PayPal and OpenAI strike a milestone in AI-powered commerce
PayPal has sealed a high-profile agreement with OpenAI to embed its digital wallet into ChatGPT, the leading consumer AI tool. The integration means that starting next year, users will be able to buy items discovered through ChatGPT using the familiar PayPal checkout experience, while merchants listed on the platform can sell directly to ChatGPT users. The arrangement positions PayPal as a critical payments backbone in the emerging era of agentic AI shopping.
What the deal entails
According to PayPal CEO Alex Chriss, the partnership will allow PayPal’s ecosystem to plug into ChatGPT on both sides of the operation. Consumers with PayPal wallets—whether funded by linked bank accounts, credit cards, or stored balances—will be able to click the “Buy with PayPal” button within ChatGPT and complete purchases securely. For merchants, PayPal will handle essential back-end tasks including merchant routing and payment validation, removing the need for individual sellers to sign up directly with OpenAI.
“We’ve got hundreds of millions of loyal PayPal wallet holders who now will be able to click the Buy with PayPal button on ChatGPT and have a safe and secure checkout experience,” Chriss said in an exclusive interview with CNBC. He framed the move as a natural evolution of PayPal’s role as a trusted payments platform amid the rapid expansion of AI-powered shopping assistants.
A new shopping paradigm powered by AI
The collaboration expands on OpenAI’s broader push to enable e-commerce through AI. Earlier this year, OpenAI opened shopping on ChatGPT with Shopify and Etsy merchants, and more recently announced an e-commerce partnership with Walmart. The overarching idea is simple but powerful: hundreds of millions of weekly ChatGPT users can leverage AI to surface products and complete purchases with minimal friction, echoing a human personal shopper experience. Chriss describes this as a “whole new paradigm for shopping” and predicts agentic commerce will be a significant feature of the future.
Security, trust, and scale
A crucial selling point for PayPal is its established network of verified buyers and merchants. Chriss emphasized that the deal includes rigorous verification and fraud protections across both consumers and sellers, a critical consideration as AI-assisted shopping accelerates. Users will be able to access funds through various PayPal-linked options, and they will receive standard protections such as package tracking and dispute resolution. By managing the behind-the-scenes aspects of payment processing, PayPal aims to reduce friction for merchants and maintain trust as transactions migrate into AI-powered channels.
What this means for merchants and developers
For merchants, the integration promises streamlined onboarding and access to ChatGPT’s vast user base. PayPal will facilitate merchant routing and payment processing, so individual merchants won’t need to sign up separately with OpenAI. This could lower the barrier for smaller sellers to reach ChatGPT users and expose inventories to a broader audience. In parallel, PayPal is broadening its own AI strategy, highlighting collaborations with Google and Perplexity to bolster its payments infrastructure in an AI-enabled economy.
Implications for the future of shopping
The PayPal-OpenAI partnership signals a broader trend: AI agents evolving into practical shopping assistants that can search, compare, and purchase without leaving the conversation. OpenAI’s ecosystem, combined with PayPal’s trusted payments rails, could accelerate the transition from traditional online catalogs to conversational commerce where AI guides the buyer and handles payment seamlessly. As e-commerce giants continue to test and refine these capabilities, consumers may soon rely on AI not just for recommendations but for end-to-end transactions across a wide range of retailers.
Looking ahead
PayPal’s move to embed its wallet into ChatGPT and enable merchant participation marks a notable milestone in the convergence of fintech and AI. If the rollout proves smooth and secure, expect more payments networks to pursue similar integrations, further embedding agentic AI shopping into everyday buying behavior. For now, the focus remains on delivering a trusted, efficient checkout experience within the ChatGPT environment and expanding the ecosystem to power a broader set of transactions in the AI-enabled marketplace.
