(Credit: Instacart)
Ever use an AI chatbot to come up with recipe ideas or meal inspiration? Now, ChatGPT will allow you to buy items from your shopping list without leaving the app.
Online grocery company Instacart is the latest third-party service to be integrated into ChatGPT. The new tools will allow you to build a shopping list, pick groceries, decide where you want to buy from, tell ChatGPT how you want it to be delivered, decide on extras like a tip, and even pay without leaving OpenAI's chatbot.
To use the app within ChatGPT, write a prompt that speaks to Instacart. An example given by OpenAI shows a user asking, "Instacart, can you give me all the ingredients needed to make an apple crisp?"
The chatbot then compiles all the items from a local retailer. You can add more or check out. ChatGPT will request your address, provide options for delivery, and summarize all the fees. Previous payment methods will appear, or you can add a new one.
Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, says the partnership is "another step toward bringing our vision to life—where AI delivers helpful suggestions and connects directly to real-world services, saving people time and effort in their everyday lives."
OpenAI says Instacart is the first retailer to offer Instant Checkout, an OpenAI feature that lets retailers build ChatGPT shopping experiences. However, we've seen other services launch their own solutions in ChatGPT, including Etsy, Shopify, and Target.
OpenAI has been criticized in recent days for its implementation of apps in ChatGPT. One ChatGPT Plus subscriber argued that the Target integration appeared to be an ad.
Chief Research Officer Mark Chen replied to say that OpenAI had fallen short in its implementation. "We’ve turned off this kind of suggestion while we improve the model’s precision," he tweeted. "We’re also looking at better controls so you can dial this down or off if you don’t find it helpful."
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.