China-only Alipay has launched an AI Pay service that allows autonomous AI agents to make purchases and complete payments on a user’s behalf, the Ant Group-owned platform announced on April 21.
Alipay already operates across travel use cases in China, from mini-programmes for airlines and hotels to its integration with tourism services. If AI agents can now handle payments autonomously, the implication for travel is that a user could eventually say “book me a hotel in Hangzhou for Friday” and have an AI agent search, select, book and pay without the user ever opening a travel app or OTA.
The new service enables so-called OpenClaw-type AI agents to handle transactions after a user authorises the function through voice command and identity verification. The process works in three steps: a user states a need, confirms the order and authorises payment. Orders can be modified or cancelled at any point with a single command. The service requires no coding or technical setup.
The launch builds on Alipay AI Pay, an AI-native payment product introduced in 2025 that passed 100mn users in February 2026, making it the first product of its kind to reach that milestone. During the week of February 5-11, the system processed more than 120mn transactions.
The new service is pre-installed on Alibaba Cloud’s JVS Claw and has been rolled out on DTClaw, Ant Group Digital Technologies’ agent platform. Alipay said AI Pay is also available to other OpenClaw-type agents, including Claude Code and Hermes Agent.
Security measures include mandatory user initiation and identity verification at activation, per-transaction authorisation and a round-the-clock risk control system. Alipay is extending its full compensation account protection programme to the new service.
The company has also released a set of developer-facing tools to support AI-driven commerce, including a Payment MCP Server that lets developers integrate payment services into AI agents using natural language, a Payment Integration Skill for so-called vibe coding developers, an AI tipping function and an AI subscription payment service based on usage time or duration. Alipay said each is the first of its kind in China.
The rollout comes as agentic commerce grows across the Chinese market, with Alipay AI Pay already operating across use cases from traditional retailers such as Luckin Coffee to AI smart glasses made by Rokid and Alibaba’s Qwen consumer AI application.
Alipay connects more than 1bn consumers to over 80mn merchants across China.