OpenAI launches agentic commerce protocol to power in-chat purchases

More than 700 million people use ChatGPT weekly for help with daily tasks—including product discovery. As of today, OpenAI is taking its first step toward enabling users to purchase directly through ChatGPT with the launch of Instant Checkout, powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol, co-developed with Stripe.

Now available to US ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free users, Instant Checkout enables direct purchases from US-based Etsy sellers, with support for over one million Shopify merchants—including brands like Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori—coming soon. The feature currently supports single-item purchases, with multi-item carts and broader merchant and region expansion planned next, Caliber.Az reports, citing the company.

OpenAI has also open-sourced the Agentic Commerce Protocol, “an open standard for AI commerce that lets AI agents, people, and businesses work together to complete purchases.” The protocol was built to be powerful, secure, and easy to adopt, allowing merchants to maintain control of their payments, systems, and customer relationships.

“This marks the next step in agentic commerce, where ChatGPT doesn’t just help you find what to buy, it also helps you buy it,” OpenAI said in a statement. “For shoppers, it’s seamless: go from chat to checkout in just a few taps.”

How it works: When a user asks a shopping-related question—like “best running shoes under $100” or “gifts for a ceramics lover”—ChatGPT returns organic, unsponsored product results, ranked based solely on relevance. If a product supports Instant Checkout, the user can tap “Buy”, confirm order and payment details, and complete the purchase—all within the chat.

Payments and order fulfillment are handled by the merchant using existing systems. ChatGPT simply acts as a secure digital agent, passing information between buyer and seller. Merchants pay a small fee on completed purchases, while the service remains free for users and does not influence product rankings.

For merchants already using Stripe, integration can be completed with as little as one line of code. Others can use Stripe’s Shared Payment Token API or adopt the Delegated Payments Spec within the Agentic Commerce Protocol.

By Vafa Guliyeva