Walmart surrenders in tap-to-pay war, will start accepting Google Pay

Aug 21, 2026 — 10:44 AM ET

• Walmart has not historically supported tap-to-pay payments at its stores, including Google Pay.
• That’s finally changing starting next week.
• Walmart stores across the US should accept Google Pay by the end of the year.

Some companies just don’t like to play nicely with others. Sometimes that’s Sony, pushing its bespoke memory cards, or Apple resisting USB-C for as long as possible. While most of the world started getting down with tap-to-pay standards over a decade ago, Walmart has been a long-time holdout, rejecting the likes of Google Pay and Apple Pay in favor of its own in-house payment solution. We never thought we’d see the day, but the retail giant is now finally backing down and embracing tap-to-pay.

Walmart announces that starting next week, shoppers will be able to make purchases with tap-to-pay payments through their phones, smartwatches, and cards. Availability may be a bit limited at first, but the plan is to roll out support across all US stores by the end of the year — including Sam’s Club.

Walmart frames this effort as “part of a broader effort to make managing and using … money easier,” which sounds nice now, but then why has the company been insisting on making payments so decidedly un-easy for years and years? Ultimately, this feels like conceding that, despite the retailer’s size and market presence, it just didn’t quite have the juice to force consumers to change their payment habits.

Following in-store availability this year, tap-to-pay with Google Pay should also expand to Walmart gas station operations sometime in 2027.