Agentic Commerce

AI agents are increasingly making purchases on behalf of cardholders. Giving an agent a way to pay needs two controls: limits on what the agent can buy, and keeping card data away from the agent so your systems stay out of PCI scope.

Lithic supports two ways for agents to pay:

Single-use virtual cards: Create a new card for each purchase. The card closes after its first authorization.
Agentic tokens: Connect a cardholder's existing card to an agent and create payment credentials for each purchase.

	Single-use virtual cards	Agentic tokens
Card number	A new card number for each purchase	One card per cardholder, with many tokens on top of it
What you create	A `SINGLE_USE` card for each purchase	A tokenization once per card and agent, then payment credentials for each purchase
Purchase limits	Spend limits and authorization rules on the card	A mandate the card network checks
PCI	Single-use card numbers are exempt from PCI requirements	The card's number never reaches your agent

Single-use virtual cards

Create a card with type: SINGLE_USE for each purchase and give the agent its number, expiration date, and CVV. The card closes after its first authorization, so later purchases on it are declined. See Cards.

Agentic tokens

Connect the cardholder's existing Lithic card to an agent, then request payment credentials for each purchase. See Create Agentic Tokens.