Instacart (NASDAQ: CART), the leading grocery technology company in North America, today announced that it is the first grocery partner to launch an app on ChatGPT and the first to offer an embedded, end-to-end shopping and Instant Checkout – all within the context of a ChatGPT conversation. This new integration makes it easier than ever for people to go from meal inspiration to doorstep delivery, using Instacart’s real-time grocery network and fulfillment capabilities with the help of OpenAI frontier model capabilities.
“Instacart and ChatGPT are redefining what’s possible in AI-powered shopping,” said Anirban Kundu, Chief Technology Officer at Instacart. “Built on Agentic Commerce Protocol, this experience brings intelligent, real-time support to one of the most essential parts of daily life: getting groceries to feed your family. Together, we’re creating a seamless and secure way for people to turn simple conversations into real-world action — helping customers go from inspiration to a full cart delivered from the store to their door with ease.”
“With the Instacart app directly in ChatGPT, users can go from meal planning to checkout in a single, seamless conversation,” said Nick Turley, VP, Head of ChatGPT. “It’s another step toward bringing our vision to life—where AI delivers helpful suggestions and connects directly to real-world services, saving people time and effort in their everyday lives.”
The Instacart ChatGPT app experience with Instant Checkout is currently available on desktop and mobile web; the Instacart ChatGPT app is available on iOS and Android, with Instant Checkout rolling out to these native platforms in the coming weeks. ChatGPT can surface the Instacart ChatGPT app when a user asks for it by starting a prompt with Instacart, such as “Instacart, can you help me shop for apple pie ingredients?” During their first use, users install the app by signing into their Instacart account. To enable Instant Checkout on iOS, users should ensure they have updated to the latest version of ChatGPT in the iOS App store.
Once the Instacart app is opened and the user is signed in, the app will help you find what you need from your local retailers and present a ready-to-review cart with the help of OpenAI models. Once you’re satisfied with your selections, you can securely pay directly in the Instacart app right in ChatGPT with Instant Checkout, with no need to switch tabs. Your items will then be shopped and delivered through Instacart’s trusted platform.
Instacart is the first app within ChatGPT’s app ecosystem to offer checkout directly within ChatGPT, powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Through this first-of-its-kind implementation, ChatGPT and Instacart are enabling a fast, secure, and familiar credit card payment flow; digital wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, will be supported in the coming weeks. Powered by Stripe, transactions run smoothly and safely within the conversation.
Driving the Future of Grocery
We believe consumers should have the freedom to shop in the way that works best for them, whether that’s through the Instacart app directly, on a retailer’s app or website, via an embedded experience on a partner’s site, or with an AI agent. No matter how you choose to shop, Instacart is focused on making the experience simple, seamless, and tailored to your unique preferences.
As the leading grocery technology company in North America, we can help bridge AI inspiration and real-world grocery fulfillment. This has made Instacart a key partner for leading AI companies – OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and more – that see great value in connecting our retail network with their consumer platforms. Through these partnerships, we’re helping define how grocery shopping works across the next generation of digital agents – ensuring that consumers can easily get what they want and that our retail partners are well-positioned to succeed.
Over time, we expect every generative AI company to connect more directly with Instacart’s grocery engine, linking their massive consumer reach with our network of retail partners and driving incremental demand. As consumers adopt AI platforms for ideation and shopping, our collaboration with generative AI companies enables retailers to capture a larger share of these evolving, AI-driven baskets.
At the same time, we’re building AI experiences into the Instacart platform itself, including Smart Shop offerings, which make shopping more personal and convenient for consumers. We’re also helping our retailers by offering advanced technology to drive innovation in an increasingly AI-driven world through our new enterprise suite of products, AI Solutions. Together, they represent Instacart’s long-term investment in AI – from the algorithms that power personalized search and recommendations to new capabilities that make grocery shopping more predictive, connected, and effortless.
Built on Instacart’s Unmatched Grocery Expertise
We know how complex grocery shopping can be: tens of thousands of SKUs per retailer – with variations in brand, size, flavor, dietary needs, and what’s actually in stock near you. That complexity is exactly what makes Instacart the ideal partner for AI agents. Every week, your grocery list reflects your unique preferences, giving AI agents the chance to learn, adapt, and shop on your behalf. With Instacart as the grocery partner, AI agents can draw from:
- Unmatched selection: More than 1,800 retailers and nearly 100,000 stores, covering over 98% of households in North America. Wherever you live, there’s a good chance Instacart is available.
- Most thorough product catalog: Our edge begins with the breadth and depth of our product catalog, encompassing more than 2 billion product instances across our vast network of retailers.
- Up-to-date inventory and pricing: Grocery stock is constantly changing. By leveraging Instacart’s real-time understanding of product availability and prices, agents recommend what’s actually on the shelf and not just what should be.
- Shopping that knows you: From “no pulp orange juice” to “gluten-free pasta”, Instacart understands the details that matter. With over a decade of data powering tailored shopping experiences, consumers’ experience is personalized, with recommendations based on their past orders, favorite brands, and shopping habits – just like they would directly in the Instacart app or website.
- Fast delivery: With hundreds of thousands of shoppers, more than half the time, a shopper is already at or near the store, so your order can arrive in as fast as 30 minutes.
“Powering grocery shopping inside an AI agent requires technology that understands constantly changing, highly local inventory and converts it into accurate, real-time decisions. Instacart’s platform does just that,” Kundu continued. “Our decade of unmatched grocery data, fulfillment intelligence, and deep retailer integrations make it possible to surface the right products based on what’s actually in stock — delivering consumers a shopping experience they can trust.”
