ChatGPT Adds Instant Checkout via Open Agentic Commerce Protocol

OpenAI launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, enabling in-chat purchases starting with U.S. Etsy sellers and expanding to Shopify merchants soon. It’s powered by the open Agentic Commerce Protocol, co-developed with Stripe, which keeps merchants in control and works across payment processors. Recommendations remain unsponsored, security and data minimization are emphasized, and broader capabilities like multi-item carts and regional expansion are planned.

Key Points

• Instant Checkout lets U.S. ChatGPT users buy directly from U.S. Etsy sellers in chat; Shopify merchant support is coming soon.
• Product results are organic and unsponsored; Instant Checkout does not boost ranking, and merchants pay only a small fee on completed purchases.
• Orders, payments, and fulfillment remain with the merchant, preserving existing systems and the merchant-customer relationship.
• OpenAI and Stripe co-developed the open Agentic Commerce Protocol to enable secure, cross-platform AI commerce with minimal integration effort.
• Security and privacy focus: user-confirmed steps, tokenized payments restricted to specific amounts/merchants, and minimal data sharing.

Sentiment

Overall, the Hacker News discussion reflects an overwhelmingly negative and cynical sentiment towards OpenAI's Instant Checkout feature. Commenters largely view this development as an inevitable "enshittification" driven by monetization pressures, drawing strong parallels to the perceived decline in quality of Google Search due to advertising. There is widespread distrust in AI agents handling financial transactions, significant concern about biased product recommendations despite OpenAI's assurances, and a prevailing sense that user agency will be diminished. While a small number of participants acknowledge the business necessity or potential convenience, these voices are largely overshadowed by critical observations regarding the perceived shift from innovative problem-solving to profit-driven commercialization at the expense of product integrity and user trust.

In Agreement

• This feature represents an "obvious monetization path" that OpenAI, as a major tech company with significant investments, cannot avoid taking.
• Some users genuinely desire the convenience of buying directly from a chat session, preferring it over navigating multiple websites or search engines.
• The integration of purchasing into ChatGPT is viewed as a "natural step towards agents buying things on your behalf," gradually acclimatizing users to AI handling transactional tasks.
• The initiative is predicted to be a "huge business" and "make them a TON of money," potentially evolving into a dominant revenue model akin to AdWords.
• The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is seen as a practical solution for merchants to integrate into a potentially superior consumer UI offered by AI chatbots.
• For average users, the ability to simply ask a digital assistant to make a purchase, avoiding clicks, scrolls, and manual credit card entry, is perceived as a significant convenience.

Opposed

• The feature is widely seen as the onset of "enshittification," driven by monetization pressures and corporate MBAs, similar to how Google Search's quality declined due to ads.
• Many commenters express deep cynicism about OpenAI's promise that product recommendations will remain "organic and unsponsored," predicting an inevitable shift to favoring commission-generating or sponsored items.
• Concerns are raised about the erosion of user agency, transforming users from "drivers" who initiate actions to "passengers" who merely ratify AI-initiated suggestions and purchases.
• Significant distrust exists regarding AI agents handling financial transactions, citing risks of "hallucinations" (e.g., wrong products, incorrect quantities) and security fears with AI directly accessing payment methods.
• The marketing language, such as "finding products they love," is criticized as out of touch and contributing to an "exhausting" and forced relationship with brands.
• Skepticism about the user experience, with some arguing that chat interfaces are inherently "terrible" for commerce, and pointing to the failure of similar "instant checkout" features on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
• Predictions that the merchant fees will inevitably lead to higher product prices for consumers, mirroring issues observed with other platform-based services like DoorDash or Uber Eats.
• Disappointment that the massive investments in AI are leading to a replication of existing, often flawed, e-commerce models rather than true innovation in problem-solving or creating genuinely better user experiences.