking, and the native checkout APIs (Google’s onboarding steps).
Google directs merchants on ecommerce platforms to connect through their platform, which is what step 6 covers.
Step 6: Connect and publish through your platform (BigCommerce path, early access).
For BigCommerce merchants, the Google UCP checkout path is available now in early access through the Commerce AI Labs programme (“Agentic Checkout with Google UCP”), built into Channel Manager.
Native functionality covers the baseline, and feeds and apps cover the rest: product data flows through Feedonomics Surface, activated from Channel Manager, or a third-party feed provider, while Feedonomics Agentic Catalogue Exports (ACE) syndicate optimised catalogues to agentic surfaces.
Timing: early Q4 2026, subject to Google approval. Request early access through Commerce AI Labs.
After approval, watch Merchant Centre: Google surfaces alerts there for feed, returns, or account fixes, and the Buy button appears only on the SKUs you flagged.
One measurement note: a UCP sale may generate no on-site pageview or session, so plan attribution around order data and Merchant Centre reporting rather than web analytics alone.
Who is the merchant of record, and who owns the customer data?
In Google agentic checkout, the merchant is the merchant of record. You remain the merchant (seller) of record for every UCP-powered transaction and retain full ownership of customer data, relationships, and the post-purchase experience.
If you’re concerned about customer data ownership, fear not: Google’s own developer FAQ asks “Will I lose control of my customer data?” and answers no (UCP developer guide).
You stay merchant of record.
The sale is yours in every sense that matters operationally and legally: the order, the revenue recognition, and the buyer relationship.
How payment moves: Google Pay, FPANs, and your PSP.
Payment credentials are standard FPANs stored in Google Wallet and passed through Google Pay. Funds settle through your existing payment service provider, and the charge appears under your store’s name.
PayPal support is announced as coming to UCP; treat it as a future potential until it actually ships.
Returns, support, and the customer relationship.
You handle shipping, returns, customer support, and post-purchase email, exactly as with orders from your own site.
This is the opposite of marketplace models, where the platform is a merchant of record and owns the buyer. It’s also a stated commitment in the Commerce press release: merchants “remain merchant of record, retaining full ownership of the customer relationship and transaction data.”
The comparison table below shows who owns what across a UCP transaction.
Where the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) fits
The Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) is an open protocol announced by Google Cloud on 16 September 2025, with more than 60 payments and technology partners, that lets AI agents initiate payments backed by cryptographically signed user consent, expressed as Intent, Cart, and Payment Mandates.
The relationship is simple: UCP is the commerce language (discover, cart, checkout, post-purchase), and AP2 is the payments-trust layer UCP is designed to compose with.
If you enable UCP checkout on Google today, you don’t need to implement AP2 yourself; Google and your PSP handle payments. Treat AP2 as the direction of travel, not a to-do item.
How does AP2 protect merchants in a dispute? Signed mandates create a non-repudiable record of exactly what the shopper authorised, down to the specific cart and price. From there, the checkout mandate is shared with the merchant as evidence. In a dispute, merchants and shoppers are looking at the same record.
AP2 also composes with adjacent agent standards like MCP and A2A. For how the payment standards compare, see our ACP explainer.
What the 2026 data says about AI-driven shopping
The momentum is real, and so are the caveats. Adobe reported in April 2026 that AI traffic to U.S. retail sites grew 393% year over year in Q1 2026, and that in March 2026 AI-referred traffic converted 42% better than non-AI traffic, a reversal from converting 38% worse a year earlier.
Salesforce reports that AI influenced 20% of 2025 holiday online sales, roughly $262 billion, that retailers running their own shopper agents grew holiday sales 59% faster, and that agentic search as the first step of shopping grew 200% year over year as of July 2026.
Google AI Mode shopping is expanding. Meanwhile, native checkout is live for a limited set of merchants, and most AI-driven ecommerce still completes on online retailers’ own sites. The near-term value of Google agentic checkout is eligibility and positioning, not immediate GMV.
That’s exactly why the enablement work matters now. The agentic commerce channel is growing and converting, and agentic checkout eligibility is a positioning move for a rollout whose pace Google controls.
The final word
Buying is moving onto Google’s surfaces. The merchant of record, the customer, and the data are not. That’s the whole story of Google agentic checkout, and it’s why the setup work is worth doing before the rollout widens.
If you want to get prepared to enable buying via Google Agentic Checkout in your BigCommerce store, remember:
This week, audit your Merchant Centre feed completeness, returns policy, and support contact details.
Confirm your PSP’s Google Pay capability, and decide SKU by SKU which products carry the native_commerce attribute.
Submit Google’s UCP interest form, or, if you sell on BigCommerce, request early access through the Commerce AI Labs programme (early Q4 2026, subject to Google approval).
Agentic checkout on Google is available now in early access (September 2026).
Google agentic checkout FAQs
Agentic checkout lets an AI agent complete a purchase on a shopper’s behalf instead of handing them a link to finish it themselves. Google agentic checkout is Google’s implementation: shoppers buy eligible products directly inside AI Mode and Gemini through Google’s UCP, while the merchant stays merchant of record. For the cross-platform picture, see our agentic checkout guide.
They are related but distinct, and Google flags them separately in Merchant Centre Help. The agentic checkout feature from November 2025 completes the purchase on the merchant’s own site with Google Pay, while UCP-powered checkout, live from January 2026, completes the purchase on Google’s surfaces with the merchant as merchant of record. This article covers the UCP-powered version.
Yes, in every UCP-powered transaction you remain the merchant of record: the charge appears under your name, funds settle through your existing PSP, and you own the customer data, fulfilment, returns, and support (read more on the Google developer guide).
Product eligibility currently covers the U.S., Canada, and Australia, and checkout is live for select U.S. merchants. Google says onboarding will expand gradually in the coming months, and other markets are announced rather than shipped.
Google has named participants including Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Wayfair, and Shopify merchants such as Fenty and Steve Madden. The list changes as the rollout expands, and only listings flagged as checkout-eligible show a Buy button.
No, provided you add it through a supplemental data source rather than editing your primary feed. The attribute only gates Buy-button eligibility, not product discovery, so your Shopping ads and free listings continue running unchanged.
UCP is Google’s open commerce standard spanning discovery, cart, checkout, and post-purchase. ACP, the Agentic Commerce Protocol from OpenAI and Stripe (September 2025), is a checkout-focused standard built around a Shared Payment Token.
In March 2026, OpenAI retired ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout feature and refocused on product discovery, though the ACP specification continues. Google’s UCP and ACP are “designed to work together” but are not interoperable today. See our ACP explainer for depth.
Get Merchant Centre into good standing, flag eligible SKUs with the native_commerce attribute, confirm your PSP accepts Google Pay, set up a Google Pay & Wallet Console account, and submit Google’s UCP interest form. After selection, validate in the Merchant Centre sandbox and connect through your platform. BigCommerce merchants can request the path, available now in early access, through Commerce AI Labs.
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