Article
ChatGPT Shopping in Germany: what merchants can do now
What works with ChatGPT Shopping in Germany today: product results, merchant feeds with a waitlist, ChatGPT ads with a product feed and OpenAI’s feed fields.
ChatGPT stopped answering buying questions with theory a long time ago. It answers with concrete products: images, prices, reviews and a link to the store. Users in Germany have been seeing these results since spring 2025 too. They come from two sources: store pages that ChatGPT reads itself, and product feeds built to OpenAI’s specification. By now, the same feed also powers ads in ChatGPT.
This article sums up where things stand as of October 2026: what ChatGPT Shopping is, how product selection works, what ChatGPT Ads have to do with your feed, what became of Instant Checkout and what you as a merchant can do right now. All numbers are dated and linked at the end, because a lot changes quickly here.
What is ChatGPT Shopping?
ChatGPT Shopping is product search inside ChatGPT: to buying questions like “Which stroller can handle dirt roads for under 600 euros?”, ChatGPT replies with a curated selection of concrete products, including images, prices, reviews and links to the stores. The purchase happens at the merchant, not at OpenAI.
Since November 2025, there’s also shopping research: ChatGPT asks follow-up questions, researches in the background and builds a personal buying guide from it, for signed-in users on the Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans.
The scale behind it: in October 2025, OpenAI reported over 800 million weekly ChatGPT users. Adobe measured almost five times as much AI traffic on US retail sites in the first quarter of 2026 as a year earlier (+393%); according to Adobe (June 2026), this traffic converts 54% better than traffic from other sources.
What’s already live in Germany? The timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 2025 | Shopping results roll out gradually from April 28, including in Germany, for paying and free users |
| September 2025 | OpenAI introduces Instant Checkout in the US, first with Etsy, with Shopify to follow, based on the Agentic Commerce Protocol developed with Stripe; merchants can apply |
| October 2025 | Channable introduces the “ChatGPT Commerce (Open AI)” feed |
| November 2025 | Shopping research starts for signed-in users on the Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans |
| February 2026 | OpenAI tests the first ads in ChatGPT, initially in the US |
| March 2026 | OpenAI scales back Instant Checkout, merchants use their own checkout again |
| August 2026 | ChatGPT Ads start in 31 European countries, including Germany and Austria; since August 31, you book them yourself in Ads Manager |
| October 2026 | Ads Manager accepts product feeds for ads. According to OpenAI, Shopping with merchant feeds still only runs in the US; merchants from Germany land on a waitlist after signing up |
In short: the user side is live in Germany, the merchant side (direct feed access for Shopping) so far only in the US. For ads, on the other hand, OpenAI already accepts your feed today. What that means for you is further down.
How does ChatGPT choose products?
ChatGPT pulls product information from two sources:
1. Crawled product pages. The OAI-SearchBot visits public store pages and reads titles, prices, availability, reviews and structured data. An analysis by Profound (June 2026, with a data set including around 548 million product offers) shows in a 30-day snapshot: about 88% of all offers in ChatGPT come from crawled product pages.
2. Product feeds to OpenAI’s specification. Merchants can submit their catalog to OpenAI directly as a structured feed, which gives them more control over how their products appear. According to OpenAI, this only works for users in the US so far; merchants from Germany sign up via a form and land on a waitlist. Shopify and Etsy catalogs are already connected.
The ranking itself is organic. OpenAI explains that product recommendations aren’t ads and are selected based on relevance to the query; when several sellers offer the same product, availability, price, quality and whether you’re the manufacturer or primary seller count. You can’t buy these placements. Since the end of August 2026, there are also ads in Germany, clearly labeled and separate from the answers (more on that below).
The OpenAI product feed in detail
OpenAI publishes the feed specification at developers.openai.com. The key points (as of October 2026):
| Topic | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Required fields | nine: item_id, title (max. 150 characters), description (max. 5,000 characters), url, brand, seller_name, image_url, availability and price with currency |
| Countries | target_countries and store_country are optional and need to be set up by OpenAI; the standard upload targets the US |
| Control flags | is_eligible_search (visibility in search, with no guarantee of being shown), is_ads_eligible (ads), is_eligible_checkout (direct purchase, needs its own integration); all controllable per product |
| Recommended fields | gtin with a valid check digit, mpn, product_category, sale_price, variants with group_id, shipping costs, returns, reviews; they improve relevance and ranking |
| Formats & transfer | the whole catalog as a file via SFTP (parquet, jsonl.gz, csv.gz or tsv.gz), recommended at least daily; price and availability in between via API. In Ads Manager also as CSV, TXT or a fixed feed URL |
| Access | Shopping: apply via chatgpt.com/merchants, then waitlist; Shopify and Etsy catalogs are connected automatically. Ads: create a feed in Ads Manager, self-serve in Germany |
Important: a copied Google Shopping feed won’t pass this check just like that. The field names and the values for availability are different, OpenAI requires the seller in every row, and OpenAI only accepts Google’s format if it has confirmed that for your feed beforehand.
This is exactly where Channable comes in: since October 2025, it has offered the “ChatGPT Commerce (Open AI)” feed. It automatically translates your existing product data into OpenAI’s format, checks the required fields and keeps the feed up to date. You keep maintaining your data in your store or PIM, and the feed runs alongside.
