PayPal has struck a landmark deal with OpenAI to become the first digital wallet embedded directly within ChatGPT, enabling users to make purchases and merchants to sell products through the world’s leading consumer AI platform. The agreement, finalized over the weekend, marks a major step toward AI-driven e-commerce and what executives are calling the beginning of “agentic shopping.”
“Hundreds of millions of people turn to ChatGPT each week for help with everyday tasks, including finding products they love, and over 400 million use PayPal to shop,” said Alex Chriss, President and CEO of PayPal. “By partnering with OpenAI and adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol, PayPal will power payments and commerce experiences that help people go from chat to checkout in just a few taps for our joint customer bases.”
Starting next year, both sides of PayPal’s ecosystem – consumers and merchants – will be able to transact through ChatGPT. Users can search for items using conversational prompts and complete purchases via a “Buy with PayPal” button without leaving the chat.
Merchants in PayPal’s network will have their inventories integrated into ChatGPT’s marketplace, giving them access to the platform’s more than 700 million weekly users.
“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,” said Alex Chriss in an interview with CNBC.
The partnership represents one of the first large-scale integrations between a major fintech platform and a conversational AI system. It builds on OpenAI’s recent push to transform ChatGPT into a digital assistant capable of performing complex actions, from booking hotels to managing personal finances.
“It’s a whole new paradigm for shopping,” Chriss said. “It’s hard to imagine that agentic commerce isn’t going to be a big part of the future.”
OpenAI’s recent e-commerce integrations include partnerships with Shopify, Etsy, and Walmart, allowing ChatGPT users to browse, compare, and now purchase goods directly through the app. PayPal’s addition completes a critical layer — secure payments and merchant verification — that brings the AI shopping experience closer to a functioning marketplace.
Under the deal, PayPal will handle merchant routing, payment validation, and other back-end functions, so individual sellers don’t need to contract directly with OpenAI. The system will ensure that both merchants and buyers are verified, mitigating fraud and improving transaction transparency. Customers can pay with linked bank accounts, credit cards, or PayPal balances, while receiving full purchase protections, tracking, and dispute resolution.
Chriss emphasized that this integration goes beyond payments. “It’s not just that a transaction can happen,” he said. “It’s that this is a trusted set of merchants — the largest merchant network in the world from PayPal – that are verified, with the largest set of verified consumers in a consumer wallet.”
The company also revealed it is expanding the use of OpenAI’s enterprise AI tools internally to accelerate product development and enhance customer service operations. This includes using AI models for transaction analysis, fraud detection, and personalized merchant support.
Analysts view the partnership as a breakthrough moment for AI-driven commerce, one that could reshape how users discover and buy products online. With ChatGPT evolving into a conversational hub for search, recommendations, and transactions, PayPal’s integration gives OpenAI a built-in, secure payments layer – while positioning PayPal as the financial backbone of agentic AI.
The move continues PayPal’s broader strategy to align with AI’s future, following recent collaborations with Google and Perplexity AI. Together, these partnerships aim to anchor the company firmly in the next generation of digital commerce – one where consumers will simply tell their AI what they want, and the transaction will follow seamlessly.
