Instant Checkout in ChatGPT - what is it and how does it work? A compendium of knowledge

Instant Checkout is a feature in ChatGPT that allows users to make purchases directly in the chat, without having to leave the interface or go to the store's website. The idea is that ChatGPT also becomes a place with the store's offer and a checkout where you can order products and pay for them.

The idea behind Instant Checkout and technical basics

First, let's see how it looks from the user/buyer's perspective. Here's what it looks like:

Behind the mechanics is the so-called Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) - an open standard co-created by OpenAI and Stripe. It is a protocol that defines how AI (ChatGPT), a store (merchant), and a payment system communicate with each other to enable a purchase.

The idea behind the entire protocol is to enable any store and any payment provider to connect to any LLM. Although the idea is obviously valid and very universal, at the moment it only allows Stripe to be connected, and only to ChatGPT. Whether its universality will also translate into other LLMs and other payment providers remains to be seen.

If you are interested in the technical aspects of the Agentic Commerce Protocol, you can find the documentation on GitHub here.

How does it work?

When a user asks a purchase-related question, such as “the best travel bag for under $200,” ChatGPT analyzes the intent, searches the database for available products, and returns the results. These results may include products with a “Buy Now” option. These are the products that support Instant Checkout. The user clicks “Buy,” confirms the shipping and payment details, and completes the transaction within the chat. The entire process takes place without redirecting to an external site.

Payment is handled by a payment partner (Stripe) and, very importantly, OpenAI does not store card details.

At the moment, the feature supports single product purchases (i.e., multi-product shopping carts are not supported) - but OpenAI has stated that this is on their roadmap and that a multi-product shopping cart option will also be available in the chat in the near future.

Where is the feature available?

Instant Checkout is currently available in the United States (for US users and sellers).

The first sellers who can use this feature are Etsy sellers in the US - their products are already active in Instant Checkout in ChatGPT.

The next step is to integrate millions of Shopify sellers (e.g., brands such as Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx, etc.) - planned and already announced.

Additionally, e-commerce platforms and other systems can integrate with ACP to make their product catalogs available in ChatGPT as shoppable offers.

Product ranking rules and what affects visibility

This is an important topic because simply making a product available in Instant Checkout does not guarantee better visibility or display. ChatGPT ranks products primarily according to their relevance to the user's query, not whether they have checkout enabled.

When there are several options for the same or similar product, the algorithm looks at factors such as:

• product availability (whether the product is in stock)
• price
• seller quality and reputation
• whether the seller is the main seller or an intermediary

Another supporting factor is whether the product/store is available in Instant Checkout. Theoretically, this is one of many factors, not a guarantee of advantage, but let's be honest - OpenAI makes money on products purchased directly in the chat, so even if it is not a decisive factor, it is certainly quite important.

So optimizing your offer for ChatGPT is not just about enabling checkout. It's also about good product data, accurate descriptions, structure, clear information, and availability.

What does this remind us of? Good old SEO, of course. That's right, we can be absolutely sure that in this context, we will also see the development of the SEO industry (SEO in LLM), and companies of this type will soon start popping up like mushrooms after rain.

How to appear in ChatGPT with your products?

This is the part that may interest you the most as a store owner, brand owner, or product creator.

If you run a store on Etsy or Shopify and are located in the US (or offer products in the US), your products are likely to be automatically eligible, or you may simply need to enable the Instant Checkout synchronization option in ChatGPT - this is not yet clear at this point. Some are already in the implementation phase, but it is still too early to say what the entire process will ultimately look like.

What we do know for sure, however, is that other sellers will have a dedicated integration.

To do this, you must:

• Apply to the Instant Checkout program for merchants, in which you declare that you want your products to be available on ChatGPT (both in search results and with checkout).
• Provide a product feed that complies with OpenAI's specifications, i.e., a product catalog with all the required fields (name, description, prices, availability, photos, weight, related products, etc.). Important: the product feed specification includes unique fields such as related_product_ID and q_and_a (questions and answers) that help ChatGPT better understand the product.
• Implement checkout integration using the Agentic Commerce Protocol. In short: implement a mechanism that allows ChatGPT, the store, and the payment provider to interact. If you use Stripe, integration will often be relatively simple. If you use a different provider, you will definitely have some fun here.
• Allow for all steps to be handled: order, payment, shipping, after-sales service – because your store will still be responsible for these stages as the “merchant of record.” ChatGPT only acts as an intermediary in transmitting information.
• Wait for approval and implementation: OpenAI onboards stores in batches, so even if you meet the requirements, there may be a queue.

