OpenAI is trying to pursue a significant change in how it monetizes ChatGPT with the creation of a payment checkout gateway that would allow the company to collect a commission on online sales of products through the hit chatbot.
As per a Financial Times report on Wednesday, the AI behemoth is weighing up building a payment system within ChatGPT that would enable users to make purchases without ever having to leave the app. Merchants who fulfill orders through the new system would pay OpenAI a commission, providing the company with a whole new source of revenue.
The shift is a drastic departure from OpenAI’s usual subscription-based business model. With ChatGPT already receiving massive user traffic, the company feels it’s poised to monetize that activity in the form of facilitation of actual commerce transactions.
The checkout feature is still in its initial stages of development, but OpenAI has started to release early versions to prospective partners and brands.
OpenAI and Shopify: The Path to In-App Purchases and Diversified Revenue for AI’s High Costs
OpenAI and Shopify had already issued a joint statement earlier in the year, when they launched an enhanced shopping feature on ChatGPT that better displays products and customer reviews. That partnership would logically include this new payment system.
When contacted for comment, OpenAI declined to comment on the project, and Shopify did not respond to questions.
And now, when ChatGPT recommends products to customers, it sends them to the websites of retailers to buy them. That implies that OpenAI is not generating any revenues from these transactions, even as it may be driving purchases with its AI suggestions.
The new payment system would remove this additional step so that users would have the ability to finish the entire shopping process within the ChatGPT interface. This frictionless experience would propel higher conversion rates for merchants while providing OpenAI with a share of each transaction.
The timing of such a move is appropriate considering the present financial position of OpenAI. The firm reported earlier in the year that its revenue run rate annually had increased to $10 billion as of June from $5.5 billion as of December 2024.
But despite this staggering revenue increase, OpenAI lost significant amounts of money last year, an estimated $5 billion. The extensive investments the firm has put into AI research, computer hardware, and hiring talent have created enormous recurring costs that must be offset by diversified income.
A New Era for Monetization?
This move could be the harbinger of a broader trend within the AI industry, where companies are looking to move away from typical software licensing and subscription-based revenues. By positioning itself as an intermediary for commerce transactions, OpenAI would be taking a playbook that has been adopted by big tech platforms like Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
The embedding of payment systems in AI chatbots also mirrors growing conversational AI sophistication and ability to carry out advanced, multi-step procedures such as search for products, comparison, and fulfillment of purchases.
But its success would depend more on user adoption and merchant involvement. Customers would need to trust giving ChatGPT their payment information, and merchants would need to see clear value in paying OpenAI fees rather than sending customers to their own sites.
The business would also need to contend with different regulatory environments for payment processing and implement strong security features to safeguard user financial information.
As OpenAI builds out this payment system more, it will be worth watching how the company finds the balance between user experience and making money, and how much this new model contributes to its bottom line.
