Product feeds power how products appear in ChatGPT. Instant Checkout is a separate integration, described in OpenAI’s developer documentation, that renders a checkout embedded in ChatGPT: the merchant implements OpenAI’s Agentic Checkout Spec, keeps its own payment provider and applies to OpenAI to take part. OpenAI’s merchant page says it is moving away from a standalone Instant Checkout experience, and that purchases are completed on merchant-owned websites or apps.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is, in OpenAI’s words, the open infrastructure for AI-native commerce in ChatGPT; today it supports product discovery through shared product data. Instant Checkout is the checkout built on it. Below is what each part asks of a merchant, from OpenAI’s commerce documentation.
Two integrations: the product feed and Instant Checkout
OpenAI’s products specification opens with the split: product data for discovery in ChatGPT, “with separate requirements for Ads and checkout”. Discovery needs nine required fields per item, covered in the OpenAI product feed spec, field by field, and the same page says that checkout requires a separately enabled integration. A merchant who takes part in Instant Checkout builds both: the feed and the checkout integration.
Who can take part
The Agentic Checkout Spec says building with the Agentic Commerce Protocol is open to all, and that Instant Checkout in ChatGPT is currently available to approved partners, with an application form. For product feeds, OpenAI’s Get Started guide says onboarding is currently available to approved partners, through the merchant application. The steps from application to a feed that stays current are in how to submit products to ChatGPT.
The products specification says the standard OpenAI-format upload currently targets the US, and OpenAI’s merchant page says shopping in ChatGPT is currently live in the U.S.
What a merchant builds for Instant Checkout
The checkout is rendered in ChatGPT, while the checkout state and payment processing stay on the merchant’s systems. The spec describes ChatGPT calling the merchant’s endpoints while orders, payments and compliance stay on the existing commerce stack:
- Create a session — ChatGPT calls
POST /checkout_sessionswith the cart and buyer context, and your response carries the authoritative cart state. - Update it —
POST /checkout_sessions/{id}as the shopper changes items, shipping or discounts; every response returns the full cart. - Complete it —
POST /checkout_sessions/{id}/complete, where you confirm the order and return its identifiers. Cancel and retrieve endpoints complete the set of five. - Send order events — webhooks such as
order.createdandorder.updated, so ChatGPT stays in step with fulfilment.
The spec also asks for authenticated, signed and idempotent requests, and for the integration to pass conformance checks on schema, error codes, rate limits and webhook delivery. OpenAI’s key concepts page says OpenAI is not the merchant of record, and that the merchant validates the order, calculates and charges sales tax, charges the payment method through its existing processor and accepts or declines the order.
What the feed needs for checkout
In the products specification, checkout is off unless you opt in. is_eligible_checkout set to true opts a product in only when search eligibility is also true and checkout is enabled for your integration; omitted, empty or false means disabled. The same section lists seller_privacy_policy and seller_tos — public URLs of your privacy policy and terms — as conditionally required for checkout, and states that setting an eligibility flag does not complete checkout onboarding.
Where FeedRobin fits
FeedRobin builds the discovery half: the ChatGPT / OpenAI feed, with the field names of OpenAI’s product feed spec, from the same catalogue as your Google and Meta feeds, delivered by link or by SFTP (the differences from a Google feed are in reusing a Google Shopping feed for ChatGPT). It does not write is_eligible_checkout, so checkout stays at the specification’s default, disabled; the specification says setting an eligibility flag does not complete checkout onboarding. The free feed check scores a feed URL or a Shopify store address, with no account; the walk-through for the feed itself is get your products into ChatGPT.
Questions merchants ask
Do I need Instant Checkout to appear in ChatGPT?
No. OpenAI’s products specification describes product data for discovery in ChatGPT, with separate requirements for Ads and for checkout; is_eligible_checkout is disabled when omitted, and is_eligible_search is true when omitted. OpenAI’s merchant page says purchases are completed on merchant-owned websites or apps.
Is OpenAI the merchant of record?
No. OpenAI’s key concepts page says OpenAI is not the merchant of record in the Agentic Commerce Protocol: merchants bring their own payment provider and handle payments as they do for any other digital payment.
Does setting is_eligible_checkout to true turn checkout on?
No. The specification says checkout requires a separately enabled integration and that setting an eligibility flag does not complete checkout onboarding. The flag opts a product in only when search eligibility is also true and checkout is enabled for your integration.
Which payment providers work with it?
Merchants keep their existing payment provider. For delegated payment, OpenAI’s key concepts page names Stripe’s Shared Payment Token as the first compatible implementation, with more providers to follow.
Sources
OpenAI Developers, Agentic Commerce: Agentic Checkout Spec, Agentic Commerce: Key concepts, Agentic Commerce: Get Started, Agentic Commerce: Products and Agentic Commerce Protocol; OpenAI, Power product discovery in ChatGPT.