Walmart announced on October 21, 2026, that it is introducing Agent Profiles, the Walmart Agent Gateway, and terms for AI agents, tools the retailer said will let customers shop with Walmart and Sam’s Club through the apps and agents they choose, with permissions, controls, and protections built in.
Walmart said it currently serves customers through stores and clubs, online shopping, pickup and delivery, its Sparky assistant, and conversational commerce integrations with Muse, ChatGPT, Gemini, and others. The company said it is rolling out the new tools as AI agents become more mainstream, adding that it wants to help shape what shopping becomes rather than wait to see.
Under the current setup, when a customer uses an AI agent to shop at Walmart, the agent signs in using the customer’s account, so purchases made by the customer and by the agent appear together without differentiation, according to the announcement.
Agent Profiles and Spending Controls
Agent Profiles will launch in the next month, Walmart said. Customers will be able to authorize each AI agent with a dedicated profile inside their account, separating the agent’s purchases from the rest of their order history.
Customers will be able to require approval for every purchase or allow the agent to buy within a spending limit they set; Walmart gave $50, $100, and $200 as examples. Permissions can be turned off at any time. Walmart compared the setup to adding someone as a cardholder on a credit card, with the agent getting its own profile to shop under limits the customer controls.
The setup flow starts in the agent’s app: the first time a customer uses an agent to shop through the Walmart Agent Gateway, Walmart will automatically create an Agent Profile for that agent. The customer then authorizes and links the profile to their Walmart account, chooses a spending limit, and can view purchases from every agent. An Agent Profile can be deleted at any time.
Walmart also said its Every Day Low Price commitment is unchanged whether a customer shops directly or through an agent: the prices an AI agent sees are the same prices a human would see on Walmart.com, with applicable offers and fees shown before purchase.
The Walmart Agent Gateway
Walmart said agents can currently shop its site through a web browser, following steps designed for people, which it described as slow and error-prone. The Walmart Agent Gateway is being built to give agents a faster, more reliable way to shop using MCP, beginning with a beta for companies and developers.
The company said the gateway will also help agents shop for a customer’s usual items, such as sourdough bread or a particular brand of milk, without sharing the customer’s personal information or broader purchase history with the agent.
The official beta page describes the gateway as connecting AI agents with Walmart through Sparky for faster shopping, real-time answers, and more control from start to checkout. The page promises up-to-date product and fulfillment data directly from Walmart instead of website scraping, reduced requests, latency, and token usage, and verified identities, controlled permissions, and observable actions. Walmart’s listed safeguards include category restrictions, rate limits, and compliance guardrails for agents.
The page also notes that Walmart Agent Gateway is an early beta program: access is limited, available by invitation only, and may be suspended at any time, and some features may change and may not be available to all participants.
Terms for AI Agents
Walmart’s announced terms require customers to approve agent purchases by default, and Walmart may require additional approvals even for purchases within an agent’s spending limit. The company’s returns process applies, including when an agent does not act as intended. Agents must not take actions beyond what the shopper intends, do not receive customers’ payment-card information, and cannot add or change payment methods. Agents can access only the information needed for the task and allowed by the customer.
The agent provider’s privacy policy governs information the agent receives, while Walmart collects and processes information the agent provides under Walmart’s Privacy Notice. Agents that do not follow the terms will be blocked from Walmart’s site.
Walmart.com’s Terms of Use, last updated September 21, 2026, define an agent as any software-based system, application, or service that autonomously or semi-autonomously accesses or interacts with Walmart’s sites on a user’s behalf or instruction, including AI assistants and browser-automation tools; assistive technologies that enable users with disabilities to access the sites are excluded from the definition. The terms prohibit any robot, spider, or agent that has not been authorized under the Authorized Agents section or Walmart’s Agentic Access Terms from scraping materials, placing orders, or otherwise interacting with the sites, and separately prohibit using site materials to develop, train, or improve AI or machine-learning models without written consent.
Under the Authorized Agents section, actions an authorized agent takes within granted permissions are treated as the customer’s own. Agents must identify themselves as agents, must not conceal that their interactions are automated, and must comply with rate limits and other technical measures. Walmart may limit the value, quantity, or frequency of agent transactions, decline or reverse transactions, and suspend or revoke access at any time, while customers may revoke an agent’s access through account settings. Authorizing an agent does not make it a Walmart employee, partner, contractor, or representative, and the terms state Walmart is not responsible for a third-party agent’s conduct.
