The situation: OpenAI’s decision to retreat from offering in-app checkouts for ChatGPT users in favor of third-party apps could hinder its ecommerce ambitions by adding friction to the user experience and making it more difficult for retailers to set up shop on the platform.

How we got here: OpenAI’s built-in checkout partnership with Stripe wasn’t gaining traction. Consumers are clicking the buy button on ChatGPT less than 1% of the time, compared with 3% to 4% conversion rates for traditional ecommerce, per The Information. Making merchants use third-party apps that plug into the chatbot suggests the company is taking a backseat to payments until consumer shopping behaviors change.

Will it work? OpenAI’s new strategy reduces the technical burden on the company while increasing the friction required to make a purchase.

• Users first have to know the apps exist and how to access them—which, for the time being, requires a direct mention of the company name in the chat interface.
• Even shoppers who know they exist may find themselves stymied by technical limitations: Of the hundred or so apps available on ChatGPT’s platform, only Instacart currently allows in-app checkout.

Making it harder for users to complete a purchase could slow the pace of consumer adoption. While our base case expects AI platforms to drive 8.8% of US ecommerce sales by 2029, relegating checkout to ChatGPT apps could contribute to a more limited growth trajectory, as technological limitations and broader consumer distrust weigh on uptake.

Those challenges could ease over time, especially if ChatGPT starts suggesting apps to users based on conversations. OpenAI has floated that as a possibility to some commerce firms but has yet to decide on an approach, sources told The Information. But that comes with its own set of problems: namely, how to choose between competing apps that offer the same goods or services.

What it means for brands and retailers: The shift to third-party apps means the onus is now on retailers to develop their own ChatGPT integrations, a potentially cumbersome and expensive process—especially for smaller brands with fewer resources. Some companies are opting out entirely: Shopify said it won’t offer its own ChatGPT app and will instead direct users to check out on its merchants’ websites.

For most companies, there is likely limited upside in the short term to developing a purpose-built ChatGPT app. While more users are turning to the platform for product research and discovery, most resulting purchases happen on brand or retailer sites—and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, according to EMARKETER data. That’s good news for retailers worried about losing control over the customer relationship to AI platforms, but it also increases the pressure on companies to invest in AI to improve the shopping experience on their own channels.

What this means for payment providers: In its brief run, few consumers knew or trusted OpenAI’s proprietary checkout.

• Only 31% of US consumers had heard of Instant Checkout, per a November 2025 survey by Bazaarvoice.
• And only 24% of consumers felt comfortable using AI to complete purchases, per Bain & Company.

ChatGPT’s backpedalling on Instant Checkout poses a warning to other AI platforms with commerce ambitions. By kicking checkout back to third-party apps, the AI platforms and their payment partners risk forfeiting the advantages of being upstream from merchants.

Despite this, payment providers should still work on developing the necessary partnerships and infrastructure to power frictionless checkout through AI and agentic commerce in anticipation of broader adoption.