// GLOSSARY -- PAYMENTS & FINTECH
What is Universal Commerce Protocol?
Google's open standard for agentic commerce that provides common primitives for product discovery, negotiation, and checkout across AI agents, merchants, and payment providers.
WHY IT MATTERS
UCP is Google's answer to Stripe's ACP — an open protocol for agent-initiated commerce backed by Google Cloud. It defines how agents find products, negotiate terms, and complete purchases across merchant ecosystems.
The existence of competing protocols (ACP, UCP, x402) means agents will need to operate across multiple payment standards. Policy enforcement must be protocol-agnostic.
HOW POLICYLAYER USES THIS
PolicyLayer enforces spending policies regardless of the underlying payment protocol. Whether an agent transacts via ACP, UCP, or x402, the same budget caps and approval rules apply.