The company announced on Monday that OpenAI is updating Chatgpt's web search tool Chatgpt Search to give users an improved online shopping experience.

When Chatgpt users search for products, the chatbot will now provide some suggestions for these projects, introduce images and comments, and include direct links to web pages where users can purchase products. Openai said users can ask high-specific questions in natural language and get customized results. First, Openai is trying to include categories such as fashion, beauty, household goods and electronics.

OpenAI is launching the feature in the default AI model for ChatGpt, GPT-4O, which is used today for Chatgpt Pro, Plus and Free users, as well as users who log in globally.

The ChatGPT search update is part of Openai's efforts to compete with rival Google by creating better, more personalized experiences to find products and information on the internet. Online shopping is one of Google's most important businesses, but the advertising market for buying priority in Google search has also helped the product's quality decline over the years.

Openai claims its search products are growing rapidly. The company told TechCrunch that users have conducted over a billion web searches on Chatgpt.

Openai said it independently determines ChatGpt shopping results, noting that ads are not part of the upgrade to ChatGpt search. Openai said shopping results will be based on structured metadata from third parties such as pricing, product descriptions and reviews. The company won't get kickbacks from purchases made by ChatGpt searches.

Openai CEO Sam Altman has historically opposed Chatgpt's ads, but he slightly changed the song in a recent interview with Ben Thompson of Stratechery. Altman said he would accept "tasteful" ads, where Openai charges for purchases through Chatgpt, but there is no priority for sale in its results.

Openai said it will integrate its memory capabilities with shopping for Pro and Plus users, meaning Chatgpt will reference users’ previous chats to make highly personalized product recommendations. The company previously updated CHATGPT to refer to memory when extensive web searches are conducted. However, these memory features will not be available to users in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Apart from this update, ChatGpt Search will now display popular searches when users start typing in questions, just like Google Search's autocomplete feature. Additionally, ChatGPT search has come to WhatsApp, allowing users to send messages to company chatbots to get the latest answers.

Openai has previously explored shopping features through its AI "agent" platform operator, which takes seconds to minutes to browse dozens of web pages and find related products for users. ChatGpt search with shopping is a faster, hands-on experience and still allows users to search for products in natural language queries.