ChatGPT shopping research is a new, more advanced shopping assistant that gives the AI chatbot more ways to help users find the right products and is available now for all users on mobile and web ahead of Black Friday, OpenAI said in a press release on Monday.
Unlike the ChatGPT shopping release from earlier this year, this new version asks clarifying questions and “researches deeply across the internet,” OpenAI said. It’s powered by a GPT-5 mini model and is tuned to look at high-quality review sites and Reddit to help find products. With shopping tasks, OpenAI says this model outperforms GPT-5 Thinking, which is one of the company’s advanced research models. ChatGPT shopping research also uses its memory from past conversations to help “deliver a personalized buyer’s guide in minutes.”
OpenAI demoed ChatGPT shopping research at a press event in New York last week. There, the company took questions and also had stations set up so that members of the press could ask various shopping questions. When asking for a cute air fryer or a Disney-themed gift for a dad, the AI would ask some clarifying questions before diving in. The results, however, weren’t otherworldly. In the case of the air fryer, the model that ChatGPT shopping research recommended wasn’t the best, another reporter present at the event noted. And in regard to the Disney gift for a father, everything was Mickey Mouse-themed.
At the moment, OpenAI isn’t monetizing this feature, meaning it won’t take affiliate revenue from retailers for sending customers their way. The model is also largely text-based, so there isn’t an in-app instant checkout, which is a new feature that was released earlier this year in partnership with certain online retailers. OpenAI says ChatGPT shopping research will source review sites so that users can go there to read the full review and potentially click on any buy buttons. Whether that’s how people will use ChatGPT shopping research remains to be seen.
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ChatGPT shopping research is also available in Pulse, the feature for pro users that gives them personalized morning briefings. OpenAI also says shopping research data isn’t shared with retailers and avoids low-quality, spammy sites when sifting through information online. The company also admitted that AI isn’t perfect and that the shopping assistant might make mistakes.
ChatGPT shopping research comes as OpenAI is facing stiff competition from Google and needs to find a path toward profitability, fast. Luckily, consumers are increasingly turning to AI for researching products when shopping online, with ChatGPT being a top destination. OpenAI has committed to spending $1.4 trillion on data center infrastructure which would require the company to become a $1 trillion business by 2030. At the moment, OpenAI is making $20 billion in annual revenue but is lost $5 billion in 2024, according to a report from The Information. Per leaked financial documents, OpenAI is on track to lose $74 billion in 2028 alone, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Of its 800 million weekly users, 20 million are subscribers, per an April report.
