OpenAI Revolutionizes E-commerce with ChatGPT's Instant Checkout Feature

OpenAI takes on Google, Amazon with new agentic shopping system | TechCrunch

ChatGPT users in the U.S. can now make Etsy and Shopify purchases within conversations, marking a next step towards the future of online shopping - both for consumers and the platforms that control product discovery, recommendation, and payments. In other words, OpenAI might be on the path to reshaping who holds power in e-commerce. OpenAI's new "Instant Checkout" feature is available to ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Free logged-in users buying from U.S.-based Etsy sellers, with more than 1 million Shopify merchants like Glossier, Skims, Spanx, and Vuori "coming soon," per OpenAI. Instant Checkout builds on previous shopping features on ChatGPT that surfaced relevant products, images, reviews, prices, and direct links to merchants in response to shopping questions like "what should I get my friend who loves ceramics?" or "best sneakers to wear to the office." Now, instead of having to leave the conversation, users can just tap "Buy" to confirm their order, shipping, and payment details (options include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, or credit card) to complete the purchase. Last year, Perplexity introduced a similar in-chat shopping and payments feature. Microsoft also offers merchants the ability to create in-chat storefront capabilities with the Copilot Merchant Program. This type of frictionless experience has the potential to spark a new movement in how people shop online - one that moves away from search engines like Google and e-commerce platforms like Amazon towards conversational agents with curated recommendations, comparisons, and easy checkout experiences. It's also setting the stage for new power brokers to emerge in e-commerce. Google and Amazon have long been the gatekeepers for retail discovery. If more purchases start inside AI chatbots, the firms behind them will suddenly have more control over what products are surfaced and what commissions or fees they charge. Both Amazon and Google have previously leveraged their dominance to favor their own products or preferred partners, pushing down competitors in search results or charging steep fees to sellers simply to maintain visibility. OpenAI said in a blog post that the product results it surfaces are "organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user," and that it will charge merchants a "small fee" for completed purchases. TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for more information. Along with OpenAI's introduction of in-chat checkout, the AI firm also noted that it will open-source its Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), the tech that powers Instant Checkout built with Stripe, so that other merchants and developers can integrate agentic checkout. "Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI," Will Gaybrick, president of technology and business at Stripe, said in a statement. "That means re-architecting today's commerce systems and creating new AI-powered experiences for billions of people." While some may balk at handing ChatGPT private payment information, the company says orders, payments, and fulfillment are handled by the merchant using their existing systems. ChatGPT merely acts as an agent, an intermediary that can securely pass along information between user and merchant. Open-sourcing ACP makes it easier for merchants to integrate with ChatGPT, widening the adoption of AI chatbots that function as a virtual storefront. It also expands OpenAI's potential control as a gatekeeper for retail discovery and checkout, and could position the firm to be the de facto architect of the AI commerce ecosystem. That would put it in tension with Google yet again, as the tech giant has recently launched its own open protocol for purchases initiated by AI agents, dubbed Agent Payments Protocol (AP2).

OpenAI Adds Instant Checkout to ChatGPT, Starting With Etsy and Shopify

Macy has been working for CNET for coming on 2 years. Prior to CNET, Macy received a North Carolina College Media Association award in sports writing. If you ask ChatGPT for gift ideas, the AI chatbot won't just suggest products anymore -- it can now help you buy them right then and there. OpenAI announced that US users will be able to buy products directly within the program using a new feature called Instant Checkout. The rollout starts with Etsy sellers and will soon extend to more than a million Shopify merchants. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source. The experience is designed to be seamless, and all occurs within the ChatGPT window. If you ask ChatGPT for "gifts under $50 for a coffee lover," it can suggest products and then let you purchase them without leaving the app. After confirming shipping and payment information, users can complete a purchase with a single tap. At launch, the feature works only for single items, but support for multi-item carts and international markets is planned. The Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard developed with Stripe, powers this system. OpenAI is releasing the protocol publicly so merchants and developers can adopt it across different platforms. It is intended to connect AI agents, sellers and payment providers securely while leaving fulfillment, returns and customer service in the hands of the merchant. Read also: Nvidia Invests in OpenAI With $100 Billion to Build Out More AI Data Centers "ChatGPT simply acts as the user's AI agent -- securely passing information between user and merchant, just like a digital personal shopper would," the press release from OpenAI said. Merchants will pay a small fee on completed sales. OpenAI says product recommendations in ChatGPT are not sponsored and remain based on relevance rather than advertising. With more than 700 million people using ChatGPT each week, the new feature could give sellers a direct path to a massive, new customer base. Stripe is involved in processing the payments for Instant Checkout and contributed to building the commerce protocol. "Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI," said Will Gaybrick, Stripe's president of product and business. "That means re-architecting today's commerce systems and creating new AI-powered experiences for billions of people."

