Instacart Puts Grocery Shopping Inside ChatGPT
Instacart just rolled out a full grocery shopping app right inside ChatGPT. You can brainstorm meal ideas, build a list, and check out—all without leaving your chat. TechCrunch, Instacart’s press release, Mashable, PCMag, and Progressive Grocer from December 8, 2025, call it the first end-to-end grocery experience like this, complete with Instant Checkout.
How It Works
Start a ChatGPT conversation with something like “Instacart, can you help me shop for apple pie ingredients?” per Instacart’s announcement. Sign into your account the first time, and the app pulls from over 1,800 retailers near you—nearly 100,000 stores covering 98% of North American households. ChatGPT’s models help pick items based on real-time stock, prices, and your past orders, like no-pulp orange juice or gluten-free pasta.
Review the cart, pay securely via Stripe (Apple Pay and Google Pay coming soon), and get delivery as fast as 30 minutes since shoppers are often already nearby. It’s live now on desktop and mobile web; iOS and Android apps get Instant Checkout in weeks, as PYMNTS notes.
Why Now?
This builds on a partnership going back over two years, when Instacart added ChatGPT-powered search in its own app for dinner ideas and diets, TechCrunch reports. Former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, already on OpenAI’s board, now leads its Applications division, tightening ties.
- Instacart’s CTO Anirban Kundu: “Instacart and ChatGPT are redefining what’s possible in AI-powered shopping.”
- OpenAI’s Nick Turley: “Users can go from meal planning to checkout in a single, seamless conversation.”
OpenAI pushes “agentic commerce” where AI handles research and buys—think recent integrations with Booking.com or Target. TechCrunch points out OpenAI loses money on heavy compute costs, so it takes a small fee per sale here to help.
Instacart’s Edge
Groceries mean 2 billion product variations across flavors, sizes, and stock. Instacart handles that with a decade of data for personalized picks, up-to-date inventory, and quick fulfillment, their release explains. They’re already partnering with Google and Microsoft too, betting AI chats will drive more orders to retailers.
