Who are Mastercard's competitors?
Mastercard's fiscal 2025 10-K, filed February 11, 2026, says it competes in all categories of payments and names its card network rivals: Visa, American Express, JCB, China UnionPay and Discover. Visa's fiscal 2025 10-K, citing The Nilson Report, puts calendar 2024 payments volume at $13,433 billion for Visa and $8,014 billion for Mastercard, against $1,750 billion for American Express, $319 billion for JCB and $253 billion for Diners Club/Discover, now owned by Capital One. Beyond cards, Mastercard's 10-K lists debit and local networks, real-time account-based systems, government-backed rails such as Brazil's Pix, FedNow and India's UPI, digital wallets and other fintechs, stablecoins and crypto natives, and, in services, technology companies that provide cyber and fraud solutions, including AI-based ones. Pix transactions rose to nearly 80 billion in 2025, and Reuters reports that Pix has eroded the share of cards in Brazil, affecting Mastercard and Visa. The contest has moved to AI agents: Payments Dive (March 2026) calls Visa Mastercard's chief rival and describes both jockeying to set agentic payment standards, and Forbes (June 2026) describes card networks and Coinbase's x402 stablecoin protocol competing over how agents pay. Services are a second front: American Banker reported in January 2026 that Mastercard's value-added services net revenue was $3.4 billion in its most recent quarter, up 25%, while Visa's value-added services brought in $17.5 billion in fiscal 2025. Mastercard's own network carried $10.6 trillion of gross dollar volume and 175.5 billion switched transactions in 2025.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Data as of Nov 2, 2026 · Mastercard profile updated Oct 22, 2026 · 21 sources cited on this page · 56 fintechs profiled on this site · Markdown
What does Mastercard's own 10-K say about its competitors?
The Competition section of the FY2025 10-K, filed February 11, 2026, opens: "We face a number of competitors both within and outside of the global payments industry." Among general purpose payments networks it says: "We compete worldwide with payments networks such as Visa, American Express, JCB, China UnionPay and Discover, among others." It adds: "Some competitors have more market share than we do in certain jurisdictions." Some also have business models that may give them an advantage in pricing, technology or regulatory compliance burdens, the filing says, and a number of Mastercard's customers also issue American Express-, China UnionPay- and/or Discover-branded cards in a four-party manner.[1]
Beyond card networks, the 10-K lists six more groups: ATM and point-of-sale debit networks and local brands; ACH and real-time account-based payments, where it says "we face a possible increase in competition for our existing domestic person-to-merchant (“P2M”) and person-to-person (“P2P”) transaction market share"; digital wallets and other fintechs, including buy now, pay later providers and device manufacturers; government-backed digital public infrastructure such as Pix, FedNow and UPI; stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and crypto natives; and providers of services, including "technology companies that provide cyber and fraud solutions (including AI-based solutions)" and open finance rivals. It names no fintech or technology company.[1]
The risk factors sharpen the picture. "Certain of our competitors to our payment network operate three-party payments systems with direct connections to both merchants and consumers, potentially providing competitive advantages", the filing says, and "fintechs and technology companies could develop platforms or networks that disintermediate us from digital payments". On AI, it warns that technological changes including AI and machine learning "could result in new technologies that may be superior to, or render obsolete, the technologies we currently use", and that uncertainty remains as to how AI "(such as in agentic commerce)" will continue to advance. It lists "Data and AI" among Mastercard's competitive advantages.[1]
Who competes with Mastercard, where, and how do they compare on AI?
One row per competitor. Scale figures are each company's own or as published in the cited filing; they use different measures and periods and are not comparable across rows. AI entries are each competitor's own dated product or claim.
