Recommendation SystemConsumer FacingVerified
Reviewed and published by trentmaziarz, March 24, 2026. Discovered and drafted by our automated research pipeline.
OpenAI offers a shopping research feature in ChatGPT that generates personalized product recommendations and buyer's guides based on user needs and preferences, launched in November 2025.
Details
ChatGPT Shopping Research, launched November 24, 2025, allows logged-in users to describe what they are looking for and receive a tailored buyer's guide with product images, pricing, availability, and reviews. The feature uses a version of the GPT-5 mini model trained for shopping tasks. It processes approximately 50 million shopping-related queries daily. Users can refine results by marking items as not interested or requesting more similar options. A linked checkout experience debuted with Etsy and Shopify merchants.
Products affected
ChatGPT (all tiers)Shopping ResearchInstant Checkout
Sources & Evidence
News Article
Other practices by OpenAI
Creative GenOpenAI offered Sora, an AI video generation tool that produced short video clips from text prompts or uploaded images, to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers starting December 2024; the product was discontinued in a phased shutdown, with the app and web closing on April 26, 2026 and the API scheduled to close on September 24, 2026. OpenAI announced the discontinuation on March 24, 2026, with reporting pointing to high compute costs and a strategic shift toward coding and enterprise products. A three-year licensing deal signed in December 2025 with The Walt Disney Company, under which Disney had committed a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, lapsed when the product shut down before the partnership terms were executed.OtherOpenAI deployed ChatGPT for US government and defense use through its OpenAI for Government platform, including a $200 million Pentagon contract and deployment on the DoD's GenAI.mil platform for approximately 3 million personnel.RecommendationOpenAI deployed contextual ads in ChatGPT starting February 9, 2026, showing sponsored content to free-tier users based on the topics of their current conversation.
Have evidence about OpenAI's AI practices? Submit a report.
Report a Sighting →