OpenAI has introduced Shopping Research, a new feature in ChatGPT designed to act as a personalised product advisor for researching, comparing and curating buying guides for users directly within a chat.
Rolled out across the web and mobile apps for all logged-in users—including Free, Go, Plus, and Pro—the feature is aimed at simplifying the often overwhelming online shopping workflow.
Instead of browsing dozens of tabs, users can simply describe what they’re looking for: a quiet vacuum for a small apartment, a gaming laptop under $1,000, or a gift for a child who loves art. The tool then asks clarifying questions, pulls information from trusted retail sites, checks prices and availability, and produces a tailored buyer’s guide within minutes.
During the holiday season, OpenAI is also offering nearly unlimited usage across all plans.
Powered by a specialised version of GPT-5 mini, reinforced specifically for shopping tasks, the model is trained to read high-quality sites, cite sources, and synthesise product information with improved accuracy. Internally, OpenAI says the model outperforms ChatGPT Search and other GPT-5 variants on complex product queries with multiple constraints.
The feature works interactively. Users can mark items as “Not interested” or “More like this”, allowing the research to adapt in real time. For those with ChatGPT Memory enabled, recommendations become even more personalised for example, knowing a user prefers gaming-friendly hardware.
Crucially, OpenAI stresses that user chats aren’t shared with retailers, and product listings are entirely organic, not sponsored. Merchants can choose to be allowlisted, but cannot influence rankings.
OpenAI acknowledges limitations, such as occasional inaccuracies in pricing or availability, and advises users to verify before purchase. The company also plans to enable direct checkout within ChatGPT for certain merchants in the future.
Despite these leaps, Google seems to be better placed with its ecosystem. It has the search engine, Android as the dominant mobile operating system, the user base, and increasingly, the AI integration to match offerings from competitors and beyond.
While newer entrants are building ecosystems from scratch or plugging into chatbots, Google’s ecosystem stretches from Search to Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Android.
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