• by Laurie Sullivan , Yesterday

Instant Checkout in OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched Monday in partnership with Etsy and Shopify, allowing consumers to make purchases directly from the chatbot.

The shift in ecommerce supports what some have labeled as an affiliate program, which could temporarily take the place of advertising to become the revenue generator. Merchants pay a fee to support the checkout. 

Only 2.1% of Chat GPT use is for product information, according to their own data, so this is an emerging market, Kevin Indig, growth advisor at Hypergrowth Partner, wrote in a LinkedIn blog post.

“Direct check-out will give us more data about how people are using Chat GPT because attribution will be much easier,” he wrote. “Rather than advertising, OpenAI takes a small (affiliate) fee. I do expect that advertising will come soon, because OpenAI needs money, but this could make it more interesting [long-term] for merchants to partner with OpenAI rather than advertising on Google if the [customer acquisition cost] is right.”

Indig also mentioned in the LinkedIn post that Google recently partnered with PayPal to create a new AI shopping platform -- perhaps because Stripe was already committed to OpenAI?

Stripe codeveloped the Instant Checkout payment protocol for AI.

Stripe is an online financial infrastructure and payment processing platform that allows businesses to accept and process payments from customers via websites, apps, and other online platforms.

The feature will help OpenAI monetize its more than 700 million weekly users who pay nothing to use ChatGPT. Brands selling on the platform include Glossier, Skims, Spanx, and soon, Vuori.

OpenAI will open-source the technology that powers Instant Checkout, the Agentic Commerce Protocol, operating under an open standard, so more merchants and developers can begin building their integrations.

The move takes OpenAI one step closer to agentic commerce, where ChatGPT doesn’t just help consumers find what to buy, but also helps them buy it.

OpenAI provided an example in the blog post. “When someone asks a shopping question — 'best running shoes under $100’ or ‘gifts for a ceramics lover’ — ChatGPT shows the most relevant products from across the web. Product results are organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user.”

When Instant Checkout supports the product, users can tap “Buy,” confirm their order, shipping, and payment details, and complete the purchase without ever leaving the chat.

Existing ChatGPT subscribers can pay with their card on file, or other card and express payment options.