Zinc - Retail API for AI agents
Zinc · Business · Other
Zinc is a retail API for AI agents and apps to search, buy, track and return products across thousands of retailers from one integration.
About Zinc - Retail API for AI agents
What Is Zinc
Zinc is a purchase API that handles the whole online purchasing lifecycle: it finds a product, pays for it, follows the shipment and sends it back. Developers and AI agents reach it through one integration instead of wiring up a separate connection for every store.
The problem it solves is boring but heavy. A checkout page breaks whenever a retailer redesigns it, and each shop reports orders plus tracking and returns in its own format. Zinc keeps that plumbing alive on its side and hands back one response shape for search, orders, tracking and returns. Companies have run more than 21 million orders through it since it started buying from retail checkouts in 2014.
The main limit is geography. On Zinc's own accounts, orders ship only within the US, Germany and Italy. Buying elsewhere means bringing your own retailer accounts, which Zinc will set up with you.
Getting Started
- Sign up at app.zinc.com, or skip the account entirely and mint a sandbox key at POST /sandbox/keys
- Fund a wallet with a card, ACH or wire if you plan to place live orders
- Search a retailer catalog to get a product URL, then send it with a shipping address and a max_price ceiling
- Poll the order or subscribe to webhooks for tracking, delivery and refund events
Product Information
A quick look at Zinc - Retail API for AI agents's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- Developers building shopping features
- AI agent builders
- Procurement and ops teams
Tasks
- Search across stores
- Place an order from a product URL
- Track and return
Scenarios
- Restocking a recurring need
- Agent-driven gifting
- Handling order failures
Key features
One Integration Across Thousands of Retailers
Zinc connects to stores like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Etsy, Costco and Shopify sites through a single API. You search, order, track and return with the same surface instead of maintaining a fragile scraper for each retailer. New stores land regularly, and you can ask GET /retailers for the current list rather than trust a static page.
Live Product Data at Query Time
Search and product detail responses come straight from the retailer with images, prices, weight, ratings and stock read at the moment you ask. You also get the offers behind each product, so you can see price, shipping speed and seller reputation for every option and take the best one instead of the first. Data calls cost $0.01 each against your wallet.
Agent Ordering Without an Account
An agent can start with no signup. POST /agent/orders returns an HTTP 402 with payment challenges, and one settlement places the order. It pays its own way through USDC on Solana, Base or Tempo, or fiat via Stripe, over x402 or MPP. Each on-chain settlement is recorded by transaction hash, and one hash pays for exactly one thing.
Hard Price Ceilings
Every order requires a max_price in cents that you set, not the agent. Zinc charges the stated ceiling plus the $1 fee upfront and refunds the difference once the order completes. If the price moves past your ceiling between search and checkout, the order fails with max_price_exceeded rather than spending more.
Normalized Tracking and Returns
Retailer emails, carrier scans and delivery photos all land in one ordered timeline you can read from code. Tracking numbers come from carriers directly, so you get real checkpoints instead of a status that jumps from shipped to delivered. Returns can be started from code, and labels come out without a support ticket.
Webhooks Instead of Polling
Zinc posts an event the moment an order ships, a delivery date moves or a refund settles, so you can stop polling. Events include order.started, order.cancelled, order.failed and order.delivered. You can also hand shipping updates to customers under your own branding with a hosted tracking page.
Sandbox and Typed SDKs
Test mode is a full sandbox with isolated data, its own webhook config and rehearsal products for every failure mode, and zn_test_ keys are never metered. TypeScript and Python SDKs come from the spec, so type mistakes fail in your editor rather than in production.
Pros and cons
Pros
- One API covers search, orders, tracking and returns, so you never maintain per-retailer integrations
- This agentic commerce API lets agents buy with no account and settle payment through x402, MPP, USDC or Stripe
- A max_price ceiling you control caps spending, and failed orders are not billed
- Test mode rehearses out-of-stock, price spikes and bad addresses before launch
- Machine-readable docs, an OpenAPI spec and an MCP server keep agent setup quick
- Programmatic checkout replaces handwritten scripts for AI agents buying products
Cons
- On Zinc's own accounts, shipments only leave from the US, Germany and Italy, so other regions need your own retailer logins
- Data calls are billed whether or not you go on to order, so a retry loop costs money
- There is no free plan on the live API, and product data runs $0.01 per call
Frequently asked questions
Through your Zinc Wallet, a prefunded balance you top up at app.zinc.com. Each order draws the item cost, tax, shipping fee and the $1 fee from that balance, so there is no payment object on the request. Any order that would take you below zero is rejected as insufficient_funds rather than partly placed.
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