OpenAI has introduced a shopping research feature in ChatGPT designed to compile personalised buying guides using up-to-date product information from retailers.

The tool is rolling out to logged-in users across Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans on mobile and web, with nearly unlimited usage through the holiday season, and is part of the company’s push deeper into e-commerce.

Users can start by asking detailed questions such as “Find the quietest cordless stick vacuum for a small apartment” and then refine results through a guided interface that asks about budget, intended use and desired features. OpenAI says the system analyses current details including price, availability, reviews, specifications and images, and adapts as users mark items “More like this” or “Not interested.” According to OpenAI, the feature is “powered by a version of GPT‑5 mini trained with reinforcement learning specifically for shopping tasks,” adding it was designed to “read trusted sites, cite reliable sources, and synthesise information across many sources to produce high-quality product research”

The company cautioned that product details may not always be error-free and urged users to confirm specifics on retailer sites. “Shopping research might make mistakes about product details like price and availability, and we encourage you to visit the merchant site for the most accurate details,” OpenAI wrote. OpenAI also said chats are not shared with retailers and results are organic, based on publicly available retail websites, with an allowlisting process for merchants to appear in results.

OpenAI plans to connect the feature to Instant Checkout so purchases can be completed inside ChatGPT with participating merchants, after previously introducing direct purchasing for eligible sellers in September. Pro users will additionally see buyer’s guides surface proactively in Pulse based on past conversations, with OpenAI noting, “For example, if you’ve been discussing e-bikes, a future Pulse card could suggest useful accessories for you”.

The move arrives as rivals expand their own shopping experiences. Google’s AI Mode has added shopping features and Perplexity’s Comet browser can shop on users’ behalf, reflecting a broader industry push to weave commerce into AI assistants ChatGPT shopping research builds you a buyer’s guide using AI.

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