| Competitor | Where they compete | Dated scale figure | How they compare on AI | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visa | Global card network, named first in Mastercard's 10-K; Payments Dive calls Visa Mastercard's chief rival (March 2026); also competes in value-added services such as risk tools | $13,433 billion payments volume, calendar 2024 (Mastercard: $8,014 billion) | Visa Intelligent Commerce APIs for agent-driven transactions and an MCP server that lets AI systems use them (FY2025 10-K, November 2025); a risk hub built on technology from AI firm Featurespace, which Visa acquired (American Banker, January 2026) | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; Visa 10-K FY2025; Payments Dive, Mar 2026; American Banker, Jan 2026[1][2][4][6] |
| American Express | Card network that is also issuer and acquirer; Mastercard's 10-K names it, and Amex's 2025 10-K names Mastercard among the networks it competes with | $1,750 billion payments volume, calendar 2024 (Nilson Report data in Visa's 10-K) | ACE developer kit with agent registration and verification for agentic payments; Amex says it has completed "thousands" of agentic payments in tests (April 14, 2026) | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; Amex 10-K 2025; Visa 10-K FY2025; American Banker, Apr 2026[1][7][2][8] |
| China UnionPay | Card network named in Mastercard's 10-K; Amex's 2025 10-K ranks Amex fourth by purchase volume, behind Visa, China UnionPay and Mastercard | Hundreds of millions of UnionPay cards issued in 83 countries and regions (September 2025); volume not in Visa's Nilson comparison | Chairman Dong Junfeng: "UnionPay's solution is AI"; UnionPay says its models cut the time to respond to cross-border fraudulent transactions from two or three days to one day (December 2025) | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; Amex 10-K 2025; UnionPay, Sep and Dec 2025[1][7][9][10] |
| JCB | Card network named in Mastercard's 10-K; Visa's 10-K says it is concentrated in Japan | $319 billion payments volume, calendar 2024 (credit cards; Nilson Report data in Visa's 10-K) | — | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; Visa 10-K FY2025[1][2] |
| Capital One (Discover and Diners Club) | Discover is named in Mastercard's 10-K; Capital One's 2025 10-K says it now competes with other networks for partners to issue on its network and "cannot be certain that we will achieve global market parity with Visa or Mastercard" | $253 billion Diners Club/Discover payments volume, calendar 2024 (Nilson Report data in Visa's 10-K) | Chat Concierge, its first proprietary multi-agentic AI assistant, built on Meta's open-source Llama (March 2025) | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; Capital One 10-K 2025; Visa 10-K FY2025; Capital One, Mar 2025[1][11][2][12] |
| PayPal | Digital wallets and fintechs, a group Mastercard's 10-K lists without naming companies; American Banker (January 2026) notes PayPal, Block and Stripe serve consumers and merchants while Visa's and Mastercard's networks are much larger; also an Agent Pay partner since October 2025 | $1.79 trillion total payment volume, 2025 | Supports Meta's Muse assistant, letting the AI agent search and execute transactions for consumers (September 23, 2026) | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; American Banker, Jan 2026 and Oct 2025; PayPal 10-K 2025; American Banker, Sep 2026[1][6][13][14][15] |
| Coinbase (x402) | Stablecoins and crypto natives, which Mastercard's 10-K says could compete with its products; Forbes (June 2026) describes card networks and Coinbase's x402 protocol fighting over how AI agents pay; Coinbase is also among the first participants in Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines | More than 169 million x402 payments in its first year, as Coinbase reports (Forbes, June 2026) | x402, launched in May 2025, settles USDC payments over the web for machine-to-machine payments by agents; Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines, in early access since October 2026, builds on x402 | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; Forbes, Jun 2026; Mastercard, Jun 2026; PYMNTS, Oct 2026[1][5][16][17] |
| Pix (Banco Central do Brasil) | Government-backed real-time payments, which Mastercard's 10-K says are increasingly considered alternatives to schemes such as its own; Reuters reports Pix has eroded the share of debit and credit cards in Brazil, affecting Mastercard and Visa | Nearly 80 billion transactions in 2025, up 25.7% | — | Mastercard 10-K FY2025; Reuters, Aug 2026[1][3] |
How big is Mastercard's network next to Visa, American Express, JCB and Discover?
Calendar 2024 figures as published in Visa's fiscal 2025 10-K, which sources the other networks' data from The Nilson Report issue 1288 (June 2025). Visa and Mastercard include credit, debit and prepaid cards (Mastercard excludes Maestro and Cirrus); American Express, Diners Club/Discover and JCB are credit cards, including third-party issuers. UnionPay is not in the comparison.
| Network | Owner | Payments volume, 2024 | Transactions, 2024 | Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visa | Visa | $13,433 billion | 311 billion | 4,805 million[2] |
| Mastercard | Mastercard | $8,014 billion | 204 billion | 3,146 million[2] |
| American Express | American Express | $1,750 billion | 12 billion | 147 million[2] |
| JCB | JCB | $319 billion | 7 billion | 167 million[2] |
| Diners Club / Discover | Capital One | $253 billion | 4 billion | 72 million[2] |
What companies are similar to Mastercard, and who are they best for?
