OpenAI launches Instant Checkout, challenging Google and Amazon in e-commerce

OpenAI has launched a new feature called Instant Checkout that lets ChatGPT users in the U.S. complete purchases from Etsy without leaving the chat, with Shopify merchants like Glossier, Skims, and Spanx set to follow soon. The feature is available across ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Free accounts and allows buyers to confirm payment and shipping details using Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, or a credit card directly within the conversation.

 

Instant Checkout builds on earlier shopping tools in ChatGPT, which already surfaced product recommendations, images, reviews, and links in response to user queries. By letting purchases happen seamlessly in chat, OpenAI is pushing toward a new model of online shopping where conversational agents rival traditional search engines and e-commerce giants in shaping how consumers discover and buy products.

 

Competitors like Perplexity and Microsoft have experimented with shopping systems, but OpenAI’s move signals a bigger shift. If consumers begin completing more purchases inside AI chatbots, firms like OpenAI could displace Google and Amazon as the key gatekeepers of retail discovery. Unlike traditional platforms that have faced criticism for favoring their own products or charging steep fees to sellers, OpenAI says its product results are ranked solely by relevance and that merchants will only pay a small fee for completed orders.

 

To power the system, OpenAI has developed the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) in partnership with Stripe. ACP is being open-sourced, enabling wider adoption by merchants and developers who want to integrate AI-driven checkout. Stripe’s president of technology and business, Will Gaybrick, said the move represents a re-architecture of commerce systems for the AI era.

 

While some may be cautious about sharing payment details through ChatGPT, OpenAI stresses that merchants themselves handle orders and payments using existing infrastructure, with ChatGPT acting only as a secure intermediary. The open-sourcing of ACP not only encourages broader participation but also strengthens OpenAI’s role as a potential architect of the emerging AI commerce ecosystem. This positions the company directly against Google, which recently launched its own competing protocol for AI-driven purchases, called Agent Payments Protocol (AP2).