Technology and Scienceupdated 50m ago2 min read
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Wallet Letting “Dots” Agents Buy With User Approval
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OpenAI's ChatGPT Wallet lets "dots" make purchases for users with per-transaction approvals. Built with American Express, Mastercard and Visa; US rollout for ChatGPT Pro subscribers.
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Wallet lets Dots buy
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Wallet, a payment feature that lets its “dots” AI agents buy goods on a user’s behalf, with each purchase requiring user approval after identity verification. The wallet was developed in cooperation with American Express, Mastercard and Visa, and it lets users enter card details once while payment networks provide a transaction-specific “payment token” that includes a card number, security code and expiration date. The agents do not directly access user card information, and it will not initially take a share of transactions while it focuses on building relationships with merchants and payment networks.
ChatGPT Wallet will be offered first to Pro subscribers aged 18 and older in the United States, and it is not available in the Chat or Work interfaces, nor in independent threads of OpenAI’s Codex programming platform. OpenAI said it introduced an “instant checkout” feature last fall but soon changed direction, and it launched a shopping feature in March to make product search and comparison easier.
Approvals and tokenized cards
Users approve each purchase after a security check, and it described the process as users entering card details once, telling Dot to find items to buy, and approving each purchase after identity verification. Chaya Nayak, OpenAI head of monetisation and payments products, said, "If someone has found an item they want to buy, the next step is to take them through to completing the purchase." Payment networks generate transaction-specific payment tokens that can be used only for that transaction, and it said the token includes a limited-use card number, security code and expiration date.
OpenAI said the wallet uses biometric verification such as Face ID or a fingerprint scan, and it said each transaction will require that kind of verification. OpenAI said it is not taking a share of transactions at the outset, and it said it will focus on building relationships with merchants and payment networks.
Merchant access and rollout
OpenAI released tools and guidance for companies, including ways to prevent merchant websites from accidentally blocking OpenAI agents, and it said the wallet will initially be available through OpenAI’s Dots tool for U.S. subscribers of the Pro plan. United Airlines said it will bar agents from reaching its systems to book tickets, and Amazon blocks the agents from buying goods on its platform. "To accept payments from ChatGPT Wallet, websites must ensure that agents are not inadvertently blocked," and it said payment and risk systems must recognize legitimate purchases made by agents.
Luke Gebb, executive vice president and global head of innovation at Amex, said, "It just makes sense to watch it, start it in a contained environment, and then keep rolling from there." OpenAI expects agentic commerce to remain in its “early days,” and it said it will initially be available to a limited number of users so it can “learn from real-world use and collaborate with companies, banks and payment networks to improve compatibility and reliability.”