AI agents can now pay without human intervention: Pine Labs launches P3P protocol

June 11, 2026 — Pine Labs unveiled P3P, positioning it as India’s first end-to-end agentic payment protocol on UPI.

How it works

Users authorize a one-time UPI mandate delegating payment authority to an AI agent within predefined limits. The agent monitors conditions (price thresholds, inventory, negotiated terms) and executes transactions without further human authentication.

Gullak use case

Digital gold platform Gullak enables users to instruct agents: purchase ₹500 worth of gold when prices fall below a specified threshold. After mandate approval, execution is fully automated.

Vijay Sales POC

Electronics retailer testing target-price purchasing — agents complete transactions when user-defined price conditions are met, turning price discovery into a continuous machine-driven process.

Safeguards

Spending limits, Grantex identity verification, audit trails, and mandate revocation give users control despite autonomous execution.

Market significance

India processes billions of UPI transactions monthly. P3P provides global precedent for mandate-based agentic commerce at national scale — relevant to fintech builders worldwide even where UPI is not available.