OpenAI partners with Instacart to launch first grocery shopping app

OpenAI has partnered with Instacart to launch the first full grocery shopping app inside ChatGPT. This update places the entire shopping flow, including browsing items, building a cart, and completing payment, directly within the chat interface.

According to OpenAI, Instacart is the first retailer to offer Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. This means users can pay for groceries without switching to another tab. They can move from a shopping prompt to a completed order.

The experience is currently available on desktop and mobile web. According to the announcement, Instant Checkout will extend to iOS and Android in the coming weeks.

How the Instacart experience works inside ChatGPT

Users can activate the Instacart app by starting a prompt with the word “Instacart.” ChatGPT will then surface the app and guide first-time users to sign into their Instacart account. Once signed in, the app pulls options from nearby retailers and builds a ready-to-review cart using OpenAI models.

Nick Turley, VP and Head of ChatGPT, said users can go from meal planning to checkout in one conversation. After the cart is built, customers can pay through Instant Checkout without leaving the chat. The payment is powered by Stripe. Instacart says its standard shopping and delivery network handles order fulfillment once payment is completed.

Instacart’s Chief Technology Officer, Anirban Kundu, said the feature is built on the Agentic Commerce Protocol and described it as a new way to turn conversational prompts into completed orders.

OpenAI continues to expand into agentic commerce

The update continues OpenAI’s move into retail and agentic commerce after earlier integrations with Shopify and Etsy. OpenAI aims for ChatGPT to be the entry point for users who want to find products, compare items, and place an order in the same thread.

Competition in the agentic commerce space is heating up. Google has rolled out its own AI‑powered shopping tools, including “agentic checkout” and price tracking in AI Mode. These features let users discover products, track deals, and check out directly in Search. Perplexity recently launched a conversational shopping assistant with integrated checkout through PayPal, allowing users to browse, chat, and purchase without leaving the AI interface.

These companies are racing to control the future of online retail from discovery to purchase. OpenAI continues to increase its efforts in this regard, recently launching ‘Shopping Research’ to enable users to find and compare products.