| Company | Why it is similar | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Visa | An open card network that banks issue on, like Mastercard; Mastercard's 10-K notes that financial institutions may issue both Mastercard-branded and competitor products | Issuers and merchants who want the network with the largest 2024 payments volume in Visa's Nilson comparison ($13,433 billion)[1][2] |
| American Express | A card network, but a closed-loop one: Amex is card issuer, payment network and merchant acquirer at once | Card members and merchants who want one company on both sides of a payment; Amex uses that model to vet agentic transactions[8][1] |
| Capital One (Discover) | A U.S. bank that owns a payment network, which it says competes with other networks for partners | Card issuers looking at a U.S. network other than Visa and Mastercard; Visa's 10-K says Discover is concentrated in the U.S.[11][2] |
| UnionPay | A general-purpose card network named by both Mastercard's and Amex's 10-Ks | Merchants serving UnionPay cardholders abroad; UnionPay says over 80% of merchants in Europe accept its cards at POS terminals (September 2025)[1][7][9] |
| Pix and other real-time account-to-account rails | Payment systems that move money between bank accounts without a card, which Mastercard's 10-K counts among its competitors | Payers and merchants in Brazil: Pix offers free person-to-person payments and significantly cheaper transactions for merchants, per Reuters[1][3] |
Where is the competition between Mastercard and its rivals heading?
Agent payment standards. Payments Dive reported in March 2026 that Visa and Mastercard are joining forces with Stripe and Google to set standards for agentic shopping and payments even as they compete. Visa introduced its Trusted Agent Protocol in October 2025, while Mastercard's Verifiable Intent, co-developed with Google, drew buy-in from processors including Worldpay, Fiserv, Checkout.com and Adyen.[4][18]
Which rail agents settle on. Forbes (June 2026) frames two camps: payments over tokenized card credentials controlled by Visa and Mastercard, and stablecoin settlement over open internet protocols, led by Coinbase's x402. It reads Mastercard's March 2026 agreement to buy stablecoin platform BVNK for up to $1.8 billion as a hedge, and says consumer agentic shopping is settling on cards while the stablecoin rail won the machine layer.[5]
Services. American Banker reported in January 2026 that value-added services such as security, marketing and consulting have become a major part of Visa's and Mastercard's revenue, as rival fintechs and regulation pressure card revenue. Analysts at William Blair wrote that if the networks "simply sold on their respective network value", some issuers and acquirers "might choose to purchase services from third parties". Visa built a risk hub on Featurespace's technology; Morgan Stanley projected value-added services growth for both networks in the high teens to low 20s in 2026.[6]
What is not disclosed: Mastercard's 10-K gives no market shares and names no fintech, wallet or technology company among its competitors, and it does not quantify how much volume real-time rails such as Pix have taken from cards.[1]
What does the Mastercard profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the Mastercard AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 22, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 18 dated moves, 10 use cases and 25 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Pay for Machines | Credentialing, programmatic spending limits and guaranteed multi-rail settlement for high-frequency, low-value payments between agents and services; reached early access in October 2026, built on the x402 open payment protocol. | Pilot | [16][17] |
| Recorded Future and Mastercard Threat Intelligence | AI-driven threat intelligence from Recorded Future, combined with Mastercard's network visibility in a threat-intelligence service launched in 2025 to detect cyberattacks that lead to payment fraud. | In production | [19][1] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 20, 2026 | Agent Pay for Machines reaches early access | Mastercard opens early access to Agent Pay for Machines, built on the x402 open payment protocol, letting autonomous AI agents discover providers and pay for digital services within a defined budget without a separate account, API key or invoice per provider; demonstrated at Cloudflare Connect with marketing agency Hype as a worked example (an agent running nine payments across two merchants under one budget). | [17] |
| Jul 30, 2026 | Q2 results cite agentic payments | Mastercard reports Q2 2026 net revenue of $9.3 billion, up 14%; CEO Michael Miebach points to its 'market-first Agentic Payment capability'. | [20] |
| Jun 10, 2026 | Agent Pay for Machines launched | A service for permissioned, orchestrated and settled machine-to-machine payments, some fractions of a cent, across cards, accounts and stablecoins, with more than 30 initial participants including Adyen, Coinbase, Stripe and Cloudflare. | [16] |
| Mar 5, 2026 | Verifiable Intent open-sourced with Google | Mastercard introduces Verifiable Intent, co-developed with Google and aligned with Google's AP2 and UCP protocols, as an open specification and reference implementation on GitHub, providing cryptographic proof of what a user authorized an agent to buy. | [18] |
| Sep 30, 2025 | Agent Pay usable in ChatGPT Instant Checkout | With OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol, Agent Pay and Agentic Tokens can be used on OpenAI's platform; Citi and U.S. Bank cardholders are enabled, with all U.S. Mastercard cardholders due by mid-November 2025. | [21] |
| Dec 20, 2024 | Recorded Future acquisition completes | Mastercard completes its purchase of Recorded Future, adding AI-driven threat intelligence to its cybersecurity, identity and fraud-scoring services; the FY2025 10-K puts the cash consideration at $2.7 billion. | [19][1] |
Who are Mastercard's biggest competitors?