ChatGPT can buy stuff for you now - forever changing online shopping

ChatGPT users will now be able to make purchases in chat. Instant Checkout works with single-item purchases. It is available to US ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free users. One of ChatGPT's biggest selling points is its ability to converse and fetch instant results without making you worry about traditional search engine keywords or result pages. As a result, many people turn to it as a shopping assistant -- and that experience just got a major upgrade. Also: ChatGPT Pulse works overnight to produce personalized morning updates for you - how to try it Now, you can buy products instantly within ChatGPT, called Instant Checkout, OpenAI announced Wednesday. As the name implies, the feature enables users to place an order directly within a conversation with the chatbot, facilitating purchases without exiting ChatGPT's interface. When you ask a shopping question or request help finding a specific item, ChatGPT automatically populates results of products that fit your criteria from across the web. Now, if a product supports Instant Checkout, users can tap the "Buy" button, confirm their order details, including payment and shipping address, and complete the purchase. ChatGPT Plus and Pro users also have the added convenience of saving their payment methods for future use. In the release, OpenAI describes Instant Checkout's role as an intermediary that passes information between the buyer and the merchant, like a shopper's personal AI agent. In the transaction, merchants pay a small fee on the completed purchases, but the experience is free for users. Also: Is ChatGPT Plus still worth $20 when the free version offers so much - including GPT-5? To align with OpenAI's decision to make the product results it populates organic and unsponsored, OpenAI stated that whether the product supports Instant Checkout or not will not impact ChatGPT's product results, with factors such as availability, price, and quality still determining the experience. Instant Checkout is currently available to US ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro users for single-item purchases. The company said that support for multi-item carts and additional merchants and regions will be added next. OpenAI also announced it has open-sourced its Agentic Commerce Protocol, which was developed with Stripe and is at the core of the experience. According to the company, the Agentic Commerce Protocol is designed to facilitate agentic transactions for merchants, enabling them to maintain control over the customer relationship, integrate agentic experiences efficiently, and streamline operations across various payment methods, business types, and more. Also: ChatGPT is crushing rivals in the AI chatbot race by all measures - but for how long? In action, when a customer places an order, ChatGPT utilizes the Agentic Commerce Protocol to send the necessary details to the merchant, who can then either accept or decline the order and subsequently process the payment through their existing provider. For merchants that already process payments using Stripe, enabling agent payments can be done with a single line of code. Non-Stripe merchants can also access Instant Checkout and accept agent payments using either Stripe's new Shared Payment Token API or the Delegated Payments Spec in the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Other companies and organizations have taken similar approaches to agentic transactions. For example, Google recently launched its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) with the goal of enabling users, merchants, and payment providers to transact securely with AI agents. Visa unveiled the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server for Visa Intelligent Commerce, fueling agentic checkout capabilities that leverage Visa's network.

OpenAI announces ChatGPT Instant Checkout for Etsy and Shopify

OpenAI on Monday announced Instant Checkout, a new feature that allows users to buy products through its artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. Instant Checkout initially supports single-item purchases directly from U.S. Etsy sellers, and it's available to U.S. ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Free users. OpenAI said more than one million Shopify merchants, including Skims and Glossier, are coming soon. OpenAI will take a fee from transactions that are completed through ChatGPT, which means Instant Checkout could become an important new revenue stream for the startup. OpenAI is not yet profitable, and is burning through cash as it works to scale up its computing infrastructure. The company declined to share specific details about how large the fees are since they are determined through confidential contracts with Etsy and Shopify. Instant Checkout is free to users and will not affect their prices, OpenAI said. "Our vision for ChatGPT - and a lot of the technology we create, but especially ChatGPT - is that it's not just providing you information, it is also helping you get things done in the real world," Michelle Fradin, OpenAI's product lead for ChatGPT commerce, told CNBC in an interview. The company plans to introduce multi-item carts and expand the regional availability of Instant Checkout going forward.

