Google Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) Guide | Google for Developers (original) (raw)
Getting started with Universal Commerce Protocol on Google
The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open standard designed for the future of commerce, empowering you to turn AI interactions into instant sales. Adopt UCP to enable agentic actions on Google AI Mode and Gemini, starting with direct buying.
Why implement UCP on Google?
Maintain full control of your brand
You remain the Merchant of Record. Keep all of your customer data and relationships.
Ready-made reach
Use your existing Merchant Center account shopping feeds to capture high-intent customers during discovery. UCP unlocks access to users on surfaces like AI Mode in Search and Gemini web (app coming soon).
Build shopper confidence at scale
Rely on a system designed for trust. UCP creates a transparent accountability trail between merchants, credential providers, and payment services, helping to ensure each transaction is secure, every time.
Flexible integration options to meet your needs
Native checkout
Integrate checkout logic directly with Google AI Mode and Gemini. This default integration will unlock full agentic potential as UCP product offering expands.
Embedded checkout
(optional customization)
An additional optional path for specific, approved merchants. Best for those with highly bespoke branding or complex checkout flows that require an iframe-based solution.
Learn more about Universal Commerce Protocol
By adopting the Universal Commerce Protocol, you enable seamless, agentic commerce actions across Google's AI surfaces.
Explore the standard
Review the open-source interface that standardizes integrations between consumer surfaces and ecosystem players.
Check the roadmap
See upcoming features like multi-item carts, account linking for loyalty programs, and post-purchase support for tracking and returns.
Partner with us
Join the waitlist to become part of an ecosystem of industry leaders adopting the protocol to drive the next generation of commerce.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)?
UCP is a new open standard that unifies digital commerce. It enables direct, instant purchases across AI surfaces like AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, reducing friction and cart abandonment.
What can I expect when I integrate with UCP?
- Expanded reach: Connect with high-intent shoppers directly within Google's AI surfaces, including AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app.
- Reduced checkout friction: Enable direct purchases within the interaction flow to keep users engaged.
- Control: You remain the Merchant of Record, maintaining full control over your custome relationships and data.
- Flexibility: Choose between different integration paths (Native and Embedded) to suit your brand and technical stack.
- Readiness for agentic experiences: Use core features like multi-item carts and account linking designed to support upcoming agentic capabilities.
- Compatibility across the ecosystem: Benefit from a protocol that is interoperable with major industry standards (Agent Payments Protocol (AP2),Agent2Agent (A2A) andModel Context Protocol (MCP)) and built to handle the full end-to-end shopping journey.
Will I lose control of my customer data?
No. You remain the Merchant of Record for all transactions. You retain full ownership of your customer relationships, data, and the post-purchase experience. Our standard security and privacy practices apply to the interaction, but you own the transaction.
What makes UCP different?
- Modular and extensible: UCP is designed to be modular and extensible to support rich commerce experiences using capabilities and extensions.
- Fast and easy to implement: UCP allows merchants the choice to select the set of capabilities & extensions they want to support and the communication medium that best suits their development needs such as APIs, MCP or A2A.
- Co-designed with industry leaders: UCP is open source and is designed directly by a collaboration of industry leaders, to support the diverse needs of a rich commerce ecosystem.
- Secure and seamless payments: UCP supports secure payments using tokenization and allows merchants to use existing payment integrations using payment handlers.
Is it compatible with my tech stack?
UCP is fully compatible with protocols such asAP2,A2A, and MCP. It supports transport REST API and MCP binding. We provide adapters to ensure compliance if you are using other protocols.
UCP primitives map 1:1 to standard retail operations such as checkout. UCP was designed in collaboration with industry leaders to ensure a low-lift integration that aligns with your existing business logic.
We have also deployed native SDKs for better language bindings, allowing you to integrate UCP faster within your existing development environment.