ChatGPT users in the U.S. can now make purchases within conversations, as OpenAI launches its new “Instant Checkout” feature. The new tool is available to all 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.” The feature marks a significant step toward the future of online shopping, one that moves away from traditional search engines and e-commerce platforms toward conversational agents.
Instant Checkout builds on previous shopping features on ChatGPT that would surface relevant products, images, reviews, prices, and direct links to merchants. Now, instead of having to leave the conversation, a user can simply tap “Buy” to confirm their order, shipping, and payment details to complete the purchase. Payment options include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, or a credit card.
A Challenge to Traditional E-Commerce
This type of frictionless shopping experience has the potential to reshape how people shop online. The firm behind the chatbot will suddenly have more control over what products are surfaced and what commissions or fees they charge. Both Amazon and Google have long been the gatekeepers for retail discovery, but if more purchases begin inside AI chatbots, new power brokers could emerge. 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.
OpenAI is also opening its new “Agentic Commerce Protocol” (ACP), the technology that powers Instant Checkout and was built with Stripe. By open-sourcing the protocol, OpenAI hopes to make it easier for other merchants and developers to integrate agentic checkout. Will Gaybrick, president of technology and business at Stripe, said that his company is “building the economic infrastructure for AI” and is “creating new AI-powered experiences for billions of people.”
The Battle for Agentic Commerce
The move puts OpenAI in direct tension with Google, which recently launched its own open protocol for purchases initiated by AI agents, called the “Agent Payments Protocol” (AP2). The open-sourcing of the ACP makes it easier for merchants to integrate with ChatGPT, which could widen the adoption of AI chatbots as virtual storefronts. This move 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. For users, 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 a user and a merchant.
Author’s Opinion
The launch of “Instant Checkout” is a direct strike at the heart of the dominance of Amazon and Google in e-commerce. By positioning itself as a new kind of “storefront,” OpenAI is aiming to become a new gatekeeper for retail discovery. The decision to open-source the protocol is a shrewd move to build a coalition of merchants and developers around its system, which could allow it to gain a significant advantage and establish its platform as the new standard for AI-driven commerce. This is a crucial move in the ongoing AI ecosystem war, and it shows that for these tech giants, the ultimate prize is not just the development of the best AI, but control over the new infrastructure of the digital economy.
Featured image credit: Shutter Speed via Unsplash
For more stories like it, click the +Follow button at the top of this page to follow us.