ChatGPT Ads: your feed in Ads Manager
Since the end of August 2026, ChatGPT Ads have been running in 31 European countries, including Germany and Austria. Since August 31, you book them yourself in Ads Manager. Only users on the Free and Go plans see ads, clearly labeled and separate from the answers.
Important for merchants: Ads Manager accepts product feeds. The feed turns into ads with an image, title and price, without you building each ad individually. The feed follows the same specification as the Shopping feed, with the field is_ads_eligible, and gets into Ads Manager as a file, via a fixed feed URL or via SFTP. Anything that isn’t delivered again within two weeks expires.
One catch: according to OpenAI, products from the ads feed only appear in ads during the test phase, not in the organic answers. So Shopping and ads are two routes with the same feed, but two uploads.
What became of Instant Checkout
In September 2025, OpenAI introduced Instant Checkout: buying directly in the chat, initially for US users with Etsy merchants, with Shopify to follow. In March 2026, OpenAI scaled this native purchase feature back and now lets merchants use their own checkout. Walmart, for example, saw three times lower conversion for purchases made directly in the chat than with a click through to its own store. Today OpenAI itself writes that it is moving away from standalone Instant Checkout: purchases happen on the merchant’s website or in its app.
Honestly, the current state is the better news for merchants: ChatGPT focuses on product discovery and links to your store for the purchase. You keep your checkout, margin, customer data and upselling. OpenAI charges no fees on purchases that start in ChatGPT. The Agentic Commerce Protocol and the feed program continue; product search today shows images, prices and comparisons in one result.
For your planning, this means: don’t wait for the “buy button in ChatGPT”. The lever today is visibility, and that’s decided by data quality.
What merchants in Germany should do now
The approval process for feeds is in OpenAI’s hands, your data is in yours. The three steps worth taking now:
1. Check your product data. Do all products have a GTIN, brand, clean variants and a clear availability? That’s what the feed is built from. According to OpenAI, missing required fields and incorrectly formatted values are common reasons why rows get rejected.
2. Build the feed and sign up. In Channable, the feed is built to OpenAI’s specification, with GTIN, variants and merchant data; you sign up via OpenAI’s form. When you get approved for Shopping is up to OpenAI. If you already have the feed by then, you don’t have to start from scratch.
3. Use the feed for ChatGPT Ads. The same feed already goes into Ads Manager today. You or your agency run the campaigns there.
If you don’t want to build the feed yourself: as a ChatGPT shopping agency, we build it in your Channable account and submit the sign-up to OpenAI in your name. Feed and sign-up are done in 7 business days, once at a fixed price. When you get approved for Shopping is up to OpenAI; you can use the feed for ChatGPT Ads right away, and you or your agency run the campaigns. The same data also produces your feeds for Google Shopping, Meta and the price comparison sites. As one of four Channable Gold Partners in Germany, we know feed logic from over 120 integrations.
FAQ
When will ChatGPT Shopping officially come to Germany? Users in Germany have been seeing the product results since 2025. What’s missing is the opening of the program for merchant feeds: according to OpenAI, it only runs in the US so far, other regions are to follow, and OpenAI hasn’t given a date. Until then, ChatGPT shows products from crawled store pages, the feed can be prepared, and you can already use it for ChatGPT Ads today.
Does it cost anything to be included in ChatGPT? No. The organic product results are free and can’t be bought, and OpenAI charges no fees on purchases that start in ChatGPT. The costs come from your own effort: data maintenance, a tool like Channable and service providers if needed. ChatGPT Ads are advertising, and you pay your budget for them.
Is our Google Shopping feed enough? As a data basis, yes; as a submission, no. OpenAI has its own field names and values and requires the seller in every row; OpenAI only accepts Google’s format if it has confirmed that for your feed beforehand. In Channable, though, your existing catalog can be brought into OpenAI’s format without maintaining your data twice.
Do we need Shopify for this? No. According to OpenAI, Shopify and Etsy catalogs are already connected, which is a head start. Your own feed can be generated just as well from Shopware, WooCommerce and other systems, and with it, titles, variants and availability are in your own hands.
Do we need a separate feed for ChatGPT Ads? Not a separate feed, but a separate upload. Ads Manager accepts feeds to the same specification, with the field for ads. According to OpenAI, products from the ads feed only appear in ads during the test phase, not in the answers.
Sources
- OpenAI: DevDay 2025, 800 million weekly users, October 2025
- OpenAI: Shopping with ChatGPT Search (Help Center)
- OpenAI: merchant page “Power product discovery in ChatGPT”, October 2026
- OpenAI: Product Feed Spec, file upload (developer docs), October 2026
- OpenAI: Buy it in ChatGPT, Instant Checkout, September 2025
- OpenAI: Introducing shopping research in ChatGPT, November 2025
- OpenAI: ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe, August 2026
- OpenAI: Create Campaigns from Product Feeds (Help Center), October 2026
- ecommercegermany: ChatGPT Shopping starts in Germany, July 2025
- Profound: ChatGPT Shopping Deep Dive, around 548 million offers, June 2026
- TechCrunch / Adobe: AI traffic to US retailers +393% in Q1 2026, April 2026
- Digital Commerce 360 / Adobe: AI-referred traffic to retail, June 2026
- Modern Retail: What went wrong with ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout, March 2026
- Channable: Changelog, new feed “OpenAI’s ChatGPT Commerce”, October 2025
