OpenAI launches ChatGPT Wallet, letting its 'dots' AI agents pay for purchases
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Wallet on Friday, letting its 'dots' AI agents complete purchases for U.S. Pro subscribers, with American Express, Mastercard and Visa supplying payment tokens so agents never see card details.
Agents that can pay — with a human check
OpenAI announced ChatGPT Wallet on Friday, a new payment feature that lets its 'dots' AI agents complete purchases on behalf of users. The wallet was built in partnership with American Express, Mastercard and Visa, and it keeps cardholders' existing rewards and purchase protections, the company said.
U.S. Pro subscribers aged 18 and older enter their card information once, then ask their dot to find items to buy. Every purchase still needs the user's approval through a security check before it goes through. OpenAI said its agents never actually access a user's card details: instead, the payment network supplies the dot with a payment token — a scoped card number, security code and expiration date that works only for that one transaction.
From shopping helper to checkout
OpenAI introduced its dots agents at its annual developer conference in late September, as personal AI agents that manage calendars, book travel and handle day-to-day tasks. The company has pushed deeper into AI-enabled commerce over the past year, after an 'Instant Checkout' feature introduced last fall failed to take off and was quickly changed, and a revamped shopping experience arrived in March.
ChatGPT Wallet builds on those efforts around product discovery, said Chaya Nayak, who leads product for monetization and payments at OpenAI. 'It's going to take time for the ecosystem to build the right infrastructure,' Nayak said. ChatGPT has more than 1.2 billion weekly active users and nearly 100 million paying users as of the end of the third quarter. Purchases through the wallet could eventually become a new revenue stream, but OpenAI said it is not taking a cut of transactions to start.
- RolloutU.S. Pro subscribers, 18+
- ChatGPT weekly users1.2 billion
- Paying users, end of third quarternearly 100 million
- OpenAI's cut on transactionsnone to start
- Card partnersAmerican Express, Mastercard, Visa
- Dots agents introducedlate September
Not every merchant is on board
Some large companies are opting out of agent-led shopping entirely. United Airlines said Wednesday it will block agents from accessing its systems to book tickets, and Amazon prevents the agents from purchasing products on its platform. OpenAI said Friday that agentic commerce is still in its 'early days,' and it published tools and guidance to help businesses navigate the change, including how merchants can make sure their websites are not inadvertently blocking its agents.
The limited rollout is intentional, said Luke Gebb, executive vice president and global head of innovation at American Express. 'It just makes sense to watch it, start it in a contained environment, and then keep rolling from there,' Gebb said, adding that OpenAI can decide to 'turn up the volume' on the wallet when it wants to.
