Shopping

For PCMag, Ruben Circelli asked three agents to find J. Kenji López-Alt's no-stir risotto recipe, research the best version of each ingredient at the local Wegmans and add them to an Instacart cart. ChatGPT's Dots, once Instacart was connected, found the recipe, researched the ingredients and filled the cart without issue. Meta's Muse got there slowly, needed Circelli to log in and enter a verification code, and added saffron threads that aren't in the recipe. Gemini's Spark found the recipe and proposed ingredients but couldn't access the account, tried to take over Chrome and froze.

ChatGPT Dots, Muse, Gemini Spark · Shopping · Source date: Oct 16, 2026

Scientific American's Mary Randolph was moving apartments and tested Meta's Muse (named Mark) and OpenAI's Dots (named Sam) for a week. Muse logged in to their Facebook account, searched Marketplace for couches, lamps and rugs, and could draft and send messages to sellers with their approval, managing the replies while they did other things. They now own a Muse-sourced dining table. When they gave Dots their Facebook login to do the same, Meta flagged it as a bot and temporarily locked their Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Later, Muse pushed them seven times in three days to join Target's membership program and buy a lamp on sale.

Muse, ChatGPT Dots · Shopping · Source date: Oct 9, 2026

A small plastic tab broke on Michal Barodkin's Philips shaver after several years. Rather than replace the shaver, they sent ChatGPT a photo of the broken piece and described the problem in a voice message. It found the replacement part, with its Philips part number and a place to order it. It cost six dollars and they picked it up the next day.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Oct 7, 2026

Thy Toeung needed to review their car insurance before their son turned 16. They made a data sheet listing every driver, vehicle and the cover they wanted, and asked Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Muse to act as their insurance-shopping agent and get real quotes from six reputable insurers. Gemini's auto-browse explained it couldn't use the websites and handed back a comparison table to fill in. ChatGPT took 2 hours and 279 messages across 12 attempts and got no quotes; Toeung believes sites such as Allstate, Nationwide and Liberty Mutual block AI agents. Claude ran for 3.3 hours and got 5 real quotes. Muse, on its free tier, used several sub-agents and got 5 quotes in about 20 minutes. Toeung switched insurer and got about twice the cover for around 40% of the previous price.

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Muse · Shopping · Source date: Oct 6, 2026

PCWorld's Ben Patterson, a Manhattan theatre lover who can't afford Broadway every night, used Muse to hunt for ticket bargains. Asked how much tickets to Verdi's Macbeth at the Met were, it first gave a general web answer, but when asked to check the official site it opened a browser and found a $71 seat (including a $10 service charge) for a weekday evening, logged in and teed it up for checkout. Patterson cancelled, then had it go through every remaining performance of a limited-run Off-Broadway play, finding which had seats and the best price, $92.41. For Hamilton in the next 30 days it found a rear-mezzanine seat for a Saturday matinee at $222 all-in. Patterson didn't buy this time.

Muse · Shopping · Source date: Sep 25, 2026

tonyarkles was curious about astrophotography and had a budget to fill any gaps in their existing photography kit. Claude's conclusion was to get a $20 intervalometer and a battery adapter that runs off the wall: the lenses and tripod they already had were fine. It also pointed out that Jupiter and Venus were near conjunction, so a dark spot facing west would give a good timelapse that weekend, and later gave rough guidelines for a partial lunar eclipse that produced some amazing photos. tonyarkles now plans to spend the budget on a proper mount, but only after confirming they enjoy the hobby.

Claude · Shopping · Source date: Sep 17, 2026

Asked to buy back-to-school shoes for their kid and a microphone for school, Vekay handed both to Grok Bot. It found a previous size 6 Hoka purchase in their email, opened shoes on the Hoka site and added the chosen pair to the cart. For the microphone (the post later calls it headphones) it checked the school website for requirements and added a couple of options to the Amazon cart; Vekay removed one and checked out. Vekay says what usually takes 30 minutes took 5, while watching TV.

Grok Bot · Shopping · Source date: Aug 23, 2026

George Liu bought two Samsung phones from Best Buy, one for themselves and one for their father, and noticed a 30-day price match policy covering drops at Best Buy or major competitors. They spent 15 minutes building a Claude Cowork skill, gave it the model number and told it to check Best Buy, Amazon, Costco and a few other retailers every morning at 7 AM. One morning it found a quiet $20 drop on Best Buy's own product page: not a coupon or a sale, just a lower price. They opened Best Buy's chat, its AI walked them through the price match and a human agent approved a refund of $40 plus tax for the two phones.

