New E-Commerce Feature: ChatGPT Gets A Shopping Update

OpenAI has introduced a significant enhancement to ChatGPT, transforming it into a more intuitive and personalized online shopping assistant. This update, available to all users—including those on Free, Plus, and Pro tiers, as well as users not logged in—integrates product images, reviews, and direct purchase links directly within the chatbot interface.

In a pre-launch demonstration, Adam Fry, the ChatGPT search product lead at OpenAI, showcased how the updated experience assists users in making informed decisions when researching products like espresso machines or office chairs. The recommendations are tailored based on ChatGPT's memory of a user's preferences and aggregated product reviews from various online sources. ​

According to OpenAI, they have made several improvements to search on ChatGPT. They said, "Search has become one of our most popular & fastest growing features, with over 1 billion web searches just in the past week."

This move signifies OpenAI's ambition to challenge Google's dominance in the information and product search space. Unlike Google's search results, which often prioritize paid advertising slots, ChatGPT aims to offer a more user-centric and ad-free shopping experience. ​

According to Fry, “It’s not looking for specific signals that are in some algorithm. This will be a shopping experience that’s more personalized and conversational, rather than keyword-focused. “It's trying to understand how people are reviewing this, how people are talking about this, what the pros and cons are,” added Fry. If you say that you prefer only buying black clothes from a specific retailer, then ChatGPT will supposedly store that information in its memory the next time you ask for advice about what shirt to buy, giving you recommendations that align with your tastes.

Based on the information, this is not the first shopping-adjacent release from OpenAI in 2025. Its AI agent, called Operator, can take control of web browsers and click around, potentially helping users buy groceries or assist with vacation booking, though my initial impressions found the feature to be fairly clunky at release.

Perplexity, one of OpenAI’s competitors in AI-powered search, launched “Buy with Pro” late last year, where users could also shop directly inside the app. Additionally, the Google Shopping tab currently includes a “Researched with AI” section for some queries, with summaries of online reviews as well as recommended picks.