OpenAI has launched a new feature in ChatGPT aimed at enhancing product discovery. Shopping research helps users create personalized buyer’s guides by gathering product information from across the web. This new tool is available today on both mobile and web for all logged-in users, including those on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans.
How Shopping Research Works
Unlike standard ChatGPT interactions, shopping research is designed to facilitate deeper product discovery. Users describe the product they’re looking for, answer a few clarifying questions regarding their budget and preferences, and receive a personalized buyer’s guide within minutes.
The feature gathers detailed information from a wide range of online sources, including:
- Price
- Availability
- Reviews
- Specifications
- Images
Users can refine the results by marking products as “Not interested” or “More like this”, helping the system better understand preferences and narrow down the choices.
OpenAI emphasizes that this tool is ideal for decision-making, offering a conversation-style format where the model asks intelligent questions, pulls up-to-date details from trusted sources, and refines the results based on ongoing feedback.
Ideal Categories for Shopping Research
Shopping research performs best in categories like:
- Electronics
- Beauty
- Home and Garden
- Kitchen and Appliances
- Sports and Outdoors
Technical Details Behind the Feature
Powered by a shopping-specialized GPT-5 mini variant, the tool is designed to provide more accurate results for multi-constraint queries (queries with several product preferences). OpenAI’s internal tests have shown that this new system achieves 52% product accuracy, surpassing 37% accuracy with traditional ChatGPT search.
The accuracy rate measures how well the results meet user-defined attributes such as price, material, color, and specifications. Results are updated in real time based on user feedback to ensure a more personalized experience.
Privacy and Data Handling
OpenAI assures users that product chats are never shared with retailers, and all results are based on publicly available retail information. Merchants interested in appearing in shopping research results can go through an allowlisting process with OpenAI.
Limitations of the Feature
Although shopping research significantly improves the shopping experience, OpenAI acknowledges that the feature is not flawless. There may be occasional discrepancies in product details, such as price or availability. For the most accurate information, OpenAI recommends that users check directly with merchants.
Why This Matters
This new feature brings the entire product comparison process into ChatGPT. With shopping research, users can conduct significant parts of their product discovery journey without needing to perform traditional search queries.
For retailers and affiliate marketers, this adds an additional layer of competition. Visibility in ChatGPT’s shopping research results may depend on how well products and pages are represented within the system, and whether merchants complete the allowlisting process.
What’s Next for Shopping in ChatGPT
While shopping research is now available, OpenAI has plans to introduce direct purchasing within ChatGPT, allowing users to complete transactions with merchants who participate in Instant Checkout. No specific timeline has been provided for this feature.