Claude Cowork · Shopping · Source date: Jul 28, 2026

TechCrunch's Sarah Perez asked Gemini Spark for product suggestions for an everyday drugstore trip for household items, based on weekly deals and coupons they could clip. Spark told them which products matching their needs were on sale, suggested coupons to clip in the Walgreens app, and explained how to stack coupons on one item with online promo codes for a pickup order. One of the promo codes was invalid when they tried it, even though they met the requirements Spark had described, but buy-one-get-one-free and rewards deals Spark pointed out made up for it.

Gemini Spark · Shopping · Source date: May 30, 2026

Kevin R. Kosar replaced a favourite pair of New Balance 880v11 running shoes with a similar-looking $100 Fresh Foam X 860v14, and two test runs left their lower back slightly sore. Kosar asked Gemini to compare the two. It explained that the new shoe is a little heavier and built for overpronators, while the 880v11 is a neutral shoe. Gemini then pointed to second-hand retailers, where Kosar bought two pairs of slightly used 880v11s; the new pair became around-the-house shoes.

Gemini · Shopping · Source date: Apr 29, 2026

Business Insider's Jordan Hart tried ChatGPT's new Instant Checkout to find their mom a birthday bracelet in sterling silver and gold, with a $400 budget, starting on Etsy. ChatGPT listed seven Etsy options, but with links rather than a buy button, and one was a $2,400 cuff. Asked to show only items it could sell in the chat, it said it couldn't reliably tell from the product data which were eligible, and Skims and Glossier weren't live yet either. Searching other retailers, it found bracelets from brands such as Kendra Scott and Mejuri that fit the brief, though it had to be asked again for direct links. They didn't love any of them and ended with an empty cart.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Oct 19, 2025

Android Police's Ali Salman Zia asked Gemini on his Pixel 8 to order a chicken burger, then to order it from Foodpanda; both times it gave the same refusal and told him to use a delivery app himself. He found Google limits food and ride ordering to the Pixel 10 series and Galaxy S26, Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8, for users 18+ in the US or Korea, with supported apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub.

Gemini · Shopping · Source date: Sep 16, 2026

With school and sports starting, Arthur Sullivan had ChatGPT make a meal plan and grocery list, then logged into Walmart and asked it to arrange the order: pickup time, store brands over name brands, and no purchase without review. Using ChatGPT Work's computer control, it added all 26 items to the cart; the only mistake was one lemon instead of two. Sullivan reviewed the order before buying.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Aug 24, 2026

Betting they could do the weekly shop in five minutes, Kirk Simmons connected ChatGPT to the family Google Calendar to find a delivery window, gave it a spreadsheet of favourite recipes and household needs, and let its in-app browser shop. It asked what food was left, suggested a meal plan, turned it into a list, chose between two supermarkets on budget and fresh food, and clicked items into the cart one by one. It took nearly an hour, picked a fruit-and-veg box when asked for a fruit box, and spent time comparing ethical chocolate brands; the shop arrived on time and well under budget.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Aug 23, 2026

A parent gave ChatGPT the school's supply list for her daughter; because it already knew the girl's tastes from past chats, it picked specific items and gave direct Target links. She says her daughter, who usually dislikes whatever she chooses, didn't change a single item, only a few colours, and everything arrived within a few days.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Aug 18, 2026

Tom's Guide's Amanda Caswell gave ChatGPT, Gemini and Alexa+ the same school supply list: follow it, stick to required quantities, pick reasonably priced items and skip optional ones. Gemini built an Instacart cart, skipped optional items, asked her to approve colours and totalled about $60-$90 ($105 with the optional water bottle). ChatGPT, on her Walmart account, followed the list carefully but slowly for $92.55; Alexa+ added the optional items and reached $251.48.

