OpenAI has discontinued its Instant Checkout feature for ChatGPT, redirecting users to retailer websites for purchases.
OpenAI has decided to discontinue its Instant Checkout feature, redirecting users to retailer websites for completing purchases, as reported by The Information.
Launched in September 2025, Instant Checkout allowed users to place orders and make payments directly within the ChatGPT interface. Retailers such as Etsy, Walmart, and Shopify quickly adopted this feature, enabling seamless transactions through the chatbot. Shopify President Harley Finkelstein described it as a "new frontier" for online shopping.
According to Bob Hetu, an analyst at Gartner, OpenAI underestimated the challenges of implementing transaction capabilities. He noted that while it is surprising, the complexity also poses difficulties for retailers.
Forrester's chief analyst, Emily Pfeiffer, pointed out that onboarding retailers was a complicated task, and the Instant Checkout feature frequently encountered technical issues.
Although OpenAI had the potential to leverage retailer data for product details, issues with accuracy regarding availability, delivery times, and pricing were common. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that improving product search and discovery within ChatGPT remains a priority.
“Instant Checkout is transitioning to an Apps format, where purchases will be more seamless,” the representative stated.
Shopify announced that new e-commerce functionalities will still be accessible within ChatGPT, but users will complete the checkout process on the respective retailer's platform.
Integrating Features into a Super App
OpenAI is working to evolve ChatGPT into a "super app," creating a unified platform that integrates the Codex programming assistant, the Atlas browser, and the chatbot into a single desktop application.
Fiji Simo, head of OpenAI's applications division, explained that the company realized it was spreading resources too thin and needed to streamline its efforts for better quality.
Additionally, it has been reported that OpenAI plans to incorporate the video generator Sora into ChatGPT. The super app aims to focus on agent-based AI that can perform tasks autonomously beyond just answering questions, such as writing code and analyzing data.
In this setup, ChatGPT will serve as the entry point, while Codex and Atlas will provide an integrated working environment. Simo mentioned that Anthropic's recent user success acted as a "wake-up call" for OpenAI.
The mobile version of OpenAI's application will remain unchanged, with the current strategy targeting desktop users, developers, advanced users, and corporate clients. Notably, in March 2026, OpenAI integrated the music recognition service Shazam into ChatGPT.