OpenAI Rolls Out ChatGPT's Ability to Buy Stuff for You

OpenAI just made it possible to buy things directly from ChatGPT. Starting today, all ChatGPT users in the U.S. can use a new feature called Instant Checkout to purchase items from Etsy sellers without leaving the chat. OpenAI says more than a million Shopify merchants, including Glossier, SKIMS, and Spanx, are coming soon. For now, Instant Checkout only supports single-item purchases, but OpenAI plans to add multi-item carts and expand to more merchants and regions. The company also announced it’s open-sourcing the technology that powers Instant Checkout, the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Developed with payment processor Stripe, the protocol is meant to serve as a standard for AI-driven shopping and to make it easier for developers to integrate their stores with ChatGPT. This move puts OpenAI one step closer to its bigger goal of creating a fully functional AI agent. The industry as a whole is racing to launch so-called AI agents, virtual assistants that can theoretically handle tasks like writing reports, booking travel, shopping online, and scheduling appointments. Just last week, OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT Pulse, which conducts relevant research for users and connects to their email, calendars, and other apps to deliver a daily morning briefing. Another feature introduced this year, ChatGPT Agent, also links to users’ apps but still needs explicit prompts to carry out tasks. And in January, the company unveiled OpenAI Operator, a tool that can fill out online forms and place orders on its ownâ€"though shoppers still have to manually enter payment info at checkout. But one thing is becoming clear as the age of AI agents approaches: they’ll need access to a lot of our personal data to work properly, if they work at all. A lot of ChatGPT users already turn to the chatbot for online shopping recommendations. Now, when a user asks something like “gift ideas for a housewarming†or “best running shoes under $100,†products that support Instant Checkout will display a "Buy" option. Users who tap on "Buy" will then confirm their order, shipping, and payment details directly in chat. Those with a ChatGPT subscription can pay with the card already on file or choose another payment method. The seller then handles the order, shipping, and fulfillment like they normally would. ChatGPT just acts as a middleman, providing the seller with the buyer’s information. The service is free for users, but sellers will have to pay a small fee on completed purchases. OpenAI also says that items supporting Instant Checkout won’t be given preference in product results and won't impact its recommendations overall. However, when ranking sellers of the same product, "whether Instant Checkout is enabled" will be considered to "optimize the user experience."

