Walmart is opening its online store to AI shopping agents, but on terms that keep customers in charge of how much an agent can spend. On October 21, 2026, the retailer announced Agent Profiles, a new Agent Gateway and a set of rules for agents that buy on a shopper's behalf. The move stands in sharp contrast to Amazon, which has kept most third-party shopping agents off its site. For shoppers and sellers, it offers an early look at how agentic commerce could work at mass-retail scale.
What Walmart Announced
Walmart's announcement has three parts. The first is Agent Profiles, which give each authorized AI agent a dedicated profile inside a customer's Walmart account. Purchases made by agents are kept distinct from the shopper's own orders, which currently appear together in the same history. Walmart said the profiles would launch within about a month of the announcement.
The second is the Walmart Agent Gateway, a more direct connection for agents. It is built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard created by Anthropic, and it replaces the slower, error-prone browser-based shopping that agents rely on today. The gateway supports product discovery, adding items to a cart, purchasing and order tracking. It is in limited beta for companies and developers, and Walmart has not said when it will expand or who will be included.
The third part is a set of terms for agents. Agents must follow the shopper's instructions, cannot access unauthorized information, cannot receive card details and cannot add or change payment methods. Agents that break the rules can be blocked from the site.
How the Spending Controls Work
The default setting requires the customer to approve every agent purchase. Shoppers who want less friction can instead set a spending cap, with $50, $100 and $200 offered as examples. Walmart says it may still ask for extra approval even within a cap, and it has not disclosed the conditions under which it would do so.
Setup takes three steps, according to the announcement: start in the agent's app, sign in to Walmart to link the profile, then choose a spending limit. Shoppers can delete a profile at any time. Agents see the same prices a human shopper sees, with offers and fees displayed before purchase. Unintended purchases fall under Walmart's standard returns process.
The gateway is designed to help agents surface a shopper's regular items, such as a preferred brand of milk, without sharing the broader purchase history. Information a shopper shares directly with a third-party AI app remains governed by that app's privacy policy. Walmart has not said which agents will support Agent Profiles at launch. Its existing integrations include its own Sparky assistant, Meta's Muse, ChatGPT and Gemini.
Amazon Takes the Opposite Approach
The contrast with Amazon is stark. In September, Amazon blocked Meta's Muse agent, saying it had not authorized the agent to access customer accounts, scrape data or process transactions. Reports indicate Amazon has kept other third-party shopping agents off its platform as well.
Walmart's approach also connects to pricing. Its CEO, John Furner, ruled out personalized pricing in September after criticism from the Groundwork Collaborative. That decision means an agent sees the same price a human sees, which removes one possible objection to letting software shop on a customer's behalf.
One analysis of the announcement frames the split as strategic. An agent that shops across retailers can compare prices everywhere, which weakens any platform built on being the default place to buy. Walmart appears to be betting that if shoppers begin their purchases in chat interfaces, the retailer that is easiest for agents to buy from will win the order. Its hard limits on money and data are meant to protect the customer's account relationship while it does so.
Why It Matters
For agentic commerce, the key shift is from browsing to structured access. An agent that can search, build a cart and check out through a standard interface avoids the fragility of navigating a web page designed for people. That gives retailers with clean catalogs and clear rules a stronger position with agent platforms.
Shopper trust remains the main constraint. A cited August survey found that only 11% of U.S. adults had used AI to complete a transaction, and 70% wanted to review or override AI purchase decisions. Walmart's default-approval design and spending caps look built around that reluctance.
Several questions remain open. The gateway is invite-only, Walmart has not named launch partners, and the terms leave some approval mechanics unspecified. Sellers are also being encouraged to improve product listings so AI tools can understand and recommend their items. Whether the controls hold up once Agent Profiles go live will shape how quickly other retailers follow.
