The moment adlanders have been waiting for has arrived— OpenAI is embedding a shopping tool into ChatGPT. The new Instant Checkout is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which embeds merchant payment systems and customer support into the shopping journey, codeveloped by Stripe and OpenAI.
The new feature is only available for ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Free users in the US. They can buy directly from US sellers right in the chat, with over a million Shopify merchants currently available.
Instant Checkout will support single-item purchases, with multi-item carts and expanded merchants and regions coming soon.
When a user asks a shopping question, for instance, “best running shoes under $100,” ChatGPT will show the most relevant products from across the web. If a product supports Instant Checkout, users can click ‘buy,’ confirm their order, shipping, and payment details, and complete the purchase without ever leaving the chat. Existing ChatGPT subscribers can pay with their card on file or select other payment options.
Orders, payments, and fulfillment are handled by the merchant using their existing systems. ChatGPT acts as the user’s AI agent, securely passing information between the user and the merchant, just like a digital personal shopper would.
Merchants pay a small fee on completed purchases, but the service is free for users and doesn’t affect product prices.
In its statement, OpenAI explained that Instant Checkout items are not preferred in product results. When ranking multiple merchants that sell the same product, ChatGPT considers factors like availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled.
At the core of this new experience is the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which allows AI agents and businesses to work together to complete a purchase for a user. It works across platforms, payment processors, and business types to keep merchants in control of the customer journey.
When someone places an order, ChatGPT sends the details to the merchant’s backend using Agentic Commerce Protocol. The merchant accepts or declines the order, processes the payment via their existing provider, and handles fulfillment and customer support.
If a merchant already processes payments with Stripe, they can enable agentic payments in a simple line of code. If they use another payment processor, they can still participate in Instant Checkout and accept agentic payments either by using Stripe’s new Shared Payment Token API or by adopting the Delegated Payments Spec in the Agentic Commerce Protocol.
As consumers flock in droves to AI for product recommendations, OpenAI’s new shopping tool reaches consumers where they are. In fact, over 700 million people turn to ChatGPT each week for help with everyday tasks.
“It’s clear that internet purchasing modalities are going to change a lot, and we’re excited to start to lay some of the foundations,” Patrick Collison, Stripe CEO, said in a post on LinkedIn.
“Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI. That means re-architecting today’s commerce systems and creating new AI-powered experiences for billions of people. We’re proud to power Instant Checkout in ChatGPT and co-develop the Agentic Commerce Protocol to help businesses and AI platforms build the future of commerce,” president of technology and business, Stripe, Will Gaybrick shared in a statement.
