OpenAI expands ChatGPT into shopping, deepening speculation it’s building the next “everything app”

OpenAI has announced that users will soon be able to shop for products through ChatGPT, in what is being seen as a significant move to expand the company’s core business beyond its original mission of large language model (LLM) development.

The update will roll out to both logged-in users and anonymous visitors, offering a new layer of interaction where people researching products, like espresso machines or office chairs—will see embedded shopping links. However, purchases will still need to be completed on the retailer’s site.

In a pre-release demonstration shared with WIRED, Adam Fry, OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT search, showed how the new product feature is designed to assist users in deciding between products by synthesizing reviews and tailoring suggestions to individual preferences. For instance, if a user previously indicated they like only black clothing or shop from a particular retailer, ChatGPT would remember this information and personalize its future product recommendations accordingly.

“It’s trying to understand how people are reviewing this, how people are talking about this, what the pros and cons are,” Fry explained, framing the experience as more of a conversation than a search query.

This personalization reflects a deeper strategy within OpenAI to shift ChatGPT from a question-answering AI into a much more multifunctional platform. In the past few months, the company has steadily layered new capabilities onto ChatGPT—ranging from memory features and voice conversation to its Operator AI agent, which can autonomously browse the web and perform actions on behalf of users. While still in the early stages, these developments are giving credence to the belief that OpenAI is laying the groundwork for what many are calling an “everything app.”

The idea of an everything app—a single digital interface where users can chat, shop, work, bank, search, and socialize—has long been floated in Silicon Valley, most notably by Elon Musk. Musk, who owns X, has repeatedly declared his ambition to turn the platform into such a universal tool, dubbing it “accelerant to everything app.” But while Musk’s version of the Everything App is still in a transitional phase, many industry watchers now believe OpenAI may be quietly pulling ahead.

With over a billion web searches occurring weekly on ChatGPT, according to Fry, the chatbot is already rivaling traditional search engines in terms of sheer volume and utility. The addition of shopping links only strengthens its utility in daily consumer decisions. What distinguishes this from Google Shopping, though, is how OpenAI structures its results. ChatGPT’s product suggestions aren’t ranked based on ad spending or paid placements. Fry clarified that all results are organic and derived from product reviews and real-world feedback.

“They are not ads,” Fry emphasized. “They are not sponsored.”

Instead, product listings are based on aggregated insights from editorial content, such as WIRED’s product reviews, and crowd-sourced opinions from forums like Reddit. ChatGPT can also be instructed by users to prioritize certain review sources or types of evaluations when presenting product recommendations. In a demonstration, WIRED’s rigorously tested “Best Office Chairs” guide was featured in the sources tab of ChatGPT’s product recommendations.

However, this also raises important questions about affiliate revenue. In traditional affiliate setups, if a reader purchases a product through a review site’s link, the publisher earns a commission. It’s unclear how this will work with ChatGPT inserting itself between users and publishers.

“We are going to be experimenting with a whole bunch of different ways that this can work,” said Fry, noting that revenue sharing or affiliate frameworks may evolve over time. “Right now, the focus is on the user experience.”

This careful phrasing suggests that OpenAI hasn’t ruled out monetization, but the current emphasis is on trust and usability. That may change soon. OpenAI has stated a goal of reaching $125 billion in revenue by 2029, up from under $4 billion last year. CEO Sam Altman recently mentioned in an interview with Stratechery that affiliate revenue is one potential stream OpenAI is exploring as it builds out consumer-facing services.

The shopping feature is just the latest in a string of releases pointing toward a broader vision. In early 2025, OpenAI launched “Operator,” an autonomous agent that can navigate web browsers to perform actions like filling out forms or booking services. Although the tool is still rudimentary, it signals the company’s aim to not just advise users, but act on their behalf.

This places OpenAI in direct competition with a growing list of companies attempting to turn conversational AI into a digital operating system. Google has already incorporated AI-generated product summaries into its Shopping tab under a “Researched with AI” label. Perplexity, another AI search startup, offers a “Buy with Pro” option, where users can shop directly within its interface.

But while these players are positioning themselves in niche domains, OpenAI appears to be combining all of them. It has built the infrastructure, consumer trust, and technological lead to make ChatGPT the front-end for nearly every digital task. This may be why many now view ChatGPT not merely as a chatbot but as the foundational layer of a larger platform that could soon handle everything from productivity to payments.

For now, the new shopping interface resembles Google Shopping: users can view an image of a product, see prices from retailers like Amazon and Walmart, and click through to buy. But the underlying architecture is fundamentally different. ChatGPT, powered by an LLM, is absorbing preferences, filtering information, generating personalized lists, and refining its recommendations in a way traditional search engines do not.

The global tech industry races to build AI tools that blend functionality with monetization. While Elon Musk continues to reshape X with ambitions of turning it into a one-stop shop for communication, finance, and commerce, OpenAI is quietly rolling out feature after feature—memory, voice, web browsing, autonomous actions, and now shopping—that cumulatively hint at a much larger play.

In a world where users increasingly want fewer apps but more capability, OpenAI’s strategy could position it as the first true realization of the “everything app”—not through rebranding a social media platform, but by turning the very concept of a chatbot into a dynamic digital assistant for all tasks.