# Visa CLI: Payments for AI Agents Right from the Terminal
Visa Crypto Labs has launched Visa CLI—a CLI tool for initiating card payments by AI agents, bots, and scripts directly from the command line. Authentication uses tokenization and certificates, with no API keys stored. The tool is in beta and available by request on the developer's website.
This solves the 'financial bottleneck' for autonomous systems: scripts can now pay for cloud resources, API calls, or goods without manual confirmation. Visa calls this 'commerce from the command line,' enabling machine-level programmatic payments.
Agentic Ready Program in Europe and Latin America
The Agentic Ready initiative has also launched for European banks. The pilot involves 21 financial institutions, including Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Revolut, and Commerzbank. Banks are testing payments initiated by AI agents on behalf of customers.
Banco Santander conducted the first live transactions in five Latin American countries. An AI agent autonomously bought a book, handling authorization, settlement, and Visa network processing without human involvement. This demonstrates the full agentic commerce cycle in production.
Competitive Developments and Visa's Advantage
Visa CLI fits into the trend of AI payment infrastructure:
- Coinbase and Cloudflare: x402 protocol for micropayments in stablecoins;
- Stripe with Tempo: Machine Payments Protocol.
Visa’s edge is its global network across 200+ countries and tokenized infrastructure that has processed 17.5 billion tokens (three times the number of physical cards).
Statistics and Adoption Forecasts
Visa data shows 47% of U.S. consumers already use AI for shopping: price comparisons, product recommendations. By the 2026 season, mass delegation of purchases to agents is expected. Vice President Rubail Birwadker noted: 2025 will be the last year of independent ordering.
For developers, this provides API-like access to payments: integrate Visa CLI into ML model pipelines, bots, or DevOps scripts for seamless monetization.
Key Takeaways
- Visa CLI eliminates manual confirmation for script payments via tokenization;
- Agentic Ready is being tested by 21 European banks; Santander ran live transactions in LatAm;
- Visa's global network has processed 17.5 billion tokens;
- 47% of users employ AI for shopping, with full delegation forecasted by 2026;
- Competitors: x402 (Coinbase/Cloudflare), Machine Payments (Stripe/Tempo).
— Editorial Team
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