What Link data tells us about AI spending

Source: Stripe Blog

We surveyed 394 customers who use Link, a digital wallet built by Stripe, on their AI habits. Eighty percent had used a chat-based agent in the past month, and half had used AI for shopping research at least monthly.

Has that usage translated into spending? To find out, we analyzed spending patterns across the 250 million customers paying with Link. We found that Link customers are spending more on AI than they were three months prior, investing heavily in platforms that let them build with AI.

Here’s what the data shows.

Link customers are spending more on AI products each month

   Link AI spending > graph 1" src="https://images.stripeassets.com/fzn2n1nzq965/7GcN0AS0HkmaQ96gMJ4HKy/9170533d0a64ec6bca94a026736f8570/Graph_1_2x.png?w=1620&q=80" width="4320" height="1898" loading="lazy">

We grouped Link customers by their monthly spend on AI products. The top 10% of Link customers with the highest spend on AI products increased their monthly spending from $183 in December 2025 to $359 in March 2026—nearly doubling in a single quarter.

What’s notable is the timing: it took 22 months for that same cohort to grow from $84 to $183, but only three months to double from $183 to $359. Even at the 50th percentile, monthly spending on AI products increased from $60 to $72 over the same period.

Link customers are spending more on AI app-builder platforms

   Link AI spending > Graph 2" src="https://images.stripeassets.com/fzn2n1nzq965/6iTbRCyWkLyncKndTEV0bN/b332177e8695e448dbbd644e34958ca7/Graph_2_2x.png?w=1620&q=80" width="4320" height="2278" loading="lazy">

When we isolate spending on app-builder platforms like Replit, Lovable, and Bolt, the growth is even more pronounced. The top 10% of Link customers with the highest spend on AI products are now spending 5x more on app-builder platforms each month compared to January 2025.

Building the infrastructure to support agents

Link customers are spending more on AI and using agents for shopping research. As these agents become more capable, they’ll increasingly need the ability to transact with businesses and one another.

That’s why we built Link’s wallet for agents. It lets customers authorize agents to pay on their behalf with spending controls they set, gives agents broad purchasing access across any seller on Stripe, and gives businesses verified transactions without complex integrations.

Learn more about how you can give agents the ability to pay with Link’s wallet for agents.