Affirm, the pay later provider, is deepening its collaboration with Stripe, the payments platform. The companies already work together so merchants can use Stripe for payment processing while offering Affirm as a pay-over-time option at checkout: shoppers select Affirm during checkout, Affirm handles the financing decision and repayment schedule, and the merchant can receive confirmation and settle the transaction through Stripe’s payments flow.
Affirm’s network spans a wide range of merchants and commerce partners across common online purchase categories such as retail, travel, ticketing and services, and digital marketplaces, where pay-over-time options can be offered at checkout.
Potential downsides of using Affirm can include paying interest or other financing costs depending on the plan, the risk of overspending by splitting purchases into installments, and added complexity if a return or cancellation happens after a loan is created. For merchants, offering pay-over-time can introduce additional operational considerations around refunds, customer support handoffs, and eligibility or compliance requirements tied to the payment method.
Agentic Commerce: How Shared Payment Tokens Work
The broadened alliance is built to enable shared payment tokens, allowing artificial intelligence agents to initiate purchases with a shopper’s permission and preferred payment method without exposing sensitive credentials, the companies said Tuesday (March 3).
Over time, the partnership will bring Affirm’s pay-over-time option to checkout within artificial intelligence-driven commerce experiences. The rollout is expected to start with Stripe’s direct merchants, with broader availability expanding later as the capability is extended to additional merchants that offer Affirm, including those that do not process payments directly with Stripe.
Shoppers will see the full cost in advance and choose a clear repayment plan while an artificial intelligence assistant helps them browse and buy, and merchants can process those payments on the back end through Stripe.
Commerce is evolving rapidly in this artificial intelligence era, yet the appeal and standard of paying over time remain durable and increasingly relevant.
As artificial intelligence agents help people make smarter buying choices, consumers want total costs upfront, a transparent repayment plan, and no hidden fees. Affirm was built with artificial intelligence at its core, and we are eager to bring that to agentic commerce alongside partners like Stripe.
Adding Affirm to agentic payments boosts conversion for businesses while giving shoppers more flexibility in how they pay.
Shared payment tokens are intended to let any merchant that offers Affirm—whether or not they have a direct Stripe integration—accept these agentic transactions when supported by the artificial intelligence platform. In practice, the flow is designed to work as follows: a shopper grants permission for an agent to use a designated payment option; the agent initiates a checkout and presents the tokenized payment choice; Stripe runs the merchant-side payment confirmation while Affirm supports the pay-over-time selection and financing decision; and the merchant receives payment confirmation without the shopper’s sensitive credentials being exposed to the agent. For merchants, typical requirements include having a Stripe account, enabling Affirm as an available payment method where supported, using a Stripe checkout or payment integration that can present the option at purchase time, and ensuring the required customer and order details are passed so the transaction can be evaluated and completed.
How much the Stripe fee is when using Affirm can vary by merchant setup, region, and commercial terms, rather than being a single universal rate in this announcement. Merchants typically see their applicable pricing in the Stripe Dashboard’s payment method settings or in their Stripe agreement for the specific Stripe account processing the transaction.
To accept Affirm payments through Stripe, merchants generally need to (1) confirm Affirm is available for their Stripe account and region, (2) enable Affirm as a payment method in Stripe settings, (3) use a Stripe integration (such as a hosted checkout or embedded payment component) that can surface Affirm at checkout, (4) test the end-to-end purchase and refund flows in a non-production environment, and (5) go live once compliance and operational requirements are met.
Prohibited business categories when using Affirm with Stripe are governed by Stripe and Affirm policies and may include illegal or regulated goods, certain adult-oriented content, gambling-related activity, weapons or weapon accessories, and other high-risk or restricted categories. Merchants typically need to confirm eligibility during onboarding and ensure their products and marketing practices align with applicable policy requirements.
Refunds and disputes for Affirm transactions processed through Stripe are generally handled through the same operational tools merchants use for other Stripe payment methods: the merchant initiates a refund from their Stripe transaction view, and the refund is then reflected through the Affirm pay-over-time arrangement so the shopper’s balance and repayment schedule can be adjusted accordingly. For disputes, merchants typically respond through Stripe’s dispute process and provide the requested evidence, while the shopper’s financing and repayment experience is handled on the Affirm side based on the outcome.
Stripe Platform Partners looking for Affirm training materials typically find enablement content in Stripe’s partner resources and documentation, along with onboarding or implementation guidance provided through partner channels. Affirm may also provide partner-facing implementation and support materials as part of platform enablement and rollout planning.
In terms of artificial intelligence payment solutions, the announcement centers on agentic commerce experiences that use shared payment tokens so an authorized agent can initiate a transaction while limiting credential exposure. The intent is to combine Stripe’s payments orchestration with Affirm’s pay-over-time option so an agent-driven checkout can still provide clear upfront pricing, an explicit repayment plan, and merchant-side processing continuity.
Identity Standards for Agentic Commerce
Agentic commerce is also accelerating interest in identity and business-verification security standards, including:
- Know Your Agent
- Know Your Customer
- Know Your Business
In a recent discussion, Trulioo Chief Product Officer Zac Cohen described this as a natural extension of compliance workflows.
Independent verification will be essential, because businesses need a reliable way to confirm authorization, intent, and accountability before an agent can complete a transaction at scale.
We want to understand who the agents are and ensure they carry out an individual’s instructions and prompts exactly as intended.
Cohen added that liability is a key gating issue for agentic transactions, which is holding back broader adoption.
Another proposed layer is “Know Your Human,” ensuring a real person authorized the instruction and that the agent acts strictly within that delegated permission.