OpenAI debuts new ChatGPT 'buy' button and open source Agentic Commerce Protocol

The next time you order something online, it may be through ChatGPT -- at least if OpenAI and online payments provider Stripe have anything to say about it. The two companies today announced a new feature for the world's most popular dedicated chatbot (with 700 million weekly active users globally): Instant Checkout. The feature allows U.S. ChatGPT users in the free, Plus, and Pro subscription tiers to purchase items directly through the familiar chat interface -- provided they are logged in with their accounts and usernames. When a user asks a shopping question, such as "best running shoes under $100" or "gifts for a ceramics lover," ChatGPT will return relevant products from across the web. These results are not sponsored, and ranked on relevance alone, according to OpenAI. If a product supports Instant Checkout, the user can select "Buy" with a new button that will appear in the conversational interface alongside a price. Then, the user can manually confirm the order, shipping, and payment details, and complete the purchase -- all without leaving the chat. See a below video of the transaction interface in action posted by OpenAI on YouTube: Payment can be processed with a card already on file for ChatGPT subscribers or through other express options. Orders, payments, and fulfillment are handled entirely by the merchant using their existing systems. ChatGPT acts as an intermediary, securely passing information between buyer and merchant. OpenAI positions Instant Checkout as a way for ChatGPT to move beyond product discovery. In its announcement, the company says this marks the next step in agentic commerce, where ChatGPT not only helps users find what to buy but also enables them to buy it. For shoppers, the process is designed to be seamless, moving from chat to checkout in a few taps. For merchants, it offers a new way to reach ChatGPT's hundreds of millions of weekly users while keeping full control of payments, systems, and customer relationships. What it means for merchants Merchants pay a small fee on completed purchases. The service is free for users and does not alter product pricing or influence search rankings within ChatGPT. OpenAI notes that when multiple merchants sell the same product, ranking considers factors such as availability, price, quality, whether the seller is primary, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled. At launch, shoppers in the United States can buy directly from Etsy sellers within ChatGPT. More than a million Shopify merchants, including brands such as Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori, will be added soon. Purchases currently support only single items, but OpenAI plans to add multi-item carts, expand to more regions, and bring additional merchants onto the platform. The Agentic Commerce Protocol The system is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), a new, open standard for AI commerce co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe. OpenAI says ACP lets AI agents, people, and businesses work together to complete purchases securely and efficiently. At the core of this rollout is ACP, the open standard that defines how AI agents and businesses interact to complete transactions. Built with Stripe and with input from merchants, ACP is designed to work across platforms, processors, and business models. Merchants do not need to overhaul their systems to adopt it. They remain the merchant of record throughout the purchase journey, including fulfillment, returns, support, and communication. When an order is placed, ChatGPT transmits the necessary details via ACP to the merchant's backend. The merchant can then accept or decline the order, process payment with their existing provider, and complete fulfillment as usual. For those already processing payments with Stripe, enabling agentic payments requires minimal coding -- OpenAI says as little as one line. Merchants using other processors can still participate by integrating Stripe's Shared Payment Token API or adopting the Delegated Payments specification included in ACP, without switching payment providers. OpenAI emphasizes that Instant Checkout and ACP are designed with security and control in mind. Users explicitly confirm each step before any action is taken. Payment tokens are encrypted, authorized only for specific merchants and amounts, and require user permission. Only the minimum data necessary to complete a transaction is shared with merchants. How ACP compares with Google's AP2 OpenAI is not alone in trying to standardize how AI agents make payments. Earlier this month, Google announced the Agent Payments Protocol, or AP2, which it developed with more than 60 partners including American Express, Mastercard, PayPal, Salesforce, and ServiceNow. Like ACP, AP2 is an open-source protocol designed to let AI agents securely complete purchases. But while ACP emphasizes keeping merchants in control using their existing processors, AP2 focuses on creating a shared rulebook across the broader digital payments ecosystem. Google's AP2 introduces the concept of "Mandates," cryptographically signed digital contracts that serve as verifiable proof of a user's instructions. These contracts provide an auditable trail that connects a user's request to the final transaction, supporting both real-time agent-assisted purchases and delegated transactions that may happen later without the user present. While AP2 has backing from a wide range of financial institutions and payment providers, it is not yet available in consumer-facing products. ACP, by contrast, is immediately live in ChatGPT for U.S. shoppers through Etsy and soon Shopify merchants. In effect, ACP is the first to move from specification to deployment, while AP2 aims to become a broader industry standard across multiple platforms and payment networks. Partner perspectives Several partners highlighted what the system means for their businesses in a press release provided by OpenAI to VentureBeat. Will Gaybrick, Stripe's President of Technology and Business, says Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI and is proud to power Instant Checkout and co-develop ACP. Etsy's Chief Product and Technology Officer, Rafe Colburn, notes that ChatGPT helps Etsy reach buyers even when they are not actively visiting Etsy's platform. Vanessa Lee, Shopify's VP of Product, says that by bringing Shopify merchants into ChatGPT, both indie brands and established names can reach high-intent shoppers in new contexts. What's next The current launch is limited to single-item purchases from U.S. Etsy sellers, but OpenAI has broader ambitions. The company says Instant Checkout will expand to support multi-item carts, additional geographies, and more merchants over time. The open-sourcing of ACP is also intended to encourage wider adoption by developers and businesses beyond the initial set of partners. OpenAI frames this release as a step toward a future where AI agents play a central role in commerce. By embedding purchasing capabilities directly into chat, the company is testing how conversational AI can connect people with businesses in the buying process itself.

OpenAI's "Instant Checkout" lets you shop in ChatGPT

Why it matters: The move opens up a new revenue stream for OpenAI and could change the way people shop online. Driving the news: The feature is launching today with support for Etsy. Support for Shopify and its hundreds of thousands of merchants is coming soon. * The new feature is available today for Free, Plus and Pro users in the U.S. * OpenAI is also open-sourcing its Agentic Commerce Protocol, in hopes that other merchants and potentially other AI engines will adopt it. How it works: Users can pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe or enter their credit card information. * There is no charge to consumers, with OpenAI getting a chunk of the merchant's sale. * Initially, it works with single-item purchases only, though that's expected to expand to more complex transactions over time. What to watch: Purchases in ChatGPT are clearly marked.

OpenAI will allow ChatGPT users to buy products directly in a chat in a radical shakeup of e-commerce | Fortune

OpenAI announced that it will begin allowing ChatGPT users to make purchases directly through the chatbot. OpenAI said it will allow users in the U.S. to make purchases directly through ChatGPT using a new "Instant Checkout" feature powered by a payment protocol for AI developed by Stripe. The new chatbot shopping feature is a big step towards helping OpenAI monetize its 700 million weekly users, many of whom currently pay nothing to interact with ChatGPT, as well as a move that could eventually steal significant market share from traditional Google search advertising. The rollout of chatbot shopping features -- including the possibility of AI agents that will shop on behalf of users -- could also upend e-commerce, radically transforming the way businesses design their websites and try to market to consumers. OpenAI said it was rolling out its Instant Checkout feature with Etsy sellers today, but would begin adding over a million Shopify merchants, including brands such as Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori, "soon." The company also said it was open-sourcing the "Agentic Commerce Protocol," a payment standard developed in partnership with payments processor Stripe that powers the Instant Checkout feature, so that any retailer or business could decide to build a shopping integration with ChatGPT. (Stripe's protocol is in turn based on an open-source "Model Context Protocol" that was developed by AI company Anthropic.) OpenAI will take what it described as small fee from the merchant on each purchase, helping to bolster the company's revenue at a time when it is burning through many billions of dollars each year to train and support the running of its AI models.