What to look for to be highly visible

Time will tell what will be the most important factor in appearing in ChatGPT recommendations, but what we can be sure of today is:

• A complete, clean, and accurate feed - the more data, the better the match in queries.
• Use of additional fields such as q_and_a in the feed - ChatGPT can use the questions and answers provided to respond more accurately to user queries. So the more clear answers we give it, the more likely it is to use them in conversation with the user.
• Related products (related_product_ID) can help with cross-selling and contextual recommendations.
• Well-maintained inventory - if a product is marked as unavailable, it may drop in ranking or stop displaying. This will probably also work the other way around, i.e., if we tell the chat that the product is in stock, but after ordering it turns out that it is not available, the chat will start to treat this store as less reliable and not worth recommending.
• Good reviews, store reputation, quality of photos and descriptions - these things still matter. And they always will.

Finally, remember: direct sales in LLMs, including those using Instant Checkout, are a new field and its rules may change over time. So keep track of changes in OpenAI's policies and guidelines to modify and optimize your solution.

What does the Instant Checkout roadmap look like?

At this point, OpenAI has officially confirmed two things:

1. That a multi-product shopping cart will be available soon (including for multiple online stores)
2. That Instant Checkout's territorial coverage will soon expand and the solution will be launched outside the United States

Nothing else has been confirmed yet, but based on the initial reactions of users and contributors from GitHub, we can conclude that:

• Errors resulting from the early stages will be corrected, including better handling of user addresses (divided into billing and shipping addresses), additional fields for managing delivery, handling in-store deliveries, etc.
• Additional integrations with payment providers and e-commerce platforms (especially those operating in the cloud) will be added.
• Additional integrations for specific verticals (e.g., restaurant orders, hotel reservations, or services) will appear - this direction seems particularly interesting, especially when viewed in conjunction with the recently released - Apps SDK, which allows users to create their own applications running in the chat interface

FAQ: Frequently asked questions about Instant Checkout

1. Does Instant Checkout work globally, e.g. in EU?

Not at this time. The feature is limited to the United States (US users and sellers).

2. Does the user pay more when using Instant Checkout?

No. The price remains the same for the buyer, and the feature does not impose an additional commission.

3. Is Instant Checkout free for sellers/merchants?

No. As OpenAI nicely puts it on its website: “Merchants pay a small fee on completed purchases, but the service is free for users, doesn't affect their prices, and doesn't influence ChatGPT's product results.”

4. Does having Instant Checkout guarantee a better position in the results?

Theoretically, no. Simply enabling checkout does not automatically give you priority. Rankings are primarily based on query relevance, availability, price, seller quality, etc. However, it cannot be ruled out that this is and will continue to be one of the factors influencing visibility in chat recommendations.

5. How can I check my orders made through ChatGPT?

Orders are available in the ChatGPT interface (Settings -> Orders). However, it is worth remembering that orders are processed by the store (merchant) itself. The fact that the purchase was made using Instant Checkout does not mean that OpenAI is responsible for it. It is only an interface that supports the purchase. Therefore, it is worth tracking the order itself, primarily directly with the seller.

6. What happens if the product requires personalization (e.g., engraving, color)?

At the moment, Instant Checkout is a relatively simple mechanism that allows you to place the simplest order for a single product. If the order requires personalization, we cannot do it in the chat, as ChatGPT does not collect this data during the checkout process. After the purchase, the seller will contact the buyer to determine the details of the personalization.

7. Does ChatGPT store my payment card details?

No - payments are processed by payment providers (currently Stripe), and OpenAI does not store card details.

8. What if a store in my country wants to use Instant Checkout?

You need to check if OpenAI has made the program available for your region. At the time of writing, the functionality is geographically limited to the US, but an expansion plan has been announced.

9. Do I need to implement Instant Checkout for my products to be recommended in ChatGPT?

No. Even if a store does not support Instant Checkout, its products can still be recommended by ChatGPT as links to external stores - just without the option to purchase directly.

10. Can every ChatGPT user make purchases directly in the chat interface?

Yes. The Instant Checkout feature is available in the United States for free, Plus, and Pro users.

11. Where can I find documentation for Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)?

• Documentation for Agentic Commerce in ChatGPT is available here: https://developers.openai.com/commerce
• Documentation for Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is available here: https://github.com/agentic-commerce-protocol/agentic-commerce-protocol

12. What if I don't know how to integrate my store with Instant Checkout and ChatGPT?

You contact people who know how to do it and ask them for help. Z3x provides these types of services as part of fintech consulting and e-commerce consulting.