Walmart begins nationwide Tap to Pay rollout for Apple Pay and Google Pay by end of the year

Walmart announced it will accept Apple Pay and Google Pay through Tap to Pay, beginning August 24. This ends the retailer’s long-standing refusal to support the payment methods that competitors have adopted. The announcement presents the change as giving customers more choice at checkout. Previously Walmart promoted its own Walmart Pay and Scan-and-Go solutions and even backed the failed CurrentC initiative.

Engineers will need to enable Tap to Pay functionality on Walmart’s payment systems while keeping existing Walmart Pay and Scan-and-Go options operational. The update must work alongside the legacy methods to provide customers with multiple payment choices. Deploying the change across thousands of stores and Sam’s Club locations requires coordinated software updates and testing. Fuel stations will receive the capability later, with completion expected by the middle of 2027.

Because the rollout is phased, some locations will continue to lack Tap to Pay support until the later dates. Engineers must therefore ensure that legacy payment paths remain functional where Tap to Pay is not yet available. Tap to Pay will not be available at fuel stations until the middle of 2027, limiting its use there. The change also ends Walmart’s effort to promote its own solutions and abandon the CurrentC initiative.