ChatGPT Instacart integration lets you order groceries without leaving the AI chatbot

You can buy your Instacart groceries without leaving ChatGPT | TechCrunch

OpenAI and Instacart are launching a grocery shopping experience inside of ChatGPT, allowing customers to brainstorm meal ideas, make a grocery list, and check out, all without leaving the chat interface. This builds upon an existing partnership between OpenAI and Instacart; more than two years ago, Instacart launched an in-app AI search tool powered by ChatGPT, which helps shoppers ask questions about what to make for dinner or how to accommodate dietary restrictions. The relationship between OpenAI and Instacart seems to have only deepened after former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo -- who was already an OpenAI board member -- joined the company as the CEO of Applications in May. Agentic commerce -- the use of AI tools to do shopping research and make purchases on a user's behalf -- is a current priority for OpenAI. Its most recent dev day focused on its plan to build apps into ChatGPT. In an early preview for developers, ChatGPT launched integrations with apps like Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow; since then, OpenAI has announced further partnerships with Target, Intuit, and others. Leading up to this year's holiday shopping season, both OpenAI and Perplexity announced in-app features that help users make decisions about what products to buy -- so, you could ask ChatGPT to help you find the best deal on a gaming laptop that matches your specific criteria. Adobe predicted that AI-assisted online shopping will grow by 520% this holiday season. Despite ChatGPT's immense popularity, OpenAI is not making a profit, and it may not for another several years -- if it ever does. Its products are so resource-intensive that even subscription costs don't account for how much compute power the company uses to make its product work. These agentic commerce tools could give OpenAI another way of making money, since it'll take an undisclosed "small fee" when it helps merchants make a sale. But it would take a whole lot of ChatGPT-based shopping for these fees to make a dent in OpenAI's debt.

With Instacart Integration, ChatGPT Can Be Your Personal Shopper

Ever use an AI chatbot to come up with recipe ideas or meal inspiration? Now, ChatGPT will allow you to buy items from your shopping list without leaving the app. Online grocery company Instacart is the latest third-party service to be integrated into ChatGPT. The new tools will allow you to build a shopping list, pick groceries, decide where you want to buy from, tell ChatGPT how you want it to be delivered, decide on extras like a tip, and even pay without leaving OpenAI's chatbot. To use the app within ChatGPT, write a prompt that speaks to Instacart. An example given by OpenAI shows a user asking, "Instacart, can you give me all the ingredients needed to make an apple crisp?" The chatbot then compiles all the items from a local retailer. You can add more or check out. ChatGPT will request your address, provide options for delivery, and summarize all the fees. Previous payment methods will appear, or you can add a new one. Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, says the partnership is "another step toward bringing our vision to life -- where AI delivers helpful suggestions and connects directly to real-world services, saving people time and effort in their everyday lives." OpenAI says Instacart is the first retailer to offer Instant Checkout, an OpenAI feature that lets retailers build ChatGPT shopping experiences. However, we've seen other services launch their own solutions in ChatGPT, including Etsy, Shopify, and Target. OpenAI has been criticized in recent days for its implementation of apps in ChatGPT. One ChatGPT Plus subscriber argued that the Target integration appeared to be an ad. Chief Research Officer Mark Chen replied to say that OpenAI had fallen short in its implementation. "We've turned off this kind of suggestion while we improve the model's precision," he tweeted. "We're also looking at better controls so you can dial this down or off if you don't find it helpful." Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

You can now buy groceries in ChatGPT

OpenAI and Instacart are bringing grocery shopping to ChatGPT. The two companies announced Monday that the Instacart app is being directly integrated into ChatGPT, meaning you can browse for groceries and check out, all within the popular chatbot. The aim is that users can ask ChatGPT for meal ideas or help with a recipe, then boom: buy everything they need from Instacart. "With the Instacart app directly in ChatGPT, users can go from meal planning to checkout in a single, seamless conversation," said Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, in a statement. "It's another step toward bringing our vision to life -- where AI delivers helpful suggestions and connects directly to real-world services, saving people time and effort in their everyday lives." Curious culinary customers should, however, keep in mind that AI tools do have a habit of being confidently wrong -- meaning the recipes might not always be perfect. Reviews of ChatGPT-generated recipes online, for instance, are a mixed bag -- but mostly middling. Also worth noting: the AI model can hallucinate when it comes to recipes, and we're not just talking about the infamous "glue on pizza" bit made up by Google's AI overviews in 2024. As recently as August 2025, one person was hospitalized after reportedly following ChatGPT dietary advice that suggested replacing table salt with sodium bromide, which is toxic for human consumption. So if any user wants to take advantage of recipe ingredients via the OpenAI-Instacart partnership this holiday season, they would be well-advised to make like Santa Claus -- and check their list at least twice.

Instacart Integrates Grocery Platform With ChatGPT | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. This integration, announced Monday (Dec. 8), will also see Instacart offer an embedded shopping and checkout offering within ChatGPT conversations, and is designed to make it easier for users to get meal ideas and have the necessary products delivered to their door. "Instacart and ChatGPT are redefining what's possible in AI-powered shopping," Anirban Kundu, Instacart's chief technology officer, said in a news release. "Built on Agentic Commerce Protocol, this experience brings intelligent, real-time support to one of the most essential parts of daily life: getting groceries to feed your family. Together, we're creating a seamless and secure way for people to turn simple conversations into real-world action -- helping customers go from inspiration to a full cart delivered from the store to their door with ease." According to the release, the new integration is now available on desktop and mobile web. The Instacart ChatGPT app is available on iOS and Android, with Instant Checkout coming to these native platforms in the weeks ahead. ChatGPT, the companies said, can "surface" the Instacart ChatGPT app when a user asks for it by initiating a prompt with Instacart. After opening the app and signing in, users can get help finding the items they need from local retailers, and pay for their purchases directly in the Instacart app right in ChatGPT with Instant Checkout, without having to switch tabs. From there, products will be shopped and delivered via Instacart's platform, the release added. The new integration comes as consumers are growing increasingly comfortable using generative artificial intelligence to help guide retail purchases. The PYMNTS Intelligence report "Black Friday Shopping Trends Expose Shift to Budget-Driven Buying" found that half of the surveyed consumers had turned to generative AI at least once for their Black Friday purchases this year. This survey also found that shoppers most commonly used artificial intelligence assistants to seek out discount codes or deals (42%), keep track of prices or monitor price reductions (35%), research and compare product options (31%) come up with gift ideas (30%) and understand product specifications or features (28%). "Conversational AI, in the form of prompt-based AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, is becoming a mainstream shopping concierge," the report said. The PYMNTS research is in keeping with recent findings from Visa which showed that 47% of Americans were using AI tools to assist them with this year's holiday shopping.