Purchases made by AI agents through Stripe’s Link service grew sharply in September, with transaction count rising 38-fold and payment volume increasing 20-fold, according to figures reported by The Decoder. Stripe did not reveal the underlying totals, and the growth began from a small base, so the percentages do not establish how large agent commerce has become.
About 70 agents used Link during Stripe’s analysis; executive Dan Hill says the number has since reached roughly 200, including Meta’s Muse and Grok Bot. Most transactions are around $100, while some agents book flights or buy furniture costing thousands. Retail represented 36% of transactions and 32% of payment volume, and travel accounted for 28% of volume.
Link gives an agent a separate 16-digit payment number rather than the user’s actual card details, and users can impose spending limits. Those controls reduce exposure but do not remove the need to verify what an agent is authorized to buy. Stripe expects competition from PayPal and Shopify’s Shop Pay. For now, the disclosed growth shows momentum, while the missing absolute figures make broader adoption claims premature.