Cashfree Launches Checkout for Agents for AI Payments

Cashfree Payments has launched Checkout for Agents, a tool that lets AI agents process customer payments on merchant checkout pages. It is built on the open-source WebMCP (model context protocol).

The company said merchants already using Cashfree’s checkout page can use the service without code changes or technical updates. WebMCP lets the checkout tell an AI agent which actions are available, including reading the order total and selecting a payment mode.

Cashfree claims the approach cuts token consumption by over 40%. It said personal AI assistants such as Instinct, Meta’s Muse and Grok Bot can reach the final payment step with fewer errors and lower drop-off rates. The user keeps final authorisation of the transaction.

Cashfree, founded in 2015 by Reeju Datta and Akash Sinha, offers a payment gateway, cross-border payments, payout solutions and banking APIs.

The company claims to process over $80 Bn in annual transaction volumes for over 10 Lakh businesses, including MakeMyTrip, Zomato, CRED and Delhivery.

The launch targets a friction point in agentic commerce. Purchases initiated by AI agents are projected to reach $1.5 Tn globally by 2030, but web interfaces remain built for human navigation. An AI agent consumes nearly 2 Mn tokens on average to decode a web page when it needs to complete a transaction.

Cashfree says its tool keeps existing authorisation steps in place. If a payment requires an OTP, the user must still enter it to approve the transaction.

Rivals are moving in the same direction. Razorpay is repositioning itself as an AI-powered business operating system through its Agent Studio and an agentic commerce push, and Swiggy lets users discover food, build carts, place orders and book tables through external AI agents.

”If an agent is visiting and browsing the merchant’s website, there will not be any drop off at the payment layer. Your speed of conversion will increase, token usage will drop, and the success rate will be near 100% as far as an agent making a payment is concerned,” Cashfree cofounder Reeju Datta said.