ChatGPT has introduced Instant Checkout, a feature enabling users to purchase products directly within its chat interface. The function is powered by the new Agentic Commerce Protocol, which was developed in collaboration with Stripe to facilitate AI-assisted transactions.
The feature is being rolled out initially to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free users located in the United States. This user base is part of the more than 700 million people the company reports use ChatGPT weekly for a range of tasks, including product discovery. At launch, purchases can be made from U.S.-based Etsy sellers. The company has also announced that over a million merchants on the Shopify platform are scheduled to be integrated soon, providing access to brands such as Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori. The current implementation of Instant Checkout supports only single-item purchases. Future updates are planned to introduce capabilities for multi-item shopping carts and to expand the availability of the service to additional merchants and geographic regions.
The technology underpinning Instant Checkout is the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which the company is also making available as an open-source standard. This move is intended to allow a broader community of merchants and developers to create their own integrations for AI-driven commerce. The protocol is defined as an open standard that establishes a framework for AI agents, consumers, and businesses to interact to complete a purchase. It was co-developed with Stripe and other merchant partners with the stated goals of being powerful, secure, and straightforward for businesses to adopt into their existing operations.
The user experience for Instant Checkout begins when a person submits a shopping-related query, such as “best running shoes under $100” or “gifts for a ceramics lover.” In response, ChatGPT presents product results it determines are most relevant, sourced from various online sellers. The company states that these product results are organic and unsponsored, with rankings based solely on relevance to the user’s query. If a displayed product is eligible for the new feature, a “Buy” button will appear. Tapping this button initiates a streamlined checkout process where users confirm their order, shipping address, and payment details to complete the transaction without navigating away from the chat window. For existing ChatGPT subscribers, payment can be made using their card on file, with options for other cards and express payment methods also available.
From the merchant’s perspective, all orders, payments, and fulfillment processes are handled through their pre-existing systems. In this model, ChatGPT functions as a user’s AI agent, securely transmitting information between the consumer and the business, in a manner likened to a digital personal shopper. Merchants are charged a small fee for each completed purchase facilitated through the service. For consumers, the feature is free to use, does not alter the price of products, and does not influence the ranking of product results in ChatGPT. Items available through Instant Checkout are not given preferential treatment in search results. When multiple merchants offer the same product, ChatGPT’s ranking algorithm weighs several factors to optimize the user experience, including product availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled for that merchant.
At the center of the system is the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which provides a standardized communication language that allows AI agents and business systems to coordinate a purchase on behalf of a user. When an order is placed, ChatGPT uses the protocol to send all necessary details to the merchant’s backend. The merchant’s system then responds by either accepting or declining the order. Upon acceptance, the merchant proceeds to process the payment using their current payment provider and manages fulfillment and customer support identically to their standard operational procedures.
The protocol was designed to be compatible across different e-commerce platforms, payment processors, and business models, allowing for rapid integration without requiring merchants to overhaul their backend systems. A key aspect of its design is that merchants retain full control of the customer relationship as the official merchant of record throughout the entire purchase journey, including fulfillment, returns, support, and all subsequent communication. For businesses that already use Stripe for payment processing, enabling these agentic payments can be accomplished with what the company describes as “as little as one line of code.” Merchants using other payment processors can also participate in Instant Checkout. They have the option to use Stripe’s new Shared Payment Token API or adopt the Delegated Payments Spec, which is part of the Agentic Commerce Protocol, to accept payments without migrating from their existing processor.
The development of agentic commerce has been guided by principles intended to build user trust. The system is structured around several key tenets of security and control.
- User control: Users remain in full control of the transaction and must explicitly confirm each step of the process before any action is executed.
- Payment security: Payment information is handled through encrypted tokens that are authorized only for specific, pre-approved amounts and for designated merchants, contingent on the user’s direct permission.
- Data minimization: The protocol limits data sharing to only the information that is required to complete an order, and this information is only shared with the merchant after receiving the user’s permission.
Partners in the development have commented on the initiative. “Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI. That means re‑architect today’s commerce systems and creating new AI‑powered experiences for billions of people,” said Will Gaybrick, President of Technology and Business at Stripe. “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.”
The company has positioned this launch as a foundational step. It states that as artificial intelligence becomes an increasingly central interface for how people discover products, make purchasing decisions, and complete transactions, the Agentic Commerce Protocol is intended to provide a connecting framework. This framework is designed to link consumers and businesses for what the company describes as the next era of commerce.
