PayPal's Agentic Payments: Can These Unlock the Next Growth Leg?

PayPal PYPL is positioning agentic payments as a potential long-term growth opportunity as AI reshapes commerce. While the technology is not expected to contribute to results in the near term materially, management sees agentic payments and digital identity becoming increasingly meaningful from 2028 onward. The company is investing now to build capabilities ahead of this shift.

PayPal believes agentic payments can help it monetize its established wallet, merchant infrastructure, identity, risk capabilities and two-sided network. The strategy could allow the company to capture more transactions as commerce increasingly moves toward AI-driven experiences. However, PYPL has not provided specific revenue or transaction forecasts for agentic payments.

PayPal’s substantial existing scale backs the opportunity. In the second quarter of 2026, total payment volume (TPV) reached $486.4 billion, while payment transactions came in at 6.75 billion, and active accounts stood at 439 million.

Agentic payments are not PayPal’s primary near-term growth driver. Financial services, Venmo, Braintree and improved checkout execution remain more immediate priorities, particularly as branded checkout growth stays subdued. Agentic commerce is instead part of the company’s longer-term strategy to diversify growth.

PayPal’s scale, identity and risk infrastructure could provide a strong foundation for agentic commerce. Still, investors should view it as 2028+ growth optionality rather than a near-term earnings catalyst, with execution, regulation, cybersecurity and adoption remaining key risks.

How Are PayPal’s Competitors Faring?

Visa V is building Visa Intelligent Commerce, which enables AI agents to make secure payments using Visa credentials, authentication and fraud controls. Visa also partnered with OpenAI in June 2026 to support secure Visa payments in agentic-commerce experiences, giving it significant scale through its global payment network.

Mastercard MA is advancing agentic commerce through Mastercard Agent Pay, which allows registered AI agents to initiate authenticated payments based on verified user intent. In June 2026, Mastercard expanded the platform with Agent Pay for Machines, supporting high-frequency automated transactions.

PYPL’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of PayPal have gained 26.5% over the past three months, outperforming the broader industry and the S&P 500 Index.

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From a valuation standpoint, PayPal shares are trading cheaply, as suggested by the Value Score of A. In terms of forward 12-month P/E, PYPL stock is trading at 9.46X, which is at a significant discount to the Zacks Financial Transaction Services industry’s 17.70X.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

PayPal’s estimate revisions reflect a positive trend. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for full-year 2026 EPS has been revised upward to $5.38 over the past month. The consensus estimate for the metric indicates a year-over-year increase of 1.3%.

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PayPal currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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