Seamless AI Shopping PayPal Integrates With ChatGPT

The way we shop online is about to get a major upgrade. In a groundbreaking move, PayPal has announced a partnership with OpenAI to embed its payment services directly into ChatGPT. Starting in 2026, you'll be able to go from asking an AI for product recommendations to completing your purchase in a single, seamless conversation.

The Technology Behind the Integration

This new shopping experience is powered by two key innovations. PayPal is adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open-source standard created by OpenAI. The ACP allows merchants to make their products available within AI applications, turning tools like ChatGPT into dynamic shopping assistants.

This protocol works hand-in-hand with OpenAI’s “Instant Checkout” feature, which lets you confirm your order, shipping, and payment details without ever leaving the chat window. The goal is to eliminate friction and make buying products as easy as having a conversation.

A Seamless Experience for Shoppers and Merchants

For consumers, this means convenience and security. You can use your trusted PayPal wallet to check out, which includes the company's well-known buyer and seller protection and dispute resolution services. PayPal is also providing the back-end technology to handle traditional card payments directly within the AI interface.

Merchants using PayPal will see their products become discoverable on ChatGPT starting next year, initially focusing on popular categories like apparel, fashion, beauty, electronics, and home improvement. The best part for businesses is that no extra work is required. PayPal will manage all merchant routing and payment processing, ensuring a smooth integration without the need for custom development. To support this new ecosystem, PayPal is also launching an agentic commerce suite to help merchants manage their catalogs and gather insights on consumer behavior across AI apps.

PayPal's Broader AI Commerce Strategy

This collaboration is a key part of PayPal's strategy to lead in the emerging world of AI-driven commerce. The company is actively working to embed its payment solutions wherever AI is changing how people interact with technology and services.

This isn't their first venture into this space. In May, PayPal teamed up with Perplexity to enable payments within the AI search tool. More recently, in September, the company adopted Google’s Agent Payments Protocol to integrate with various Google products.

The Future of AI-Powered Shopping

Alex Chriss, President and CEO of PayPal, emphasized the scale of this opportunity. “By partnering with OpenAI and adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol, PayPal will power payments and commerce experiences that help people go from chat to checkout in just a few taps for our joint customer bases,” he said.

The partnership also extends to PayPal's internal operations, with the company giving all employees enterprise access to ChatGPT and its engineers greater access to OpenAI's coding tools. This move highlights a deep commitment to integrating AI into every facet of the business, from customer-facing products to internal development.