What’s Actually Possible in January 2026 (and What Isn’t)
Over the past few weeks, many e-commerce owners have been asking the same question:
“Can customers already buy my products directly inside ChatGPT?”
The short answer is: sometimes — but only for a very small group of merchants.
And no, this has nothing to do with SEO, Google Merchant Center feeds, or “optimising for ChatGPT” in the way it’s often explained on social media.
This article is meant to clear up the confusion once and for all.
We’ll cover:
What “Instant Checkout in ChatGPT” actually is
2. Who can use it today (and who cannot)
3. What you should do if you’re not on Shopify
1) What “Instant Checkout in ChatGPT” actually is
OpenAI is currently building shopping and checkout functionality directly into ChatGPT. This initiative is usually referred to as Agentic Commerce, supported by technical specifications such as the Product Feed Spec and the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP).
This is not about search visibility.
It is not about Google Merchant Center.
And it is not about ChatGPT “crawling” your shop.
Instead, this is a direct commerce integration, where:
product data is provided in a specific format
price and availability are kept up to date
checkout can be initiated inside ChatGPT itself
In other words: this is a checkout channel, not a marketing channel.
If you want to understand the broader visibility side of AI and search, we covered that separately here: https://wolfundbaer.ch/blog/the-window-to-become-visible-in-ai-search-chatgpt-and-others-is-closing.-are-you-in
2) The most misunderstood part: “approved merchants”
One phrase causes most of the confusion:
Instant Checkout in ChatGPT is only available to approved merchants.
This does not mean:
approved platforms
approved agencies
or “any shop that runs on the right software”
It means exactly this:
👉 The individual webshop owner (the merchant) must be approved.
👉 Approval is not guaranteed.
Being on the right platform only determines whether you are eligible to apply — not whether you are accepted.
3) If you are on Shopify
As of January 2026, Shopify merchants are in a special position.
If you run your shop on Shopify:
you are eligible to request Instant Checkout in ChatGPT
no custom platform integration is required
but you still need to actively request access
Important:
not every Shopify merchant is approved
rollout is gradual
there is no promise of acceptance
Think of it as an early-access program, not a default feature.
If you’re on Shopify, it makes sense to:
read the documentation
understand the commercial implications
and then decide whether applying is worth the effort
4) If you are not on Shopify
Let’s be very clear.
If you are on:
WooCommerce
Shopware 6
Magento / Adobe Commerce
or a custom / headless setup
👉 You cannot enable Instant Checkout in ChatGPT today in any simple or supported way.
In theory, OpenAI allows non-Shopify merchants to participate if they:
implement the required product feed specification
build a checkout flow compatible with the Agentic Commerce Protocol
and are approved as a merchant
In practice, this means:
custom development
significant effort
and no standard plugin you can “just install”
For most merchants, this is currently not realistic.
5) Why this fits Joost de Valk’s warning
This situation aligns closely with a recent article by Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast:
https://joost.blog/deafening-silence-google-wordpress-agentic/
In his post, Joost highlights something uncomfortable:
When Google recently discussed its agentic commerce future and new standards (like the Universal Commerce Protocol), the launch partners included Shopify, BigCommerce, Etsy, Stripe, Visa, Walmart, and Target.
WordPress and WooCommerce were not even in the room.
His point is not about features — it’s about representation.
If new standards are defined without an ecosystem being present, that ecosystem risks ending up in the “slow lane”, regardless of how widely used it is today.
6) A practical counterpoint: AI agents don’t always wait for standards
In an internal discussion at Wolf + Bear, our founder raised an important counter-argument.
Large language models are no longer just text generators — they are becoming agents.
We already see examples where models like Claude can:
navigate tools such as Google Analytics
click through interfaces
and produce reports without a dedicated protocol
This suggests that, over time, AI agents may be able to operate existing e-commerce systems even if those systems do not natively support a new commerce standard.
However:
that future is not productised yet
and it is not something merchants can rely on today
Right now, the advantage clearly lies with platforms that are already integrated.
7) What you should do now
If you are on Shopify
Learn what Instant Checkout in ChatGPT actually means
Apply only if it fits your business model
Treat it as an experiment, not a core strategy
If you are on any other platform
• Ignore the hype
• Focus on fundamentals that work today:
clean product data
strong product and category pages
structured markup
performance-driven feeds and ads
These fundamentals are exactly what determine visibility and conversion — with or without AI-native checkout.
Final takeaway
Instant Checkout in ChatGPT is real — but it is not universal.
As of January 2026:
Shopify merchants have the clearest path (with approval)
everyone else must wait, build custom integrations, or focus on proven channels
Understanding this distinction is critical.
Not because AI commerce doesn’t matter — but because making decisions based on hype is far more dangerous than missing an early beta.