OpenAI says it's moving away from Instant Checkout, which allowed users to buy items directly through the ChatGPT interface.
OpenAI’s plans to make ChatGPT more like Amazon aren’t going so well Lucas Ropek 12:27 PM PDT · March 24, 2026 OpenAI’s plans to make ChatGPT into an e-commerce hub aren’t exactly panning out — at least, not yet.
In an announcement on Tuesday, the company revealed that it’s pivoting away from a recently launched feature that lets users buy items directly from the chatbot’s interface.
OpenAI originally launched buying capabilities in ChatGPT last year — positioning itself as a “shopping assistant” that could connect consumers to relevant vendors.
A feature called “Instant Checkout” launched in September and encouraged users to talk with the chatbot about what they were looking to buy and, much like a traditional e-commerce site, add products to a checkout cart within ChatGPT.
The items were purchased from the vendors, but ChatGPT acted as a portal for those purchases.
However, Instant Checkout has not been a huge success.