Imagine asking ChatGPT for “birthday gift ideas for a gardener” and within seconds, being able to click “Buy” right there in the hat. No jumping between browser tabs, no copying product links, no cart abandonment. Just a seamless, conversational journey from idea to purchase. That’s the vision now edging into reality, thanks to OpenAI’s new partnership with Stripe and the launch of Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, powered by the recently announced ‘Agentic Commerce Protocol’.
Once upon a time, we imagined the future as flying cars and the ability to pull products straight out of TV ads. While ChatGPT’s new feature doesn’t quite make that happen (and we’re not sure that’ll ever be physically possible), it’s pretty close. This latest development brings us closer to a world where AI doesn’t just recommend products – it completes the sale, right where the conversation happens.
Currently, when you ask ChatGPT for product recommendations, it searches the web and displays a Google Shopping-style list of products and prices. You then click through to the retailer’s site to make your purchase.
Instant Checkout in ChatGPT will change that completely. It will let users buy select products directly within ChatGPT, with no redirects and no external checkout pages. This smooth, in-chat purchase flow is powered by Stripe, which co-developed the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) with OpenAI.
The ACP is an open standard that defines how AI agents, users and merchants interact to complete a purchase. It’s designed to be flexible, meaning merchants can:
Security is at the core of this new system. Stripe’s Shared Payment Token (SPT) ensures that ChatGPT never sees a buyer’s raw payment credentials. Each token is tied to a specific merchant and car, keeping transactions private and secure, a concern that many people will be considering, as ChatGPT is still a relatively new and unknown system to the public.
To make their products available for ChatGPT shopping, merchants will need to supply a product feed compatible with the ACP, similar to uploading one for Google Shopping. This will tell ChatGPT what’s in stock, pricing and available variants for instant checkout.
Importantly, OpenAI and Stripe have also released full documentation and technical specifications for merchants and developers who want to integrate early. This will help businesses prepare their product data and systems for when ChatGPT shopping becomes more widely available.
As Will Gaybrick, President, Technology & Business at Stripe, explains: “Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI. That means re-architecting today’s commerce systems and creating new AI-powered experiences for billions of people. We’re proud to power Instant Checkout in ChatGPT and co-develop the Agentic Commerce Protocol to help businesses and AI platforms build the future of commerce.”
Our Managing Director, Debbie Porter, shared her thoughts on the launch with the folks at Newspage, saying this development represents “the evolution that those working in digital marketing have been waiting for.”
She joined the ChatGPT shopping feed waitlist earlier in the year and plans to advise clients to get involved as soon as it’s released in the UK. As Debbie explains “The world of SEO has been turned upside down this year, with Google’s recent updates causing impressions and click rates to plummet. Habits are changing, and people are turning to ChatGPT for answers where Google isn’t providing them. Most interactions with ChatGPT are conversational and usually conclude with ‘recommend a solution’.
“If ChatGPT can pull from a shopping feed it already holds, it becomes faster and more efficient. Crucially, though, it will also bias towards data it already holds — which is why ecommerce businesses need to jump on this the moment it’s available in the UK.”
For many sellers, this might sound like just another place to list products, but it’s more than that. This shift represents a fundamental change in how consumers buy online.
The traditional buying journey looks like this:
Search → Product page → Add to cart → Checkout → Payment.
Now, with in-chat purchasing, the buyer never leaves the conversation. ChatGPT becomes both the discovery tool and the point of sale. In this new world, your “shop front” exists wherever AI agents operate.
Currently, Instant Checkout is only available for U.S. users buying from U.S.-based Etsy sellers, but Shopify integration is on the horizon. There’s no confirmed timeline yet for a UK rollout, but the momentum suggests it’s only a matter of time.
For forward-thinking ecommerce businesses, this is the moment to prepare:
The launch of Instant Checkout and the open-sourcing of the Agentic Commerce Protocol mark a turning point in ecommerce. This isn’t just a new tool, it’s the beginning of a new era where AI mediates the relationship between users and merchants.
The rails are being laid for a world where shopping is conversational, intelligent and frictionless, and those who prepare early will be the ones who benefit most.
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