Walmart began accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, at a first wave of Walmart and Sam’s Club stores — a reversal that ends more than a decade of the retailer refusing the tap-to-pay wallets most other big chains adopted years ago.
The change was announced Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, when Walmart said it was adding “Tap to Pay” contactless payment support across its stores and clubs. The rollout isn’t nationwide yet: it opened at select locations on Aug. 24, with Walmart saying it plans to have Tap to Pay running at every U.S. Walmart and Sam’s Club by the end of 2026. Fuel stations are on a separate, later timeline, targeted for mid-2027.
Key facts
- Start date: Aug. 24, 2026, at a first wave of Walmart and Sam’s Club stores
- Announced: Friday, Aug. 21, 2026
- What’s accepted: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Wallet, contactless cards and supported contactless EBT cards
- Full rollout target: every U.S. Walmart and Sam’s Club by the end of 2026
- Fuel stations: targeted for mid-2027, on a separate timeline
- Still works: cash, credit and debit cards, Walmart Pay, and Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go
What Tap to Pay covers
Tap to Pay works with contactless cards, phones and smartwatches. That includes Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Wallet, contactless credit and debit cards, and supported contactless EBT cards. Shoppers will also be able to add eligible Walmart, Sam’s Club and OnePay cards to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
Nothing already in place is going away. Walmart says cash, credit and debit cards, its own Walmart Pay app, and Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go all continue to work exactly as before — Tap to Pay is an addition, not a replacement.
Why the long holdout, and why now
Apple Pay launched in October 2014. Walmart never signed on, instead backing CurrentC, a QR-code payment app built by a consortium of retailers — including Walmart — called the Merchant Customer Exchange. Money reported that CurrentC was built in part to route payments around the card-network interchange, or “swipe,” fees that contactless wallets like Apple Pay still charge merchants. CurrentC struggled to catch on with shoppers and was hit by a data breach that exposed some pilot users’ email addresses; its national launch was pushed back in May 2016 and the beta was shut down that June. Walmart rolled out its own Walmart Pay app in most stores the following month as its in-house alternative.
Announcing the reversal, Walmart said the goal was to let customers and members “check out in the way that works best for them.” The company described the change as part of a broader push to give shoppers more choice in how they pay and manage their money. Coverage of the announcement has tied the shift to how common contactless payment has become elsewhere — American Banker reported that more than 90% of U.S. retailers now accept Apple Pay, citing data from Capital One, making Walmart one of the last major holdouts.
What this means for OnePay
Separately from the Tap to Pay rollout above, Walmart’s fintech arm, OnePay, has added its own Apple Wallet support. OnePay is majority-owned by Walmart and offers cards, a savings account, buy-now-pay-later loans through Klarna, peer-to-peer payments and more. Its new Apple Wallet support means a OnePay CashRewards Card can now be used with Apple Pay anywhere Apple Pay is accepted, including at Walmart locations that already have Tap to Pay.
When it reaches your store
Walmart’s own confirmed commitment is the Aug. 24 start at select stores and full coverage by the end of 2026 — the company has not published a state-by-state or city-by-city launch calendar. Treat any date more specific than that as unconfirmed: detailed schedules naming particular states and dates have circulated online, but they trace to leaked documents, not an official Walmart source, so there’s no way to check them against anything Walmart itself has said. If your local store hasn’t switched over yet, cash, cards, Walmart Pay and Scan & Go remain the way to check out in the meantime.