What is the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)?
Updated By Akkrev
The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is OpenAI and Stripe's standard for letting merchants sell directly inside ChatGPT, with checkout handled by the agent.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is a standard from OpenAI and Stripe that lets a merchant connect its products and checkout to ChatGPT, so a user can buy without leaving the chat. The merchant stays the seller of record and handles the order; ChatGPT handles the conversation and payment hand-off.
ACP is live in ChatGPT and, at the time of writing, still described as beta.
ACP versus UCP
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol does a similar job for Google’s AI surfaces. Both started with retail products, where stock and prices are simple, rather than hotel rooms, where dates, occupancy and rate rules make offers harder to describe.
What it means for hotels
Few independent hotels will connect to ACP directly. Hotel inventory reaches ChatGPT mostly through travel companies’ apps, distribution partners and agents browsing hotel websites. For most independent hotels, being bookable by agents on their own website is the more practical goal.
Why it matters for AI visibility
ACP covers checkout. Before checkout, an assistant has to recommend you, which depends on the sources it reads.