Alipay Enables AI Agents to Complete User-Approved Payments

Alipay has expanded its agentic commerce stack by enabling AI agents to make purchases and complete payments with explicit user approval. The capability extends Alipay AI Pay, originally launched in 2025, and is now pre-installed on Alibaba Cloud's JVS Claw and available on Ant Group Digital Technologies' DTClaw. It also supports third-party OpenClaw-type agents such as Claude Code and Hermes Agent. Alipay reported 100 million users for AI Pay in February 2026 and more than 120 million transactions processed in the week of 5 to 11 February.

The workflow requires users to install Alipay AI Pay into a compatible agent, enable the payment function, and complete identity verification before the agent can act. Every transaction must be confirmed by the user, and orders can be modified or cancelled through a command prior to settlement. Alipay lists the following security and developer features:

• •Authentication and consent: user-initiated activation, identity verification, and per-transaction payment authorization
• •Risk controls: a 24/7 risk control system plus an extended Full Compensation account protection program
• •Developer tooling: SDKs and APIs for payment integration, tipping, subscription billing, and agent-side payment flows

This is a practical step toward agentic commerce where assistants not only recommend or fill carts, but also execute payments with user approval. For practitioners building consumer-facing agents, pre-integration on major agent runtimes (JVS Claw, DTClaw) reduces integration friction and accelerates real-world use cases such as membership renewals, recurring subscriptions, and in-app purchases on mini programs and retail apps. The combination of large active user figures and built-in protections positions Alipay as a leading commercial rails provider in China for agent-enabled transactions.

Granting agents payment capability expands the attack surface for fraud, social-engineering, and accidental spending. Alipay's safeguards mitigate but do not eliminate these risks; implementation details, latencies for identity checks, and the exact developer APIs will determine security posture. Regulatory oversight in payments and consumer protection will shape adoption.

Developer adoption across third-party agent platforms, the maturity of SDKs and audit logs for transaction provenance, and how regulators and rivals respond to agentic payment flows.