Gemini, ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Aug 8, 2026

A TechRadar editor asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude what discounted tech to buy on Prime Day. Gemini focused on deals but overstated one: it said Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones were 50% off when they were actually 20% off at $198 (was $248). ChatGPT tailored picks to his interests from past chats but was less tuned in to actual discounts, and Claude, which knew least about him, gave fairly generic deals.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude · Shopping · Source date: Jun 23, 2026

A How-To Geek writer photographed the spines of hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays and asked ChatGPT to list them in a spreadsheet with columns useful for resale listings. It built the spreadsheet, correctly classified some PSP discs on the same shelf, and filled in more details on a second pass. He still had to review it by hand: some titles weren't legible, and he warns the AI can hallucinate titles not in the photos.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Jun 17, 2026

On a $500 eBay sale, an overseas buyer asked for a big partial refund, then said the box wasn't factory sealed and sent photos of a scratch. The seller asked ChatGPT what an experienced seller would do; it said don't argue, don't offer a discount, and tell the buyer to open a return through eBay. Because the order used eBay's international shipping program, eBay handled it: the buyer was refunded, the item wasn't returned, and the seller says he kept the money.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Mar 15, 2026

GOBankingRates' Kathryn Jackson asked ChatGPT for a full Costco shopping list for the week under $100; it said the list was for a family of two and totalled $95. On Costco's website the same groceries came to $167, some items only came in larger quantities, and the list left out dairy like milk and cheese, tomatoes, other green vegetables, potatoes and other meats.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Mar 8, 2026

Needing new contacts after an eye exam (the old lenses were discontinued), Dmitry Shamis found 1-800-CONTACTS expensive, so gave Perplexity the prescription and asked it to find prices. It checked 1-800-CONTACTS, Costco, Walmart and other sites and organized a comparison; Walmart was $150 cheaper for the same contacts, a retailer Shamis hadn't known sold them.

Perplexity · Shopping · Source date: Jan 22, 2026

When their old washing machine died, a UAE-based poster asked Grok for help buying a new one within budget. The poster says Grok suggested links, compared options and asked what suited them best, and they got their first-ever Black Friday deal, saving around 600 AED, with delivery due in three days.

Grok · Shopping · Source date: Nov 30, 2025

TechRadar deals writer Alex Whitelock tested ChatGPT on Black Friday laptop deals. Its first picks were pricey and left out MacBooks; asked for budget options, it suggested sub-$200 Chromebooks he felt were too basic. Prices were up to date and brands well known, but after digging he concluded there were better deals elsewhere and says you need to double-check prices and cross-reference expert reviews.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Nov 18, 2025

Knowing next to nothing about TVs, Tom's Guide's Alex Hughes told ChatGPT (Thinking mode) he wanted a 43- or 50-inch TV for £300 or less and asked it to question him to narrow things down. He then switched to ChatGPT agent to search the sales; it returned options with links, reasons and discount details plus two cheaper alternatives, and a top pick. He says the whole process took 20 minutes, mostly agent search time while he did other things, and left him with 7 suitable deals.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Nov 12, 2025

TechRadar's editor-at-large gave ChatGPT (GPT-5), Claude (Sonnet 4.5) and Google AI Mode (Gemini 2.5 Pro) the same Prime Day gift brief: five fun tech gifts under $100, smaller than a bread box, ideally heavily discounted. He found all followed the brief closely; Gemini answered fastest and returned the most varied list and the best breakdown, Claude pulled its picks from TechRadar's own guides, and ChatGPT leaned toward Amazon devices.

Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude · Shopping · Source date: Oct 8, 2025

After buying event tickets from a resale site and finding the seller didn't have them in hand, a buyer was refused a refund. They gave ChatGPT the site's terms of service, and it found they required buyers to expressly accept a delayed-fulfilment model, which they were never asked to do at checkout. With ChatGPT they drafted messages citing this and filed complaints with the BBB, FTC and California Attorney General, and say they had a full refund within days.

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Aug 19, 2025

A Wendy's innovation executive gave ChatGPT agent one prompt to order a customised combo, drink and Frosty from wendys.com for delivery, including his payment info. He says it navigated the site like a real user, hit snags, worked around them and placed the order; a misread CVV field almost broke it.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Aug 4, 2025

TechRadar's Eric Hal Schwartz asked ChatGPT agent to buy Purina dental chews for his new puppy on Amazon. It hit a 503 error page every time and finally said network restrictions made interacting with Amazon impossible. Asked to buy the same treats at PetSmart, it navigated the store and the multi-step checkout with no problem.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Aug 1, 2025

