PayOS
PayOS is a card-native payment infrastructure platform that enables AI agents to securely execute transactions on behalf of users via network-tokenized agentic credentials, serving AI agent developers, agentic fintechs, and traditional commerce companies.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2025
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What PayOS does
PayOS, Inc. is a San Francisco-based payments infrastructure provider founded in 2025 that operates a card-native platform purpose-built for agentic commerce — the execution of payments by autonomous AI agents on behalf of users. The company addresses what it characterizes as a structural gap in legacy payments infrastructure, which was designed for human cardholders and lacks primitives for non-human actors. Its core technology leverages network tokenization (Mastercard Agent Pay, Visa Intelligent Commerce) to issue one-time-use agentic tokens that replace raw card data with cryptograms carrying identity, intent, authentication, and assurance metadata. The platform comprises five products: Agent Tokens (network-issued tokens for checkout), PayOS Wallet (PCI-compliant vault), Catalog & Checkout (product discovery and fulfillment), Agent Monetization (facilitation fee and AI usage billing infrastructure), and Value-Added Services (processor-agnostic fraud mitigation, identity verification, and decline reduction).
The company generates revenue through multiple streams: per-transaction facilitation fees (e.g., $2.50 per AI checkout), usage-based billing for AI API consumption processed through the wallet, and subscription-style Value-Added Services sold à-la-carte or as a full suite. Pricing is tiered into Starter, Enterprise, and Custom plans, with the Enterprise tier featuring multi-year contracts and dedicated support. GTM is hybrid: an API-first, developer-centric self-serve motion for early-stage companies is layered with channel-driven distribution through flagship partnerships with Mastercard and Visa, plus ecosystem partnerships with processors (Stripe, Adyen), crypto exchanges (Coinbase, OKX), and banks (Santander, BCR). The primary customer segments are AI agent developers and platforms, agentic-first fintechs, traditional commerce companies seeking processor-agnostic infrastructure upgrades, and gaming/creator-economy platforms. The company holds PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider certification and operates from a single San Francisco headquarters with a 1-10 employee headcount. PayOS is privately held with no disclosed external funding rounds to date.
PayOS firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- PayOS
- Legal name
- PayOS Inc.
- Website
- https://payos.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2025
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- PayOS is a card-native payment infrastructure platform that enables AI agents to securely execute transactions on behalf of users via network-tokenized agentic credentials, serving AI agent developers, agentic fintechs, and traditional commerce companies.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
PayOS industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Agentic Payment Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (52232), Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Tokenization, Network Vaults & Credential Management (FSAGABAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Embedded Payments (Pay-ins, Pay-outs, Wallets) (FSAGALAB), Bill Pay, Invoicing & Payables Platforms (BPAMAFAF), Integrated Payment Processors (PSP/Acquirer) (FSAMABAA)
Keywords
Where PayOS is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
PayOS business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Agent Facilitation Fees: PayOS charges facilitation fees (e.g., $2.50 per transaction shown) for agent services during checkout. Fees are automatically charged and added to the bank statement separate from merchant charges.
- AI Usage Bill Payment Processing: Usage-based billing infrastructure for AI services, automatically charging for API calls and AI usage (e.g., GPT-4 API usage, Claude API usage) through the PayOS wallet.
- Value-Added Services: Processor-agnostic VAS offered à-la-carte or as a full suite, including fraud mitigation, risk signals, and metadata enrichment services for both agentic and non-agentic transactions.
- Agentic Commerce Platform: Card-native infrastructure for AI-driven commerce, enabling checkout, send, receive, and billing through unified platform. Revenue derived from transaction processing and value-added services.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Starter Plan - for growth-stage startups with lower volumes |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise Plan - for enterprise organizations with dedicated support |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Custom Solution - tailored solutions for unique business requirements |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Agent Facilitation Fee - per transaction charge for agent services |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
PayOS product offering
Product offeringCore offering
PayOS builds a card-native payment infrastructure platform that enables AI agents and traditional businesses to execute secure transactions using user-linked cards. Its core offering combines Agent Tokens (network-issued, one-time-use tokenized payment credentials), a PCI-compliant Wallet and Vault for card storage, processor-agnostic Value-Added Services (fraud mitigation, identity verification, risk signals), Agent Monetization infrastructure for facilitation fees and AI usage billing, and Catalog & Checkout for product discovery and seamless purchase fulfillment.
