OpenAI has announced the first step toward enabling ChatGPT to help users buy products directly, starting with Instant Checkout, powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol and integrated with Stripe. The company reports that over 700 million people use ChatGPT weekly for tasks such as product discovery.
Agentic Commerce Protocol
OpenAI has open-sourced the Agentic Commerce Protocol, allowing merchants and developers to build integrations. This open standard enables AI agents, users, and businesses to collaborate to complete purchases. Co-developed with Stripe and leading merchant partners, it is designed to be secure, platform-agnostic, and simple to implement.
The protocol represents a key step in agentic commerce, where ChatGPT not only identifies products but also facilitates purchases. Users can move from chat to checkout in a few taps, while merchants retain full control of payments, fulfillment, and customer relationships.
How Instant Checkout Works
When users search for items like ‘best running shoes under $100’ or ‘gifts for a ceramics enthusiast,’ ChatGPT displays relevant products from across the web, with results that are organic, unsponsored, and ranked solely by relevance.
When a product is available for Instant Checkout, users can select ‘Buy’, review their order, shipping, and payment details, and finalize the purchase entirely within the chat. Subscribers can pay using saved cards or other available payment methods.
Merchants handle orders, payments, and fulfillment using their existing systems. ChatGPT functions as a secure intermediary, passing only the necessary information. Merchants pay a small fee for completed transactions, while users experience no additional cost, and product ranking is unaffected.
Built for Trust
- Users explicitly confirm each action before purchases.
- Payments are encrypted and authorized for specific amounts and merchants.
- Only necessary data is shared with merchants to complete orders.
Merchant Integration
Merchants using Stripe can enable agentic payments with a single line of code. Those using other processors can participate via Stripe’s Shared Payment Token API or the Delegated Payments Spec in the Agentic Commerce Protocol, without changing existing systems.
Availability
U.S. ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free users can now buy directly from U.S. Etsy sellers.
- Over a million Shopify merchants, including Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori, will be added soon.
- Currently, Instant Checkout supports single-item purchases, with multi-item carts and additional regions planned in the future.
Merchants interested in making their products available for purchase through ChatGPT can apply directly from the official site.