OpenAI Wants to Make Shopping Effortless in ChatGPT, But Retailers Will Pay the Price — Literally

ChatGPT Could Soon Take a Cut of Your Online Purchases

OpenAI is quietly expanding its reach into eCommerce, with plans underway to earn commission on purchases made directly through ChatGPT.

According to the Financial Times, the AI firm is working on integrating a full checkout system within the ChatGPT interface — a move that could allow users to complete their shopping journey without ever leaving the platform.

This signals a major shift from the current model, where ChatGPT surfaces product suggestions that link out to retailers’ websites.

With a native checkout, the entire sales process could stay inside the chatbot.

That means OpenAI may soon be earning a fee for each transaction it helps facilitate.

OpenAI And Shopify’s Partnership Paves The Way

The company’s ability to introduce such a feature is likely supported by its partnership with Shopify, announced earlier this year.

This collaboration reportedly plays a key role in OpenAI’s ability to manage end-to-end shopping experiences within ChatGPT.

So far, OpenAI has been clear about one boundary: it won’t sell ad space or allow paid product placement.

As outlined on its website, merchants aren’t ranked based on price, shipping, or returns.

Product listings are driven by metadata from third-party providers, not promotional deals.

But while the order of listings might remain neutral, merchants could still end up paying a percentage of the sale.

CEO Sam Altman recently hinted at this in a Stratechery interview, saying,

“We’re never going to take money to change placement or whatever, but if you buy something through [ChatGPT] that you found, we’re going to charge like a 2 percent affiliate fee or something.”

Retailers Face A New Kind Of Customer Journey

For retailers and brands, this evolution presents both an opportunity and a potential dilemma.

On one hand, ChatGPT is proving itself a powerful shopping guide — capable of converting vague queries into completed purchases in a single session.

On the other, if product discovery and conversion increasingly happen inside AI systems, companies may lose direct control over how customers reach them.

According to Adobe, 53 percent of consumers in the US plan to use generative AI tools like ChatGPT for shopping in 2025.

Already, 43 percent are turning to AI for gift ideas, and nearly half are using it for product recommendations.

That shift could dent site traffic and alter marketing strategies.

With language models aggregating product data, many consumers may never visit the brand's site at all.

AJ Ghergich of Botify put it bluntly:

“The bigger risk isn’t the commission fee; it’s being absent when 53 percent of consumers plan to use AI for shopping this year.”

A Challenge To Traditional Web Search And Traffic

This strategy could disrupt how people navigate the web.

As ChatGPT absorbs more product and pricing information, it bypasses the need for traditional search engines like Google.

That’s not just speculation — OpenAI is reportedly building its own AI-driven browser, according to a separate report by Reuters.

Other tech players are reacting too.

Cloudflare, for instance, recently rolled out tools for website owners to block AI crawlers from accessing content.

It even announced a “pay per crawl” beta programme — an early signal that platforms are pushing back against unrestricted AI scraping.

Commerce Is Now A Conversation

From AI-powered product suggestions to a seamless checkout, shopping is becoming more conversational than transactional.

Ghergich said,

“We are watching the birth of conversational commerce. Cloudflare is asking AI crawlers to pay for data; OpenAI is charging for the sale. The common theme is value alignment: platforms are planting toll booths wherever AI meets commerce or content.”

This isn’t limited to OpenAI.

Rivals like Perplexity have already launched their own AI shopping assistants.

Others, like Rezolve AI, are building sales-focused models trained on closing techniques and product psychology.

The Real Disruption Is Attention, Not Ads

While the industry debates commissions and crawler fees, the bigger shake-up may be how consumers shift their attention.

If shoppers no longer start at Google or go directly to brand websites, the entire funnel changes.

Discovery, persuasion, and checkout are all happening in one place — and that place is not a storefront, search engine, or social feed.

It’s a conversation.