Product overview
PayOS is a card-native payment infrastructure platform purpose-built for the agentic era, providing AI agents and traditional businesses with secure access to card payments. The platform operates as a unified system comprising five core products: Agent Tokens (secure network tokens for agent checkout), Value-Added Services (processor-agnostic fraud mitigation and card services), Agent Monetization (facilitation fee and billing infrastructure), Catalog & Checkout (product discovery and fulfillment), and PayOS Wallet (secure card vault with universal agent access). The platform is processor-agnostic, enabling connectivity across multiple payment processors through a single integration.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- PayOS Wallet: Secure wallet and vault infrastructure for storing cards and enabling agentic payments and billing.
- Agent Tokens
- Agent Monetization
Products and services
- Agent Tokens Secure network-issued tokens enabling AI agents to complete checkout anywhere without redirects or requiring a Merchant of Record. Each token is a one-time-use credential carrying identity, intent, authentication, and assurance data so that AI-agent-initiated payments are transparent and accountable to the payment chain.
- PayOS Wallet Secure, PCI DSS Level 1 compliant wallet and vault for storing payment cards. Supports multiple cards per wallet, universal agent access, Dynamic Account Updater to keep cards current, and optional human-in-the-loop authentication checkpoints for sensitive or high-value transactions.
- Agent Monetization Billing infrastructure enabling agents to collect facilitation fees on top of merchant purchases and to charge for AI usage (e.g., GPT-4 API calls, Claude API usage). Supports outcome-based and usage-based billing with automated fee collection, smart retry logic, and processor-agnostic processing.
- Catalog & Checkout Product discovery and checkout fulfillment service that enables AI agents to retrieve real-time price, tax, and shipping information from any product on the internet and complete purchases without redirects, with low latency and high order reliability.
- Value-Added Services Processor-agnostic card and payment services including Agent Fraud detection, Agent Identity verification, Merchant-Side decline reduction, Issuer Top-of-Wallet prioritization, card verification, risk signals, and metadata enrichment. Available as individual services or as a complete suite and applicable to both agentic and non-agentic transactions.
Companies that use PayOS
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
PayOS technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability4 records
Feature8 records
PayOS partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered ecosystem partner, flagship, core, whitepaper partner, early access and partner.
- Adyenecosystem partnerOne of 30+ launch partners collaborating to validate use cases and accelerate adoption of Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines infrastructure.
- Stripeecosystem partnerOne of 30+ launch partners for Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines, validating use cases and accelerating adoption of autonomous agent-driven commerce infrastructure.
- Coinbaseecosystem partnerOne of 30+ launch partners for Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines enabling AI agents and connected machines to authorize and settle transactions across global payments network.
- OKXecosystem partner30+ launch partner for Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines infrastructure supporting AI agent-driven commerce.
- Solana Foundationecosystem partner30+ launch partner for Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines, collaborating to validate use cases and accelerate adoption of agent-driven commerce infrastructure.
- BCR (Banca Comercială Română)flagshipMastercard and BCR completed Romania's first live authenticated transaction by AI agent with PayOS managing end-to-end process and agentic tokens as secure substitutes for card numbers.
- SantanderflagshipSantander and Mastercard completed Europe's first live AI agent payment using Mastercard Agent Pay with PayOS supporting the end-to-end process. Transaction orchestrated through Santander's live payments infrastructure.
- Visa (Extended Ecosystem)corePayOS listed as partner in Visa Intelligent Commerce initiative working with 100+ partners worldwide. Visa predicts millions of consumers will use AI agents to complete purchases by 2026 holiday season.
- Sardinewhitepaper partnerCo-authored whitepaper on 'Building Trust in Agentic Commerce' exploring how to handle fraud and trust when AI agents make purchases on behalf of users without traditional checkout pages.
- Trulioowhitepaper partnerCo-authored whitepaper on 'Know Your Agent (KYA): An Identity Framework for Trusted Agentic Commerce' introducing Digital Agent Passport concept for agent-led interactions.
- INKPAY / INK GamesflagshipPartnership enabling AI-powered checkouts, instant account funding, push-to-card payouts, and peer-to-peer transfers for gaming environments. INKPAY unlocks seamless AI commerce for players, creators, and platforms within gaming and sports betting verticals.