Users Can Shop From Etsy and Shopify in ChatGPT as OpenAI Launches New Agentic Commerce Protocol | AIM

Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard co-developed with Stripe, allows programmatic commerce flows between buyers, AI agents, and businesses. OpenAI's ChatGPT now lets users buy products directly in chat through its Instant Checkout feature, currently available for US users shopping on Etsy and soon expanding to Shopify merchants such as Glossier, Vuori, Spanx, and SKIMS. Instant Checkout is now available for US ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and free accounts. "Shopify merchants will be able to sell directly in ChatGPT," said Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke in a post on X. "We've been working with OpenAI for quite some time so people can search and buy products in chat, and it's something we've had a hard time keeping quiet." The rollout is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard co-developed with Stripe. ACP allows businesses to maintain control over transactions while enabling AI agents to securely facilitate purchases. It connects with any commerce backend or payment system and supports physical and digital goods, subscriptions, asynchronous purchases, multi-merchant carts, and in-store pickup options. The ACP specification is available for businesses and AI agents to implement immediately. "Customers should be able to securely buy where they discover; businesses should be able to sell through new channels without giving up trust, brand, or control; and AI agents should be able to enable transactions without exposing customer credentials," said Stripe in its blog post. The protocol is designed to connect with any commerce backend and payments infrastructure, allowing businesses to integrate once and distribute to any ACP-compatible AI agent. ACP also supports physical and digital goods, subscriptions, and asynchronous purchases, including features such as multi-merchant carts and in-store pickup options. "Trust is essential. With AI agents now capable of initiating transactions on behalf of buyers, businesses need a way to confirm purchases, securely accept payment credentials, respond to new fraud signals, and update their risk models," said Stripe. Under ACP, the transaction process works as follows. The buyer selects a product and payment method. The AI agent collects payment details and requests checkout from the business. The business reviews and processes the transaction as the merchant of record, while the payment provider relays credentials securely through a tokenised system. The protocol is open source under an Apache 2.0 license, allowing any business to implement it with compatible AI agents and payment providers.

OpenAI and Stripe team on ChatGPT payments

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. ChatGPT users in the US can now buy goods from US-based Etsy businesses directly in the chat. The feature will soon be extended to over a million Shopify merchants. Initially, the service is for single-item purchases, with multi-item carts and more merchants and regions to come. Says OpenAI in a blog: "This marks the next step in agentic commerce, where ChatGPT doesn't just help you find what to buy, it also helps you buy it. For shoppers, it's seamless: go from chat to checkout in just a few taps. For sellers, it's a new way to reach hundreds of millions of people while keeping full control of their payments, systems, and customer relationships." The feature - called Checkout in ChatGPT - is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), a new open standard codeveloped by Stripe and OpenAI. To make purchases, the ChatGPT user asks for product recommendations in the chat. When they are ready to buy, they are presented with a Stripe-powered checkout inline in the chat. After the buyer uses their preferred payment method, Stripe issues a Shared Payment Token (SPT), a new payment primitive that lets applications like ChatGPT initiate a payment without exposing the buyer's payment credentials. SPTs are scoped to a specific merchant and cart total. Once issued, ChatGPT passes the token to the merchant via API. The merchant can then process the transaction. "Stripe has spent the last 15 years optimizing commerce for human buyers. Now, we are starting to do the same for agents," says Kevin Miller, head of payments, Stripe. OpenAI and Stripe say that by open sourcing the ACP, they are creating a shared language between businesses and AI agents. With a single integration, merchants will be able to start selling through AI agents while retaining full control. "ACP provides the standardisation needed for businesses to participate in agentic commerce while preserving customer relationships and their existing systems," says a statement. However, ACP is not the only protocol in town: Earlier this month, Google lined up more than 60 partners - including Adyen, Coinbase, Mastercard and PayPal - behind its Agent Payments Protocol.