OpenAI has launched shopping research, a new ChatGPT experience that performs in-depth product discovery for users by analysing up-to-date information across the internet.
The tool, now rolling out to logged-in users on Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans, aims to reduce the time spent comparing products by offering personalised buyer’s guides, clarifying questions, and real-time refinement based on user feedback.
The feature is powered by a reinforcement-trained version of GPT-5 mini, designed specifically for complex shopping tasks. It gathers live pricing, availability, reviews, specs, and images from trusted retail sources and cites them directly.
“We trained it to read trusted sites, cite reliable sources, and synthesise information across many sources to produce high-quality product research. We also designed it to be an interactive experience that could update and refine its research in real time—incorporating new constraints and adjusting to feedback on user product preferences—resulting in a response that feels both well-researched and personalised,” OpenAI said on its website.
Users can launch the tool from suggested prompts or the (+) menu. Once activated, it opens a visual interface where ChatGPT asks about budget, performance expectations, intended use, and key preferences. If memory is enabled, the tool can incorporate past user context—such as hobbies or past queries—to deliver more tailored results.
As the research progresses, users can mark items as ‘Not interested’ or request ‘More like this’ to guide the system. Within minutes, ChatGPT produces a personalised guide outlining top product matches, trade-offs, and key differentiators.
OpenAI notes that chats are never shared with retailers and results are purely organic, drawn from publicly available retail sites. In future, users will also be able to purchase items through ChatGPT for merchants using Instant Checkout.
The company reported that its internal evaluations show the model delivering improved product accuracy compared with other ChatGPT models, although it may still occasionally misstate price or availability. OpenAI encourages users to confirm final details on retailer sites. Shopping research is also integrated into ChatGPT Pulse for Pro users, enabling proactive suggestions based on past interactions.
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