ChatGPT shopping research builds you a buyer’s guide using AI | The Verge
OpenAI has launched a new feature in ChatGPT called “Shopping Research” that acts like a personal shopping assistant. Users simply describe what they want—say a gift, gadget, or appliance—and ChatGPT asks follow-up questions about budget, use case, and style to tailor recommendations. It then scans trusted online sources for up-to-date product specs, images, reviews, and pricing, and produces a personalized buyer’s guide. During the holiday season, all users (free or paid) get almost unlimited access. While you can’t yet complete the purchase inside ChatGPT, you can tap through to retailers. OpenAI plans to eventually support Instant Checkout within the chat for select merchants.
The Key points
- Accessible to All Plans: The shopping feature is available to users on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro tiers.
- Nearly Unlimited Use: OpenAI is offering “almost unlimited” usage during the holiday season.
- Interactive Queries: ChatGPT asks clarifying questions (budget, purpose, style) to narrow down options.
- Deep Web Research: The tool combs through live data—prices, availability, specs, images—from quality online sources.
- Refinement in Real Time: Users can mark suggested items as “More like this” or “Not interested” to guide the research.
- Custom Buyer’s Guide: After a few minutes, ChatGPT generates a tailored guide with top picks, pros & cons, and key trade-offs.
- Powered by GPT-5 Mini: The feature is built on a version of GPT-5 fine-tuned specifically for shopping tasks.
- Personalization via Memory: If you’ve enabled memory, ChatGPT uses past conversations to make suggestions more relevant.
- Privacy Conscious: Shopping research doesn't share your conversation with retailers, and it avoids low-quality or spammy sites.
- Checkout Coming Soon: Currently, you’re directed to merchant sites to buy; but OpenAI plans to offer Instant Checkout for some retailers in future.
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