---
type: Article
name: "What is AP2?"
id: "https://selfe.ai/insights/glossary/what-is-ap2"
url: "https://selfe.ai/insights/glossary/what-is-ap2"
publisher: "did:web:selfe.ai"
description: "Agent Payments Protocol, a standard for proving that a real person authorised an AI agent to spend a specific amount, so a business can verify that before it charges anything."
datePublished: "2026-09-15T16:25:20.643Z"
author: The Selfe team
---

# What is AP2?

> Agent Payments Protocol, a standard for proving that a real person authorised an AI agent to spend a specific amount, so a business can verify that before it charges anything.

## In short

- AP2 proves a real person authorised a specific spend, up to a specific limit, not just that the agent is genuine.
- A business checks it before charging anything, rather than trusting the agent's own claim of authority.

Good for: Proving a real person authorised a specific spend. Not good for: Proving the agent itself is genuine, that's a credential's job, checked separately.

A credential proves an agent is genuine. AP2 proves something narrower: that a real person approved this exact spend, up to this exact limit, for this kind of purchase. A business checking AP2 is checking a specific, scoped authorisation that traces back to the person the agent is acting for, rather than trusting the agent's own word that it's allowed to buy.

## Good for

Proving a real person authorised a specific spend.

## Not good for

Proving the agent itself is genuine, that's a credential's job, checked separately.

## Act on this

- [Check whether an agent can buy from you](https://selfe.ai/agentic-commerce/buyability-check) — the free readiness scan.
- [Discover venues](https://selfe.ai/api/registry/discover) — `POST`, semantic browse across the registry.
- [Match a bookable answer](https://selfe.ai/api/registry/match) — `POST` with dates and party size.
- [Verify Selfe's identity](https://selfe.ai/.well-known/did.json) — `did:web:selfe.ai`.
- [Agent card](https://selfe.ai/.well-known/agent-card.json) — how to connect over A2A or MCP.