OpenAI has unveiled a transformative new feature in ChatGPT: shopping research. Designed to simplify complex buying decisions, this tool turns product discovery into a smooth, conversational experience. Instead of combing through reviews and price listings yourself, ChatGPT now compiles a personalised buyer’s guide tailored to your needs, budget, and preferences.
The rollout spans all ChatGPT plans—including Free—on both mobile and web, with nearly unlimited usage provided throughout the holiday season. This arrives at the perfect moment, as millions of users are looking for guidance on gifts, electronics upgrades, home essentials, and other seasonal purchases.
Shopping research excels in categories that typically require detailed comparison. Electronics, beauty products, kitchen appliances, sports equipment, and garden tools often involve nuanced differences that consumers easily miss. ChatGPT addresses that by gathering information from trusted online sources and presenting it in a clear, structured way. It starts by asking clarifying questions to understand exactly what you’re looking for. Whether you want a laptop for gaming, a compact vacuum for an apartment, or the best air fryer under a certain price, the feature guides the conversation intuitively.
Once activated through a prompt or manual selection, the research interface allows users to answer questions about features, intended recipients, or price ranges. If memory is enabled, ChatGPT tailors its recommendations even more deeply. Discussing photography in previous sessions? Expect camera gear suggestions to become more relevant. Mention that you frequently cook? Kitchen appliance recommendations adjust accordingly.
Throughout the process, ChatGPT pulls real-time details—pricing, specs, reviews, availability, and images—from across the internet. You can refine the search by marking products as “Not interested” or selecting “More like this,” ensuring that the model adapts to your tastes. Within minutes, it generates a polished buyer’s guide summarising top picks, tradeoffs, and updated retailer information. Users can click through to merchant sites, and with the growing rollout of Instant Checkout, future purchases will soon be possible entirely within ChatGPT.
Behind this new capability is a version of GPT-5 mini, specially trained through reinforcement learning to excel at shopping-based tasks. It is built to reference reliable sources, consolidate findings from multiple places, and dynamically adjust recommendations based on your feedback. OpenAI emphasises transparency by clarifying that conversations are not shared with retailers and that all recommendations rely on publicly available retail information.
For businesses, creators, and developers hoping to integrate similar shopping intelligence into their own platforms, the OpenAI API Key offers tremendous potential. With Buy ChatGPT Plus, developers can embed comparison engines, personalised recommendation workflows, or full research assistants directly into their apps—mirroring the capabilities now showcased inside ChatGPT.
As OpenAI continues to expand features, including Instant Checkout for Etsy and soon over a million Shopify merchants, the future of AI-powered shopping looks more seamless than ever. This update marks a milestone in how people discover, evaluate, and ultimately purchase products—making the entire journey faster, smarter, and significantly more personalised.
