ChatGPT Wallet: what it is and how to use it

ChatGPT Wallet is a new OpenAI feature that lets a dot, OpenAI's always-on agent, finish a purchase for you after you approve it. You add a card once, and the store gets a one-time payment token in place of your real card number. It started rolling out today, November 13, to ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the United States.

@ChatGPT announced it on X: "With ChatGPT Wallet, agents pay without access to your actual card details." The same post says every purchase requires a security check. @victornunez, writing as part of the launch, put it more casually: "my dot is now old enough to have its own credit card."

If dots are new to you, start with our earlier posts on what dots are and the rules you set for them and how to text your dot.

Who can use ChatGPT Wallet today

The details below come from launch-day reporting by TechCrunch, Engadget, TestingCatalog and IBTimes.

OpenAI has given no date for cheaper plans or other countries.

How a purchase works

None of the coverage I could read gives the exact menu path for adding a card, so I can only describe the flow as reported:

1. Add an eligible card to ChatGPT Wallet. You do this once, through a secure form.
2. Ask your dot to help you buy something. For example: "Find a replacement filter for my furnace and order the best-reviewed one under $40."
3. Review what the dot shows you before checkout: the items, the total and the card it will charge.
4. Approve with a security check such as Face ID or a fingerprint. That approval creates a record of what you authorized.
5. The card network issues a payment token with its own number, security code and expiry. The charge lands on your card, and the merchant gets what it needs to ship the order, such as your address and contact details.

You approve every purchase. OpenAI says later versions may let a dot buy on its own inside spending limits, categories or time periods you set in advance, but that is not in this release.

Your card's rewards and dispute protections still apply. According to IBTimes, OpenAI's terms say the merchant remains the seller and handles returns and complaints, and billing disputes go to your card issuer.

Where it will not work

OpenAI does not promise the dot can check out everywhere. A store's firewall or fraud system can refuse the order, and so can your card issuer. Some large companies block shopping agents on purpose: Engadget and IBTimes both name Amazon and United. We covered that fight in Amazon blocking Meta's Muse agent while Shopify let it check out.

OpenAI also warns that agents can make mistakes, so read the cart before you approve it.

What a store has to do

For most online stores, the answer is nothing new. OpenAI's payments guide for merchants says Wallet "works out of the box with existing checkout pages and payment forms." The merchant receives a network token through its usual processor.

Fraud filters are where I would expect trouble. An order placed by a dot comes from a cloud browser, and a filter tuned for human shoppers may flag it. TestingCatalog reports that OpenAI is working with Forter, Riskified, Sardine and Signifyd on the fraud side and with Adyen, Checkout.com and Stripe on payments. It also reports OpenAI asking merchants to recognize signed agent requests through Web Bot Auth at the firewall or CDN.

If you sell online, three things are worth doing this month:

• Claim your profile and add a product feed. Our walkthrough of Businesses in ChatGPT covers the steps.
• Ask your payment processor or fraud vendor how it treats agent orders.
• Check whether your firewall blocks automated browsers outright.

My read

Agents have been able to browse stores for a while, and checkout was the step they could not finish. The token design answers the fair worry about handing a card number to a chatbot, and approving every purchase keeps a person involved. It also means that today Wallet mostly saves you typing a card number. I don't expect it to save real time until a dot can buy within a limit you set, and OpenAI has not said when that comes.

Chaya Nayak, OpenAI's product lead for payments, told CNBC the focus is on "merchants and our network partners." I read that as OpenAI choosing to get stores and card networks on board before it starts charging anyone.

What this means for a small business

A Pro-only US rollout is a small audience, so nobody needs to rebuild a checkout this week. It is still worth checking whether an agent could buy from you at all. It has to be able to read your prices, and your checkout and fraud filter have to accept an order that arrives from a cloud browser with a tokenized card. A service business has the same problem with a booking form.

If you want help working out where an agent, or a customer, gets stuck in your process, New Face Design's free process audit covers it.