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 Monday.
Unlike the ChatGPT shopping release earlier this year, this new version asks clarifying questions and “researches deeply across the internet,” OpenAI said. It is powered by a GPT-5 mini model and is tuned to look at high-quality review sites and Reddit to help find products. For shopping tasks, the company said the new model outperforms GPT-5 Thinking, which is one of the advanced OpenAI 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. The company took questions and had stations set up so 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, were not otherworldly. In the case of the air fryer, the model that ChatGPT shopping research recommended was not the best, a reporter present at the event noted. For the Disney gift for a father, everything was Mickey Mouse-themed.
Right now, OpenAI is not monetizing this feature, meaning it will not take affiliate revenue from retailers for sending customers their way. The model is largely text-based, so there is no in-app instant checkout, which is a new feature 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 is 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 is not shared with retailers and avoids low-quality, spammy sites when sifting through information online. The company also admitted that AI is not 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. Consumers are now increasingly turning to AI for researching products when shopping online, with ChatGPT a top destination. OpenAI has recently committed to spending $1.4 trillion on data center infrastructure, which would require the company to grow into 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 from The Verge.
