OpenAI has launched Shopping Research, a new feature in ChatGPT designed to transform how users research and compare products before making purchasing decisions. Instead of manually browsing dozens of websites, users can now describe what they’re looking for in natural language and receive a comprehensive, personalized buyer’s guide within minutes.
How It Works#
The feature turns product discovery into an interactive conversation. Users describe their needs—whether it’s “the quietest cordless stick vacuum for a small apartment” or “a gift for my four-year-old niece who loves art”—and ChatGPT takes over the research process.
The system asks clarifying questions about budget, preferences, and specific requirements before diving deep across the internet. It pulls accurate, up-to-date information including prices, availability, reviews, and specifications from reliable retail sources. Users can guide the research in real-time by marking suggested products as “Not interested” or “More like this.”
For users with memory enabled, the research becomes even more tailored. If ChatGPT knows you’re into gaming, it factors that into laptop recommendations without being asked.
Powered by Purpose-Built AI#
Shopping Research runs on a version of GPT-5 mini specifically trained with reinforcement learning for shopping tasks. OpenAI designed the model to read trusted sites, cite reliable sources, and synthesize information across multiple sources. The company built an interactive experience that updates in real-time, incorporating new constraints and adapting to user feedback.
The feature performs particularly well in detail-heavy categories like electronics, beauty, home and garden, kitchen appliances, and sports and outdoor equipment.
Availability and Transparency#
Shopping Research is rolling out now on mobile and web for logged-in ChatGPT users across Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. To coincide with holiday shopping season, OpenAI is offering nearly unlimited usage to all plans through the holidays.
The feature is also available in ChatGPT Pulse for Pro users, where it can proactively suggest relevant buyer’s guides based on past conversations.
OpenAI emphasizes transparency: user chats are never shared with retailers, and results are organic based on publicly available retail sites. The company notes that while the model performs better than other OpenAI models on internal evaluations for accurately citing product details, it can still make mistakes—users should verify prices and availability directly with merchants.
Future updates will enable direct purchasing through ChatGPT for merchants participating in Instant Checkout.