The Arrival of the Shopping Research Assistant in ChatGPT

In ChatGPT, OpenAI has unveiled a new shopping research function that will do product research for you and help you make the best purchasing choices. The action is a direct response to the Gemini 3 shopping features and Google's AI Mode.

ChatGPT can now act as a personal product researcher, according to OpenAI. To create a personalized buyer's guide in a matter of minutes, it "asks smart clarifying questions, digs into information across the web, consults reputable sources, and uses what it already knows about you—from previous conversations and your ChatGPT memory."

For logged-in customers on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans, the feature is progressively being released on mobile and the web. According to OpenAI, everyone's usage will be "nearly" limitless throughout the holiday season.

The experience is demonstrated in a demo video.

In April, OpenAI launched ChatGPT's shopping search feature. Last month, the Agentic Commerce Protocol was released to automate ChatGPT purchases. Building on such efforts, the new retail research experience expands the shopping capabilities.

Just ask ChatGPT a question about the product to give it a try. You can manually choose "shopping research" from the (+) menu, or ChatGPT will prompt you to begin a shopping research session. Following a quick procedure, you will receive a customized recommendation from reliable shops that highlights suggested goods, important distinctions, trade-offs, and up-to-date information. According to OpenAI, the outcome is a succinct, understandable summary that would typically necessitate indepth comparison and independent reading.

How It Operates

According to OpenAI, a customized version of GPT-5 mini that has been trained using reinforcement learning, especially for retail tasks, powers the feature. In order to produce excellent product reviews, it has been trained to browse reliable websites, reference reliable sources, and integrate information from many sources. Additionally, the system is designed to be interactive, allowing results to be refined in real time depending on your limits, preferences, and input, resulting in final suggestions that seem comprehensive and customized.

Not everyone is cheering, of course. Given that ChatGPT "reviews quality scores," this development presents issues for affiliate-based websites, as Glenn Gabe pointed out on X.

With ChatGPT, a shopping experience created to manage the research and direct you toward the appropriate products, discover a new way to shop. It allows you to make better-informed purchasing decisions by fusing an interactive interface with the breadth of in-depth research.

ChatGPT learns your tastes when you browse using shopping research. By marking recommended products as "Not interested" or "More like this," you can influence the results it displays.

Behind the scenes, ChatGPT searches the internet for features, reviews, photos, pricing, and availability. It then presents options when it finds them.

Additionally, it can assist you in locating lookalike products, allowing you to match your favorite style while adhering to your preferred availability, fit, or pricing.

Also, we're providing almost limitless access to shopping research in ChatGPT across all plans for the duration of the season, to make holiday buying easier. Finding the ideal gifts is another advantage.

The conversation among industry watchers continues on X.