Date:
April 29, 2025
ChatGPT now helps users shop smarter with AI-powered product recommendations, marking a major shift toward ad-free, search-driven utility.
If you’ve ever wished your AI assistant could also double as a personal shopper, OpenAI has some news for you.
This week, the company behind ChatGPT rolled out a major update to its search tool, adding personalized shopping recommendations that feel less like ads and more like curated advice. Whether you’re looking for the best running shoes under $100 or a quiet air purifier for your bedroom, ChatGPT can now respond with real product suggestions, complete with images, reviews, and purchase links.
The shopping feature is now available globally and works across all user tiers — Free, Plus, and Pro — and even if you’re not logged in. The tech behind it is powered by OpenAI’s latest GPT-4o model, which the company is positioning as a major step forward in AI-based search.
Here’s How It Works:
Ask a question like “What’s a good noise-canceling headset under $150?” and ChatGPT will return a list of products, with specifications, price points, user reviews, and direct links to retailers. It covers categories from fashion and home goods to tech and personal care — all delivered in ChatGPT’s signature conversational tone.
This is part of OpenAI’s broader effort to make ChatGPT more useful as a search alternative, aimed squarely at Google’s advertising-driven model.
And OpenAI has the momentum to try. The company recently announced that ChatGPT now handles over 1 billion web searches weekly, with more than 400 million weekly active users reported in February.
So far, OpenAI has avoided turning the experience into a monetized marketplace. There are no ads, no affiliate links, and no sponsored results — at least not yet. OpenAI emphasized that they don’t take commissions and don’t do paid placement. Instead, the results are based on structured data, not ads. That’s a bold stance in a digital world shaped by ad dollars and search engine rankings.
Whether it stays that way is anyone’s guess. But for now, it seems OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be your search companion, not a salesperson.