- MastercardcoreFlagship partnership leveraging Mastercard Agent Pay and Agentic Tokens infrastructure. PayOS enables AI agents to use secure, network-issued agentic tokens for checkout anywhere. Collaboration on tokenization technology, Agent Toolkit, and expanding agentic commerce ecosystem globally.
- VisacorePartnership with Visa Intelligent Commerce initiative, opening Visa's payment network to developers building AI agents. PayOS enables pull, push, and billing for AI agents through Visa infrastructure.
- Knowleeearly accessEarly access partner exploring PayOS to power seamless, trusted checkout experiences within AI assistant workflows, enhancing user interaction and task completion.
- TabaPaypartnerStrategic partnership to power agentic payments—pull, push, and billing for AI agents—enabling seamless transactions at scale.
- VGS (Very Good Security)partnerVGS provides Network Tokens via direct connection with payment networks. Partnership supports tokenization at the forefront of empowering agentic commerce.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
PayOS competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Stripe: Global payment processor that has launched its own agentic commerce toolkit and APIs for AI-driven transactions. Directly competes with PayOS on agent-enabled checkout infrastructure while serving vastly larger merchant base.
- Adyen: Enterprise-grade payment processor and a launch partner in Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines. Adyen has the enterprise relationships and balance sheet to outcompete PayOS on agentic payment infrastructure at scale.
Direct peers
- Coinbase Commerce: Crypto-native payments platform and launch partner in Mastercard Agent Pay for Machines. Competes with PayOS in agentic commerce, particularly for AI agents settling in stablecoins or crypto rails.
- Crossmint: Infrastructure provider for AI agents to make payments and manage wallets, including stablecoin-based agent commerce. Direct competitor in the agentic payment infrastructure layer PayOS targets.
- Skyfire: Payments platform purpose-built for AI agents to autonomously transact, enabling agent-to-merchant and agent-to-agent payments. Closest direct competitor to PayOS's Agent Tokens and wallet proposition.
- TabaPay: Real-time push-to-card payments infrastructure and PayOS partner. Competes with PayOS's send/receive capabilities and could expand into agentic payments.
- Very Good Security (VGS): Tokenization and vault infrastructure provider and PayOS partner. VGS provides network tokens that compete with PayOS's vault/tokenization layer for card credential management.
Emerging players
- Rainfall (Rainfall Technologies): Agentic payment infrastructure for AI-driven checkout experiences, focused on enabling autonomous purchasing. Comparable in stage and product focus to PayOS.
- Nevermined: AI agent payment protocol enabling autonomous transactions, monetization, and micropayments for AI services. Overlaps with PayOS's Agent Monetization and bill-payment capabilities.
- Foundation (Autonomy): AI agent commerce platform enabling autonomous purchasing and wallet management. Direct emerging competitor in agentic payment infrastructure.
Market position
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
PayOS social profiles
Digital presencePayOS compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
PayOS financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
PayOS leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
PayOS funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
PayOS M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about PayOS
What does PayOS do?
PayOS builds a card-native payment infrastructure platform that enables AI agents and traditional businesses to execute secure transactions using user-linked cards. Its core offering combines Agent Tokens (network-issued, one-time-use tokenized payment credentials), a PCI-compliant Wallet and Vault for card storage, processor-agnostic Value-Added Services (fraud mitigation, identity verification, risk signals), Agent Monetization infrastructure for facilitation fees and AI usage billing, and Catalog & Checkout for product discovery and seamless purchase fulfillment.
Is PayOS a public or private company?
PayOS is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was PayOS founded?
PayOS was founded in 2025. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is PayOS based?
PayOS is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does PayOS make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Agent Facilitation Fees are the primary driver. The others are AI Usage Bill Payment Processing, value-Added Services and agentic Commerce Platform.
Who are PayOS's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Stripe and Adyen. Direct peers are Coinbase Commerce, Crossmint, Skyfire, TabaPay and Very Good Security (VGS). Emerging players are Rainfall (Rainfall Technologies), Nevermined and Foundation (Autonomy).
Does PayOS have an API?
Yes. PayOS exposes a public API. Developer documentation is at docs.payos.ai.
What industry is PayOS in?
PayOS's product category is Agentic Payment Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAGABAF, Tokenization, Network Vaults & Credential Management, with a secondary code of FSAGALAB, Embedded Payments (Pay-ins, Pay-outs, Wallets). Its NAICS code is 52232 and its SIC code is 7372.