OpenAI on Monday introduced a direct checkout feature for ChatGPT users in the U.S., allowing them to complete purchases from Etsy and Shopify merchants without leaving the platform — a move that could fundamentally alter online retail.
The introduction of Instant Checkout, now available to ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and free logged-in users, now supports purchases from U.S.-based Etsy sellers. OpenAI says more than 1 million Shopify merchants that include major brands Glossier, Skims, Spanx, and Vuori will be added “soon.”
The feature represents an evolution of ChatGPT’s current shopping capabilities, which previously surfaced product recommendations, images, reviews, and pricing in response to queries such as “what should I get my friend who loves ceramics?” Users can now complete transactions directly through the chat interface using Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, or credit card, eliminating the need to navigate to external merchant sites.
OpenAI is not the first to market with the in-app approach. Last year, Perplexity AI introduced in-chat purchasing capabilities, and Microsoft Corp. offers merchants storefront integration through its Copilot Merchant Program. Seamless shopping experience courtesy of AI chatbots could mark a significant departure from traditional online retail pathways dominated by search engines like Google and marketplaces like Amazon.com Inc. Instead, consumers may increasingly turn to conversational AI assistants for curated product recommendations and streamlined checkout.
This shift carries profound implications for who controls product discovery in e-commerce. Google and Amazon have long benefitted as primary gatekeepers for retail visibility. Both companies have leveraged to promote their own products or preferred partners while charging substantial fees to maintain seller visibility.
In a blog post, OpenAI said its product results are “organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user,” and that the company will charge merchants only a small fee for completed transactions.
Alongside the checkout launch, OpenAI announced it will open-source its Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), the technology underlying Instant Checkout built in partnership with Stripe, to let other merchants and developers integrate similar functionality.
OpenAI emphasized that orders, payments, and fulfillment remain handled by merchants through their existing systems, with ChatGPT serving only as an intermediary to securely transmit information between users and sellers.
By open-sourcing ACP, OpenAI aims to accelerate merchant adoption of AI-powered storefronts while potentially establishing itself as the dominant architect of the emerging AI commerce ecosystem. Such a move puts OpenAI on a collision course with Google, which recently launched its own open protocol for AI-initiated purchases called Agent Payments Protocol (AP2).
“We’re seeing a tipping point in how AI will shape retail. These AI-powered agents aren’t just tools; they’re becoming trusted intermediaries guiding consumer decision-making,” Darryl Jones, vice president of consumer segment strategy at Ping Identity, said in an email. “For retailers, this means in-chat shopping is evolving from experiment to expectation, and that your next big customer may be an AI agent acting on your customers behalf. This shift brings a critical responsibility to ensure security, identity, and privacy guardrails are built into every interaction. If brands want agentic commerce to be sustainable, they’ll need to earn consumer trust at the same pace they embrace AI-driven innovation.”
