Transactions made by AI agents through Stripe’s Link payment service grew 38-fold in September, and payment volume grew 20-fold. Stripe won’t say what those multipliers are multiplying.
The figures come from a report by Upstarts Media. Stripe hasn’t disclosed how many purchases or how many dollars sit behind them, and the report says the growth started from a small base. A 38-fold jump from a small number can still be a small number, so the percentages tell you little about the real scale.
Stripe executive Dan Hill said the volume is now becoming significant. He didn’t put a figure on it.
From 70 agents to about 200
When Stripe ran its analysis, about 70 agents were using Link. Hill said that count has since grown to around 200, including Meta’s Muse and Grok Bot.
Most agents spend about $100 per transaction, Hill said. Some users go further and have agents book flights or buy furniture worth thousands of dollars.
Retail made up 36 percent of transactions and 32 percent of volume. Travel came next with 28 percent of volume.
The agent never sees your card
Link doesn’t hand an agent your real credit card number. It issues a separate 16-digit number, and you can set spending limits on it. If you’re letting software buy a sofa on your behalf, that cap is the part to configure first.
Anthropic and OpenAI also use Link, but not yet for agent purchases. That leaves two of the biggest names in AI outside the numbers above.
Stripe expects company
Hill said Stripe won’t stay the only option. He named PayPal and Shopify’s Shop Pay as competitors.
He also said the market is still in its very early days. Until Stripe publishes the raw transaction count, a 38-fold jump is all anyone outside the company has to judge it by.
