Amazon’s new AI wallet: AWS, Coinbase, and Stripe build payment rails for bots
Amazon said AI agents for now will be allowed to buy APIs, web content and other online services, but that future versions would enable hotel bookings, travel reservations and payments to merchants.
What to know:
- Amazon Web Services has launched Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments, a new infrastructure that lets autonomous AI agents make real-time online purchases using stablecoins, in partnership with Coinbase and Stripe.
- The first version focuses on stablecoin micropayments for APIs, data feeds and paywalled content, with plans to expand to larger transactions such as hotel bookings, travel reservations and merchant payments.
- Built on Coinbase’s x402 protocol and Stripe’s Privy wallet, the system is part of a broader push to enable an “agentic economy” in which AI agents act as independent economic actors for users, with early testing from companies like Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments” is designed for AWS described as the emerging “agentic economy”, where AI agents transact independently inside a single execution loop.
The first version of the system focuses on micropayments, allowing agents to instantly pay for APIs, data feeds, paywalled content and other digital services, often for fractions of a cent, AWS said.
Bedrock is built on Coinbase’s x402, the HTTP-native payment protocol for powering agent-to-agent transactions with stablecoins, while Stripe’s Privy wallet is being used as a payment connection.
“There will soon be more AI agents transacting than humans, and they need money that’s built for the internet – programmable, always on, and global,” said Brian Foster, Coinbase’s head of infrastructure growth.