Among card networks, Visa, American Express, JCB, China UnionPay and Discover, which Mastercard's fiscal 2025 10-K names. Beyond cards, the 10-K lists real-time rails such as Pix, FedNow and UPI, digital wallets and fintechs, stablecoins and crypto natives, and technology companies selling AI-based cyber and fraud services. Payments Dive calls Visa its chief rival.
What companies are similar to Mastercard?
Visa is the closest: an open card network that banks issue on. American Express and Capital One's Discover also run card networks, though Amex is issuer, network and acquirer at once. UnionPay and JCB are the other networks Mastercard's 10-K names, and real-time rails such as Pix move money without a card.
Mastercard vs Visa: which is bigger?
Visa, on the comparison in Visa's fiscal 2025 10-K, which uses Nilson Report data for calendar 2024: $13,433 billion of payments volume and 311 billion transactions for Visa, against $8,014 billion and 204 billion for Mastercard. Visa had 4,805 million cards and Mastercard 3,146 million.
Is PayPal a competitor of Mastercard?
Partly. Mastercard's 10-K lists digital wallets and other fintechs among its competitors without naming them, and American Banker contrasts PayPal, Block and Stripe with the much larger Visa and Mastercard networks. PayPal is also a partner: in October 2025 the two agreed to integrate Mastercard Agent Pay into PayPal's checkout wallet.
Does Pix compete with Mastercard?
Yes, by Mastercard's own account. Its 10-K names Brazil's Pix, FedNow and UPI as government-backed systems increasingly considered alternatives to schemes like its own. Reuters reports that Pix has eroded the share of debit and credit cards in Brazil, affecting Mastercard and Visa, and that Pix transactions reached nearly 80 billion in 2025.
Is American Express a competitor of Mastercard?
Yes. Mastercard's 10-K names American Express among the networks it competes with and warns that some rivals run three-party systems with direct links to merchants and consumers. Amex's 2025 10-K names Mastercard among its network rivals. Amex's 2024 payments volume was $1,750 billion, per the Nilson data in Visa's 10-K.
- Mastercard Incorporated Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Visa Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 (Competition; network comparison sourced from The Nilson Report)
- Brazil central bank eyes expansion for Pix payment system as US trade scrutiny intensifies
- Visa, Mastercard jockey to set agentic standards
- Visa, Mastercard And Coinbase Are Fighting Over How AI Agents Pay
- How nonpayments became big business at Visa and Mastercard
- American Express Company Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025
- Amex tries to 'grease the skids' for agentic commerce
- UnionPay Expands Acceptance Across Europe, Now Accepted in Over 90% of European Countries and Regions
- UnionPay Hosts Global Partners Conference 2025 - Innovations in Open Payments
- Capital One Financial Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2025
- Driving the future of car buying with agentic AI (Chat Concierge)
- Mastercard-PayPal agentic AI pact shakes up e-commerce
- PayPal Holdings, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) for fiscal year 2025
- PayPal partners with Meta's Muse AI assistant
- Mastercard launches Agent Pay for Machines to unlock super-fast, always-on payments
- Mastercard Debuts Tool to Help AI Agents Purchase Digital Services
- When AI starts buying for you, trust becomes the product
- Mastercard finalizes acquisition of Recorded Future
- Mastercard Incorporated Second-Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)
- Making agentic AI commerce a reality with embedded, trusted payments
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