ChatGPT launches personalized shopping research

ChatGPT can now research purchases for you: it compares products, checks sources, and prepares a personalized guide based on your budget, preferences, and what you need to solve.

The feature is called shopping research and is designed for decisions that require more than checking a price. Instead of opening dozens of pages, you can write something like “find the quietest cordless vacuum for a small apartment” or “help me choose between these three bikes.”

How it works

ChatGPT starts by asking questions to better understand your situation. It may ask about your budget, who will use the product, which features matter most, or which characteristics you want to avoid.

It then checks up-to-date information online, including prices, availability, specifications, reviews, and images. During the process, you can say which products do not interest you or which ones are closest to what you are looking for. The research adjusts based on your answers.

Within a few minutes, you receive a buying guide with:

• The products best suited to your situation.
• The key differences between them.
• The advantages, limitations, and tradeoffs of each option.
• Up-to-date information and links to reliable retailers.

If you have ChatGPT memory enabled, the system can also use what it knows from previous conversations. For example, it might take into account that you enjoy video games when helping you choose a laptop. The feature is also coming to ChatGPT Pulse, although that option is currently available to Pro users and may suggest guides based on previous conversations.

What it is and is not for

The tool is especially suited to categories where comparing details takes time: electronics, beauty, home and garden, kitchen, appliances, sports, and outdoor activities.

For something simple, such as checking a product's price or confirming whether it has a specific feature, a regular ChatGPT response should be enough. Shopping research is designed for decisions with several conditions, such as finding comfortable headphones for work, comparing three cameras with different budgets, or choosing a gift for a four-year-old girl who likes art.

The feature begins rolling out on November 24, 2025 on the web and mobile devices for signed-in users on the Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans. OpenAI says usage will be practically unlimited for all plans during the holidays, with the goal of making holiday shopping easier.

Which model it uses

Shopping research runs on a version of GPT-5 mini trained specifically for shopping tasks. OpenAI says it prepared the model to read reliable websites, cite sources, and gather information from multiple pages.

The results are not advertisements sent by retailers. According to OpenAI, conversations are not shared with stores, and recommendations are based on public retail pages. Even so, the system can get details such as price or availability wrong, so it is worth checking the seller's page before paying.

For now, purchases are completed outside ChatGPT, on the retailer's website. OpenAI plans to allow direct purchases inside ChatGPT for participating sellers through Instant Checkout when it becomes available.

The important change is ChatGPT's role: it no longer just tells you which products exist, but tries to help you decide which one fits you. That can save time, but it does not remove the need to check the final price, shipping terms, and seller information before buying.