Who Owns Google Wallet?

Google's payment history began with Google Checkout, a web payment service launched in 2006 that allowed users to store card information and pay at participating online merchants. Checkout struggled to gain traction against PayPal and was discontinued in 2013.

The first Google Wallet launched on May 26, 2011, as a mobile payment app for Android phones. It used near-field communication (NFC) to transmit card data at contactless payment terminals. The service debuted on the Sprint Nexus S 4G and initially supported only a single MasterCard issued through Citibank, plus a prepaid Google card that users could load with funds. Carrier restrictions limited early adoption because Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile backed a competing wallet called Isis (later Softcard) and blocked Google Wallet on their devices.

In September 2015, Google split the Wallet concept into two products. Android Pay handled contactless in-store payments and in-app purchases, while the original Google Wallet app was reduced to a peer-to-peer payment service for sending money to contacts. Google acquired Softcard, the carrier-backed competitor, in March 2015 for approximately $50 million, acquiring its technology and carrier relationships to expand Android Pay's device coverage.

Google merged Android Pay and the Wallet peer-to-peer service into a single app called Google Pay in January 2018. The rebrand consolidated Google's payment products under one name. Google Pay handled contactless payments, online checkout, and peer-to-peer transfers. In 2020, Google launched a redesigned Google Pay app based on its India-focused Tez app, adding bank account linking, spending insights, and deals. The redesigned app coexisted with the pre-installed 2018 Google Pay app on Android devices, creating confusion with two apps sharing the same brand.

Google announced the current Google Wallet app on May 11, 2022, at Google I/O. It began rolling out on July 18, 2022. The new Wallet replaced the 2018 Google Pay app on Android and expanded beyond payments to store loyalty cards, transit passes, boarding passes, digital keys, government IDs, and vaccination records. The Google Pay name survived as the payment method that powers transactions inside Wallet, while the GPay button handles online checkout. Google shut down the standalone redesigned Google Pay app in the United States in June 2024, consolidating all payment and wallet functions into Google Wallet.

Google Wallet expanded its country availability steadily. It launched in India in June 2024, adding transit, loyalty, and event pass support to the existing Google Pay payment functionality there. By 2025, Google Wallet was available in over 60 countries for the app and the Google Pay payment method was accepted in 108 countries. Google launched Wallet in Japan on Android and Wear OS devices, and expanded to additional markets including Jordan, Pakistan, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Kuwait through 2025 and 2026.

At Google I/O 2026, Google positioned Wallet at the center of its agentic commerce strategy. The company announced that Google Wallet would serve as the credential vault for Gemini-powered shopping agents, with Google Pay executing transactions and Chrome autofill merging into Wallet to unify browser-saved cards with wallet credentials. Google Pay direct checkout, announced in June 2026, brings payment options from a user's Wallet directly to retailer checkout pages.