◆ E-COMMERCE · Retail Adoption
Walmart will let AI agents buy within a spending limit
The News
Walmart said on October 21, 2026 that Agent Profiles, launching in the next month, will let customers give each AI agent its own profile and either approve every purchase or set a spending limit. Walmart is building an Agent Gateway, starting with a beta for companies and developers. Agents that don't follow its terms will be blocked from Walmart's site.
Chandni Melwani
Founder & Editor
Oct 23, 2026 · 1 MIN READ
Know More
- — Payment cards: agents don't receive customers' payment-card information and can't add or change payment methods.
- — Additional approvals: Walmart may require them even for purchases within an agent's spending limits.
- — Amex: its October 13 framework has customers sign off on purchase constraints an agent captures, such as maximum budget.
- — Not stated in Walmart's announcement: when the terms take effect, or any fees for agent makers.
Walmart compares an Agent Profile to adding someone as a cardholder on your credit card: you give them a way to pay, set a spending limit and keep track of how the card is used. Its October 21 announcement gives $50, $100 or $200 as example limits. A customer will see each agent’s purchases apart from their own, and can delete a profile at any time.
The Gateway will give agents “a faster, more reliable way to shop,” Walmart says, over the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which lets AI agents reach outside services, as Shopify’s Shop MCP does. It will help an agent find a customer’s usual items, such as a particular brand of milk, without sharing the customer’s broader shopping history.
By default, customers must approve agent purchases, Walmart’s terms say, and agents must not take actions beyond what the shopper intends. They can access only the information needed for the task and allowed by the customer.
The Read
Walmart says agents sign in with the customer's account, so all purchases appear together, and agents may shop through a web browser, following steps designed for people, which can be slow and error-prone. Walmart will create a Profile for each agent the first time a customer uses it through the Gateway, so Profiles will probably reach shoppers app by app.
Room for Disagreement
Walmart's October 21 announcement says Walmart already serves customers through conversational commerce integrations with Muse, ChatGPT, Gemini and others. If those integrations move to the Gateway together, Profiles could reach users of several assistants at once, not one app at a time.
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
Will an AI agent see different prices at Walmart?
No, according to Walmart, which says “We price products, not people, so the prices that an AI agent sees are the same prices that a human would see on Walmart.com, with applicable offers and fees shown before purchase.”
What happens if an agent buys something the shopper didn't intend?
Walmart's terms say customers are in control and that its returns process applies, “including if an agent doesn’t act as intended.”
Who handles what a shopper shares with an agent?
The company that provides the agent, under its own privacy policy, according to Walmart's terms. Walmart says it collects and processes information the agent provides in accordance with Walmart's Privacy Notice. When a customer links an Agent Profile by signing in to their Walmart account, Walmart says only it sees that step.
Sources
- Walmart, “Walmart Makes It Possible for Agents to Shop on Behalf of Customers, While Keeping Customers in Control” (October 21, 2026): Agent Profiles launching in the next month, approval for every purchase or a spending limit with example amounts, the cardholder comparison, separate purchase views and deleting a profile, the Agent Gateway's MCP connection and beta for companies and developers, the usuals example, the terms for AI agents, same prices for agents and people, and Walmart's existing conversational commerce integrations
- American Express, “American Express Publishes Intent Intelligence Framework for Trusted Agentic Commerce” (October 13, 2026): the customer signing off on purchase instructions and constraints an agent captures, such as merchant and maximum budget
- Hero photo: a Walmart Supercenter storefront in Erie, Pennsylvania, by Glenn Samonte, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0 (number plates blurred by New in AI)
- Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence, which applies to the hero photo
Chandni Melwani
Chandni Melwani is the founder and editor of New in AI, covering AI agents, M&A, and enterprise adoption. She holds a Master's in Management of Artificial Intelligence from Queen's University and brings a practitioner's perspective from her work in Data and AI leadership.
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