OpenAI steps into visual product search with images, prices and reviews
It's like Google Shopping, but without ads or sponsored placements.
If you’ve ever used ChatGPT to get product advice, you know it could feel vague or outdated. Now, OpenAI is making it more practical by adding visual product cards with images, prices, and reviews—what you'd expect from Google Shopping or Amazon, but without ads or sponsored placements (at least for now).
This feature will allow you to ask specific questions in natural language and receive customised results. For example, asking “airfryers under $100,” will return a clean, browsable list of curated picks, complete with retailer links. This shift marks a bigger push by OpenAI to make ChatGPT feel like a real-time research assistant.
ChatGPT will also provide current prices, and clicking a product card reveals deeper shopping info like where to buy, Reddit-style reviews, and an “Ask about this” button to ask follow-up questions about a product.
However, the feature isn't flawless. Early testing with The Verge revealed that searching for unreleased or high-demand products, such as the Nintendo Switch 2, results in some suspicious listings from unfamiliar sellers. This inconsistency reminds us that AI can still hallucinate or serve outdated information, especially for niche or speculative products.
Besides, this isn’t OpenAI’s first attempt at blending AI and shopping. Earlier this year, it introduced “Operator,” an AI agent that can actively browse the web on your behalf, clicking through pages, comparing prices, and even helping book vacations or order groceries. Cool in theory, but in practice? It was a bit clunky.
The new shopping feature, though, feels like a more polished step toward making ChatGPT genuinely useful for everyday buying decisions. Of course, OpenAI isn’t the only one pushing into this space. Perplexity AI rolled out a similar feature called “Buy with Pro” late last year, which also lets users shop inside the app.
Google, meanwhile, is blending AI directly into Search and its Shopping tab, with sections like “Researched with AI” offering product summaries and curated picks based on reviews. But the way we search is changing very fast, and OpenAI knows this.
After all, ChatGPT handles around a billion searches a week, according to Adam Fry, OpenAI’s ChatGPT search product lead. So, shopping is a logical next step. Gladly, the new feature will start rolling out to all ChatGPT users today, including free tier users.
In fact, OpenAI plans to integrate its memory feature with shopping for Pro and Plus subscribers, enabling ChatGPT to provide tailored product recommendations based on past conversations. However, the memory feature is not available to EU users, the U.K., Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
