OpenAI has taken a bold leap into the world of e-commerce, transforming its popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT, into a digital shopping assistant that can now facilitate purchases directly within the chat interface. Announced on September 30, 2025, this new feature—dubbed Instant Checkout—marks a significant evolution in how artificial intelligence interacts with commerce, potentially reshaping the online shopping landscape and challenging established giants like Amazon and Google.
For years, ChatGPT has been a go-to tool for everything from writing assistance to brainstorming and even coding help. But now, OpenAI is positioning its chatbot as a one-stop shop for discovering and buying goods, starting with U.S.-based Etsy sellers and soon expanding to Shopify merchants. This move is more than just a technical upgrade; it’s a strategic bid to generate new revenue streams for the company, which, as reported by Reuters, has yet to turn a profit and relies heavily on investor support to sustain its ambitious AI projects.
So, how does this new shopping experience actually work? When a user types a query into ChatGPT—say, “buy me running shoes under $150” or “shop for holiday gifts”—the chatbot recognizes the buying intent and responds with a carousel of product suggestions. Unlike traditional search engines that bombard users with paid advertisements, ChatGPT’s product recommendations are algorithmically generated, focusing on relevance, availability, and quality, not sponsorship. As OpenAI clarified, “product results are organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user.”
At launch, every ChatGPT user in the U.S.—whether on the Free, Plus, or Pro plan—can access this in-chat shopping experience when browsing eligible products from Etsy sellers. The process is designed to be seamless: users simply click the “Buy” button next to a product, confirm their shipping and payment details, and the transaction is completed within the chat. Payments are securely processed through Stripe, a trusted name in online payments, using encrypted tokens to protect sensitive data. Importantly, each purchase requires explicit user confirmation at every step, reducing the risk of accidental buys and ensuring a sense of control and security for shoppers.
Shopify merchants, including well-known brands like Glossier, Spanx, Vuori, Away, Stanley 1913, and Steve Madden, are set to join the Instant Checkout ecosystem soon. Shopify is working to provide real-time pricing, images, and product variants, so when a ChatGPT user asks for recommendations, a merchant’s inventory will be instantly accessible for immediate purchase. Shopify merchants will also have the flexibility to decide whether consumers complete purchases through the Instant Checkout feature or are redirected to their traditional online stores.
For Etsy, this partnership is a game-changer. Rafe Colburn, Etsy’s Chief Technology Officer, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration in a company blog post: “AI-powered and agentic shopping present meaningful opportunities for the unique items on Etsy to shine. These tools offer deeper insights into our inventory, enabling our sellers’ items to starkly stand out against the sea of impersonal, mass-produced goods. The human connection these items create will always be the heart of our marketplace. We’re excited to leverage AI to make it easier than ever for shoppers to discover and connect with sellers who offer items they love.”
The implications of this development extend far beyond convenience. By keeping users inside the chat interface from discovery to checkout, OpenAI is challenging the business models of established search engines like Google, which have long relied on referring users to merchant websites and earning revenue through advertising. Now, with ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout, users never have to leave the conversation, and OpenAI takes a small commission from merchants on each transaction. For buyers, there are no extra fees—just a streamlined, integrated shopping experience.
OpenAI’s monetization strategy is clear: supplement subscription revenue from ChatGPT Plus and Pro with transaction-based commissions from merchants. As the Financial Times noted, this hybrid approach positions ChatGPT as both a discovery engine and a retail channel, capturing value from the very transactions it helps to facilitate. The company is also open-sourcing its Agentic Commerce Protocol, developed in partnership with Stripe, allowing any retailer or business to build their own shopping integrations with ChatGPT. This move could accelerate the adoption of AI-driven commerce across the industry, enabling even small businesses to tap into the massive user base that ChatGPT now commands—reportedly 700 million people weekly.
Of course, the new feature isn’t without its limitations. At launch, Instant Checkout supports only single-item purchases—there’s no shopping cart functionality yet. And while the rollout is currently limited to U.S. users and Etsy sellers, OpenAI has signaled plans to expand both internationally and across more merchant platforms in the future. Until then, international users and those shopping for non-partner products will continue to be redirected to external merchant sites to complete their purchases.
For those eager to try out the new shopping experience, OpenAI recommends using clear, buying-intent prompts such as “buy me…” or “find the best under $50.” Keeping payment and shipping information up to date can help streamline the process, and users are encouraged to look for listings that display the Instant Checkout button to ensure in-chat purchases are possible.
Security and transparency are top priorities for OpenAI. Each transaction is processed via Stripe, with industry-standard encryption and fraud protection, and users must confirm every step of the purchase—there’s no autopay or background processing without explicit consent. This design choice reflects a broader industry trend toward user empowerment and trust in digital transactions.
Looking ahead, the integration of AI and commerce seems poised to accelerate. As OpenAI continues to refine Instant Checkout, adding support for multi-item carts, expanding internationally, and onboarding more merchants, ChatGPT could become one of the most influential shopping platforms in the digital economy. The frictionless blend of search, recommendation, and purchase—all within a single chat—may well set a new standard for how consumers interact with both AI and online retail.
For now, the launch of Instant Checkout in ChatGPT is a clear signal that the future of shopping is conversational, intelligent, and, above all, remarkably convenient.
