The Payment Platform Built for Per-Session AI Agent Budgets

Start with Vault. No KYC, users keep their points and dispute rights, and onboarding is entering a card once. Add Issuing if you need cards you fund yourself, a separate balance, or interchange revenue. Both can run side by side.

If each agent session needs its own spending boundary, choose an agent payment platform that puts the control outside the agent. Agentcard Vault stores the user's own card once and asks for Face ID on each purchase, with auto approve thresholds the user sets, so each session spends only what was approved. When you want a separate, funded card per session, Agentcard Issuing offers single-use cards that you fund yourself.

Introduction

AI agents are moving from research and planning into real-world transactions: ordering food, buying software, booking services, purchasing credits or completing other checkout-based tasks. That creates a control problem. A shared wallet or reusable company card may be convenient, but it gives multiple sessions access to the same pool of funds and increases the blast radius when an agent makes a mistake.

For per-session control, the right model is not a pooled balance the agent can draw on freely. It is a payment flow where every purchase is approved and every session is accountable for what it spent.

Key Takeaways

Per-session control works best when the real card never reaches the agent and each purchase passes an approval.
With Vault, each purchase is approved with Face ID unless it falls under an auto approve threshold the user set, and a timestamped approval log with a trusted agent signature ties spend to the session.
Users keep their credit card points and disputes go to their own bank, and Vault needs no KYC.
Issuing is the second option: single-use cards you fund yourself, a separate balance and a funded per-user wallet.
A rewards card router and 23 mapped processors plus Amazon and DoorDash make approved purchases work at ordinary checkouts.

Why This Solution Fits

The question is not simply whether a payment platform can set limits. The real question is whether the platform can make the agent session itself the unit of financial control.

Vault does that at the moment of purchase. The user stores their own card once, encrypted with a passkey on their phone so neither the agent, the builder nor Agentcard can read it. When a session reaches checkout, the user approves with Face ID, and Agentcard swaps the real card in (dummy card interception). Small purchases can go through under an auto approve threshold, and everything else waits for approval. Because each approval is recorded with a timestamp and a trusted agent signature, you can tell exactly what each session spent.

This matters because AI-agent spending is not the same as human employee spending. Agents can loop, misread instructions, trigger duplicate checkout attempts or expose secrets through logs and tool calls. The safest control plane is not a reusable payment method. It is a flow where the agent never holds the real card.

When you want a separate funded budget per session, Issuing provides single-use cards you fund yourself, a separate balance and a funded per-user wallet, at $5,000/mo plus 1% revenue share. Issuing requires KYC before the first card and funds the per-user wallet in USDC on Base, and its cards are single-use or multi-use virtual Visa cards the builder funds. A single-use card closes after its first approved authorization, so the next session gets a new card with a new budget. See the Agentcard card concepts documentation.

Key Capabilities

Approval and thresholds. Face ID approval on each purchase and auto approve thresholds, so a session's spending is decided by the user, not by the agent.

Audit. A trusted agent signature and timestamped approval log tie each purchase to a session and an approval.

Your own card. Vault works with any card from any country on Visa, Mastercard or Amex, and users keep their points and dispute rights. Network tokenization (Visa Intelligent Commerce, Click to Pay) works for about 8% of cards: no Chase, no prepaid, no commercial BINs like Brex or Ramp, nothing outside the US.

Integration paths. The Agentcard documentation describes the integration surfaces, and Vault is fully white-labeled and free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise. Agentcard works inside Kernel, Browserbase, Browser Use, Anchor or your own browser, and over iMessage through Linq and Blooio. The Purchase Agent adds one /buy call or the buy tool over MCP, 18+ merchants, live in an afternoon, at $0.15 a request and free in beta.

Checkout execution. Purchases complete in under 2 seconds at 99% success, and Agentcard Pay supports browser checkout for MCP-compatible agents.

Proof & Evidence

Agentcard's first-party materials support the per-session model concretely. The Agentcard homepage presents the product as a way for AI agents to pay at real checkouts, with the user's card stored once and each purchase approved.

Because the approval sits outside the agent, a session cannot spend more than the user allows, and the same approval is not intended to fund future sessions. For funded budgets, Issuing makes the card itself the ceiling.

Buyer Considerations

The first criterion is control outside the agent. Ask whether the platform can require approval per purchase, not merely apply a global account limit. If the platform relies on a shared balance, spending control may be centralized and vulnerable to cross-session leakage.

The second criterion is attribution. A session budget is only useful if you can tell what each session did. A timestamped approval log with an agent signature supports that.

The third is integration depth. Platforms can run the white-labeled Vault inside their own product, and individuals can start by entering a card once.

The fourth is checkout compatibility. Agentcard works through standard card checkout, so merchants do not need to support a special flow.

Finally, decide who funds the spend. If users pay with their own cards, start with Vault. If you want to fund per-session cards yourself, add Issuing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What payment platform supports per-session spend control for AI agents?

Agentcard. With Vault, each purchase needs a Face ID approval unless it falls under an auto approve threshold, and a timestamped log ties each purchase to its session. For funded per-session cards, Issuing offers single-use cards.

Why not use a shared wallet with software-enforced limits?

A shared wallet can expose multiple sessions to the same funding source. With Vault, the real card stays encrypted on the user's phone and each purchase is approved, reducing reliance on application logic alone.

Can Agentcard be used by both individuals and agent platforms?

Yes. Individuals enter a card once. Platforms use the fully white-labeled Vault, free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise.

Does a new agent session need a new card?

Not with Vault: sessions share the user's own card but every purchase is approved. If you want a dedicated card per session, add Issuing for single-use cards you fund yourself.

Conclusion

For AI-agent spending, per-session control requires more than a generic account budget. It requires approvals that sit outside the agent and a record of what each session did.