Walmart Ends Decade-Long Refusal to Accept Apple Pay and Google Pay

Walmart is caving. After more than a decade of telling customers to use its own Walmart Pay QR-code system instead of the tap-to-pay method everyone else already had, the retailer announced Friday it will finally accept Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The rollout starts Monday, August 24, at select Walmart and Sam's Club locations. Walmart says it expects to have Tap to Pay in every U.S. store and club by the end of 2026, and at its fuel stations by mid-2027, according to the company's press release.

This is not a small reversal. Apple Pay launched in 2014. Walmart has spent 12 years refusing to accept it, according to TechCrunch, while roughly 85% of U.S. retailers came around. Walmart even tried to kill contactless payments outright, joining a coalition of retailers that built a rival system called CurrentC. That effort collapsed and shut down in 2016.

Walmart's public reasoning has always centered on control. The company pushed Walmart Pay, which requires shoppers to load a card into the Walmart app and scan a QR code at checkout. As recently as last year, according to 9to5Mac, Walmart was still defending Walmart Pay as more convenient than Apple Pay. That defense didn't hold up against customer complaints, which 9to5Mac notes have been loud and constant on social media for years.

The company's own framing on Friday leaned into customer choice rather than admitting defeat. "We want customers and members to have choice in how they pay, so they can check out in the way that works best for them," Walmart said in its announcement, as quoted by MacRumors, PCMag, and mactrast. This represents a shift from years of pushing customers toward scanning a QR code.

Google wasted no time claiming credit for the partnership angle. Stavan Parikh, Google's VP and GM of payments, said in a statement reported by Modern Retail that the update "builds on Google and Walmart's ongoing partnership, bringing the convenience and security of Google Pay to one of your favorite stores." Apple, notably, has not issued a public comment on the announcement, according to PCMag.

What's actually confirmed and what isn't

Here's where the coverage gets messy. Walmart's own press release, cited across multiple outlets, refers generically to "contactless card, phone or smartwatch" payments and does not explicitly name Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Wallet in the announcement text itself.

Click2Houston's report on the Walmart announcement flags this directly, noting that Walmart "did not specifically name Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Wallet" in Friday's statement and that the retailer "has not yet spelled out which individual digital wallets shoppers will be able to use when the rollout begins."

Other outlets fill that gap through direct confirmation. Modern Retail reported that a Walmart spokesperson confirmed to them directly that Apple Pay is included. Google confirmed Google Pay support in its own blog post, according to Modern Retail and PCMag. Confirmation came through spokesperson statements and Google's own announcement rather than the headline language of Walmart's press release.

Walmart has not said which stores get the upgrade first, according to Click2Houston, and the company has not addressed whether tap-to-pay is coming to its Mexico locations, according to MacRumors and mactrast. Walmart's Canadian stores have accepted Apple Pay since 2020, per those same reports, which makes the twelve-year U.S. holdout look even more deliberate.

The company isn't alone in caving, eventually

Walmart joins a list of major retailers that spent years resisting contactless payment before reversing course. Home Depot, Lowe's, Kroger, and Texas grocery chain H-E-B all eventually dropped their resistance and added tap-to-pay, according to MacRumors and mactrast. Walmart was one of the last big holdouts standing.

Existing payment methods aren't going anywhere. Walmart Pay and Sam's Club's Scan & Go will continue to operate alongside the new contactless options, the company said. Customers will also be able to load Walmart, Sam's Club, and OnePay cards into digital wallets.

The unresolved question is simple: which specific Walmart and Sam's Club locations get Tap to Pay first on August 24, and how fast the promised nationwide rollout by the end of 2026 actually moves. Walmart has given itself until mid-2027 for its fuel stations, a full three years after this month's initial launch. Whether that timeline holds is something shoppers will be able to check for themselves, store by store, starting next week.