I Called OpenAI's $25B Bet Last Week. They Just Made Their Next Big Move.

Remember when buying something online meant opening Google, scrolling through a million search results, opening fifteen tabs, comparing prices across sites, getting distracted by ads, forgetting what you were looking for, and finally just buying whatever Amazon recommended?

Yeah, OpenAI just decided that's too much work.

They're Moving Faster Than Anyone Expected

A few days ago, I wrote about OpenAI's $25 billion advertising bet – how they were planning to monetize ChatGPT by becoming genuinely helpful instead of throwing interruptive ads at people. How the future of marketing would be about earning AI recommendations, not buying impressions.

Well, they just skipped ahead about two years ~ Again!

On Monday, September 29, OpenAI launched Instant Checkout. They're not waiting until 2026 to start monetizing shopping behavior – they did it this week. And it lets you complete entire purchases without ever leaving ChatGPT. Not in some future beta. Right now.

This isn't the future of commerce anymore. This is happening.

The Big Move

ChatGPT can now complete purchases without you ever leaving the chat. Not just recommend products – actually process the entire transaction. You ask for something, it shows you options, you tap "Buy," confirm your details, and you're done.

This isn't some future beta test. It launched yesterday for U.S. users (Free, Plus, and Pro tiers) with Etsy sellers. And according to OpenAI and Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, over a million Shopify merchants – including Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, and Vuori – are "coming very very soon." Lütke even said they've been working on this integration for a while and could barely keep it quiet.

The tech behind it is called the Agentic Commerce Protocol, built with Stripe. OpenAI's open-sourcing it, which means they want this to become the standard for AI-powered shopping everywhere.

Why This Actually Matters (Beyond the Cool Factor)

Here's the thing most coverage is missing: this isn't about making checkout slightly more convenient. It's about where discovery happens.

Right now, if you want to buy something, you probably start on Google, Amazon, or scroll Instagram until an ad catches you. Those platforms control what you see, what gets prioritized, and who pays for visibility.

ChatGPT is creating a completely different path. One where you describe what you need in plain language, get curated recommendations based on actual relevance (not who paid the most for ads), and complete the purchase right there.

For brands and online sellers, this could become a channel that matters as much as SEO or paid search. Maybe more, because it's the start of the buying journey, not just a traffic source.

And unlike Google or Amazon, OpenAI claims products are ranked purely by relevance – no sponsored placements, no paying for better positioning. (They do take a small transaction fee from merchants, but say it doesn't affect rankings.)

How It Works (The Practical Stuff)

Pretty straightforward:

You ask ChatGPT something like "Find me a gift for a coffee enthusiast" or "Best noise-canceling headphones under $200."

ChatGPT surfaces relevant products. If the item supports Instant Checkout, there's a "Buy" button. You tap it, confirm shipping and payment info (stored securely through Stripe, not by OpenAI), and the order goes directly to the merchant's existing systems.

The merchant handles everything else – fulfillment, customer service, the actual transaction. ChatGPT is just the connector. You're not buying from OpenAI; you're buying from the seller, through ChatGPT.

Right now it's single-item purchases only. Multi-item carts are coming soon, along with expansion beyond the U.S.

The Google Angle Everyone's Watching

Google's approach to AI shopping is different. They help you research and get close to buying, but you still click through to complete the purchase yourself. OpenAI's going all the way to checkout.

Google hasn't publicly commented on OpenAI's announcement (yet), but internal conversations from their antitrust trial tell a different story. In notes from an October 2024 meeting, Google's ad chief reportedly said the "writing is on the wall" and that it's "inevitable" that ChatGPT and other chatbots will eventually replace traditional Google searches for many people.

So yeah, they see it coming.

That said, let's not get carried away. Google still processes about 14 billion searches per day. ChatGPT handles roughly 66 million search-like prompts daily. That's 210 times fewer. Google's dominance isn't disappearing tomorrow – but the direction is pretty clear.

What Happens Next

If you're selling products online, this is worth watching closely. Not in a "panic and rebuild everything" way, but in a "understand how discovery is changing" way.

People are already using ChatGPT for shopping research. OpenAI says a huge portion of their 700 million weekly users ask commerce-related questions. Now those conversations can turn into actual sales.

For merchants, there's an application process to get products into ChatGPT and enable Instant Checkout. Etsy and Shopify sellers are already eligible and don't need to apply separately. Everyone else can get in line through OpenAI's onboarding form.

The opportunity here isn't just "another sales channel." It's positioning your products where discovery is increasingly happening – in conversational AI – before that space gets crowded and complicated.

My Take

Look, I'm not saying this replaces your website, your Amazon store, or your Instagram shop. But it's a real shift in how people might start finding and buying products.

The brands that figure out how to show up well in AI-powered search – whether that's ChatGPT, Google's AI features, or whatever comes next – are going to have an edge. The ones that ignore it and assume traditional channels will always dominate? They might find themselves scrambling to catch up in a year or two.

And honestly, as someone who finds most online shopping exhausting, the idea of just asking for what I want and having it sorted without tab chaos sounds pretty appealing.

We'll see if it actually catches on. But OpenAI's making a real bet here, and they've got the user base to make it interesting.

What's your gut reaction – would you actually buy something through ChatGPT, or does it feel too weird? I'm genuinely curious where this lands with people.