As AI-driven commerce continues to evolve, Pine Labs has launched the Pine Labs Payment Protocol (P3P), a new payment infrastructure designed to enable AI agents to independently complete UPI transactions in India.
The company said P3P removes the need for manual authentication during every transaction by building on the existing UPI mandate framework. Users can provide a one-time approval and allow AI agents to make purchases within predefined spending limits.
According to Pine Labs, India’s current UPI ecosystem is built around human-initiated payments that require authentication through methods such as MPINs. While effective for digital payments, this creates limitations for agentic commerce, where AI systems can browse products, compare options, negotiate prices and complete purchases autonomously.
P3P extends existing UPI-based frameworks, including One Time Mandates (OTM), Reserve Pay and Single Block Multiple Debit (SBMD). Once user authorisation is established, AI agents can execute transactions without requiring approval for every purchase.
To strengthen security and compliance, Pine Labs has partnered with Grantex to provide identity verification, delegated authorisation, spending controls, compliance checks and audit trails. The protocol also incorporates HTTP 402, a web standard for machine-readable payment requests that supports agent-to-agent payment interactions.
The company emphasized that users retain full control over the process. They can set spending limits, verify AI agent identities, review transaction history and revoke permissions whenever required.
P3P is already live and is being deployed across multiple sectors. Digital gold investment platform Gullak has integrated the protocol into its services, while electronics retailer Vijay Sales is conducting a proof-of-concept deployment.
Currently focused on UPI transactions, Pine Labs is also working with major card networks to expand the protocol to card-based payments.
Citing industry estimates, the company projects the global agentic commerce market to reach $65.47 billion (approximately ₹6.22 lakh crore) by 2033, with India expected to play a significant role due to its extensive UPI ecosystem.
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