ChatGPT Launches AI Shopping Research Tool for All Users
OpenAI has launched a new shopping research feature in ChatGPT designed to help users find and compare products without visiting multiple websites. The tool became available on November 25, 2025, for all ChatGPT users across Free, Go, Plus, and Pro subscription plans on both mobile and web platforms.
The shopping research feature works by allowing users to describe their product needs in natural language. Users can request assistance with specific items or ask for help comparing multiple options. The system then conducts research across the internet to build personalized buyer guides based on user requirements.
The feature performs an interactive research process that typically takes several minutes to complete. During this time, ChatGPT asks clarifying questions about budget, intended recipients, and feature preferences. Users can provide real-time feedback by marking products as not interested or requesting more similar options. The system also incorporates information from previous conversations when users have memory features enabled.
Shopping research delivers particularly strong results in categories requiring detailed product information. These include electronics, beauty products, home and garden items, kitchen appliances, and sports equipment. For basic questions about pricing or simple product features, standard ChatGPT responses remain available as a faster option.
The final output presents users with a personalized buyer guide containing top product recommendations, key differences between options, and current information on pricing and availability from various retailers. Users can click through to retailer websites to complete purchases. OpenAI plans to enable direct purchasing through ChatGPT for participating merchants using its Instant Checkout system.
The underlying technology uses a specialized version of GPT-5 mini trained specifically for shopping tasks through reinforcement learning. The model has been designed to identify reliable sources, cite information accurately, and synthesize data from multiple trusted websites. OpenAI has implemented measures to avoid low-quality or spam sites in research results.
ChatGPT Pro users gain access to shopping research through ChatGPT Pulse, which can proactively suggest relevant buyer guides based on past conversation topics. User chat data related to shopping research remains private and is not shared with retailers. Research results appear organically based on publicly available retail information rather than paid placements.
OpenAI has made nearly unlimited usage of the shopping research feature available to all plan types through the holiday shopping season. The company acknowledges that the feature may occasionally produce errors regarding product details such as pricing and availability, recommending users verify information on merchant websites.
Merchants interested in appearing in shopping research results can follow an allowlisting process provided by OpenAI. The company stated it will continue developing the feature to cover additional product categories and improve product discovery capabilities.
