Built on the open-source WebMCP, the new tool allows AI agents to read order total and select payment mode while reducing token consumption by over 40%
With the new solution, Cashfree aims to streamline agentic commerce and drive a significant share of AI-led traffic to its customers in the future
This comes as Indian fintechs bet on agentic commerce. For instance, Razorpay is repositioning itself as an AI-powered business and has rolled out multiple agentic tools
Fintech soonicorn Cashfree Payments has launched ‘Checkout for Agents’, a new tool that enables AI agents to process customer payments seamlessly.
The new feature is built on the open-source WebMCP (model context protocol). The startup claims that merchants using Cashfree’s checkout page can avail the service without requiring any code changes or technical updates.
The new solution aims to address a critical friction point in agentic commerce. While global purchases initiated by AI agents are projected to hit $1.5 Tn by 2030, traditional web interfaces remain optimised for human navigation. Hence, AI agents consume nearly 2 Mn tokens on average to decode the web page when they need to execute a transaction.
By leveraging WebMCP, Cashfree claims that its new checkout tool directly communicates all the available actions to the AI agents, including reading order total and selecting payment mode. The startup claims its solution reduces token consumption by over 40%.
The architecture also allows personal AI assistants like Instinct, Meta’s Muse, and Grok Bot to reach the final payment step with fewer errors and lower drop-off rates, while leaving the final transaction authorisation with the user.
“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 told Inc42.
He foresees AI agents driving a significant share of traffic to Cashfree’s customers in the future. “Agent traffic has grown around 4-5X annually and converts 5X better than my SEO traffic. The lifetime value (LTV) of such users is also much much higher,” Datta added.
On a question about AI agents taking unauthorised or unintended actionsDatta claimed that Cashfree’s latest offering preserves existing authorisation mechanisms and creates no heightened vulnerabilities. For instance, if the final payment authorisation step requires an OTP, then the user would still have to enter the pin to approve the payment.
Founded in 2015 by Datta and Akash Sinha, Cashfree Payments offers digital payment solutions such as payment gateway, cross-border payments, payout solutions and banking APIs. It claims to process over $80 Bn in annual transaction volumes for over 10 Lakh businesses, including the likes of MakeMyTrip, Zomato, CRED, and Delhivery.
Cashfree isn’t the only one in India’s startup ecosystem betting on agentic commerce. Its IPO-bound rival Razorpay is also repositioning itself as an AI-powered business operating system through its Agent Studio and agentic commerce push.
Then, there is Bengaluru-based Nudge that helps ecommerce brands optimise product discovery and conversions inside AI platforms. Foodtech giant Swiggy is also enabling users to interact with its app through external AI agents to discover food, build carts, place orders, and book restaurant tables.