ChatGPT’s Search Update Includes New Shopping Features

On Monday, OpenAI announced that it has enhanced ChatGPT’s web search features to provide better online shopping experiences for users. This includes personalized product suggestions complete with images, reviews, and direct links for purchasing.

The company’s search capability, which debuted last year, has quickly gained traction and is now one of its most popular tools, with over 1 billion web searches recorded in just the past week.

The upcoming update will feature the default AI model, GPT-4o, and will be available to all ChatGPT users globally; this includes those on Pro, Plus, and Free plans, as well as users who access the service without logging in.

When users ask specific questions, they will receive personalized product suggestions across various categories such as fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics. Importantly, the update will not include any advertisements, and OpenAI will not earn commissions from purchases made through the ChatGPT platform.

The shopping results will be generated independently, based on structured metadata from third-party sources, including pricing, product descriptions, and reviews. This initiative is part of OpenAI’s strategy to compete with Alphabet’s dominance in the search market by offering a more user-centric alternative, as opposed to Google’s ad-centric search results.

As of February, the number of OpenAI’s weekly active users surpassed 400 million, according to a spokesperson.