A poster asked ChatGPT agent to buy a 4-year work anniversary gift on a $140 budget. It researched and compared well, but abandoned three carts without asking (account required, gift card not found, a form error), unticked marketing emails, made up a phone number that caused shipping issues, chose passwords and rewrote the gift message without consulting him. It finished on a site with guest checkout.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 31, 2025

A shopper tested ChatGPT's Operator on Amazon returns. The first took about 15 minutes, with the shopper stepping in for login, CAPTCHAs and choices; the second ran autonomously in under a minute but gave a gift-card balance instead of a card refund. For a ~$100 rug past its return window, it needed repeated nudging to reach a human agent instead of messaging the seller and forgot earlier preferences, but in the end got the extension and the $100 back.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Feb 4, 2025

A tech columnist asked Gemini 2.0 to write him a shopping-assistant prompt (role, workflow, follow-up questions and web search), loaded it into a chatbot wrapper with web browsing on, and fine-tuned it to return live product links. He says it delivered almost exactly what he needed in early tests, and lets him weight three key features, e.g. 'wet and dry', 'cheap' and 'rotary' for a men's shaver.

Gemini · Shopping · Source date: Jan 23, 2025

The poster says Grok Bot found that his pizza shop had moved, set up a call, found a coupon that saved $8.99 and placed the order by phone; he called the shop afterwards to confirm the order was real and shared the call recording.

Grok Bot · Shopping · Source date: Oct 16, 2026

Claude Cowork logged into the poster's Jewel-Osco account and clipped every available coupon.

Claude Cowork · Shopping · Source date: Oct 1, 2026

An X user says she gave Grok all the cars she was considering test-driving and it evaluated and ranked them, then gave her a detailed list of what to check on the test drive at each speed and under the hood. She says she bought a one-owner car with 48k miles and no accidents from CarMax.

Grok · Shopping · Source date: Sep 17, 2026

TechRadar's reviewer connected Instacart to ChatGPT and asked for infant formula, vanilla ice cream and fruit; ChatGPT suggested products, built the cart quickly and opened a checkout window in the chat confirming items, payment and address.

ChatGPT (Instacart app) · Shopping · Source date: Jun 23, 2026

The Verge's Allison Johnson had Gemini's task automation on a Pixel 10 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra build her Saturday dinner order on Uber Eats. It correctly added two half portions to make one chicken teriyaki combo, struggled to find a side of greens and made a couple of wrong turns, and took about nine minutes, stopping before the final confirm so she could check and place the order.

Gemini (task automation) · Shopping · Source date: Mar 21, 2026

Wired's reviewer asked Chrome's Auto Browse for a leather jacket on Depop that fits an XL man; it searched, set the size filter, added three jackets to the cart and wrote a case for each. One was a decent-looking $40 jacket, but he notes it simply picked the top three search results.

Gemini in Chrome (auto browse) · Shopping · Source date: Jan 30, 2026

The Sydney Morning Herald's Jessica Yun asked ChatGPT for the best mattress around $600, with top three picks based on quality and value informed by real reviews. She looked at all three, chose a hybrid mattress and paid for it in under 10 minutes, $59 under budget, and says she was delighted with it less than two weeks later.

Poster says:Bought in under 10 minutes, $59 below budget

ChatGPT · Shopping · Source date: Jan 17, 2026

Tom's Guide's Alex Hughes asked ChatGPT agent to order a pizza to his address and ask before paying; it worked through pop-ups and site obstacles and handed back at checkout for his details and payment, taking about 15-20 minutes. Asked for a pizza from one specific restaurant, it gave up on the restaurant's own site, searched Deliveroo at length and finally found it on Uber Eats.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Nov 1, 2025

ZDNet's reviewer had Atlas agent mode order wood putty, caulk and screws from her local Walmart for same-day delivery; after she signed in manually and told it to use her past purchases, it found the right brands in her order history and loaded the cart, leaving her to pick a window, tip and pay. About 10 minutes in all.

Poster says:About 10 minutes

ChatGPT Atlas agent mode · Shopping · Source date: Oct 22, 2025

Digital Trends' reviewer asked Atlas agent mode for an anti-glare screen protector for the iPhone 17 Pro; it matched the criteria, chose one that would arrive by his date at his location and stopped at Amazon's checkout page.

ChatGPT Atlas agent mode · Shopping · Source date: Oct 22, 2025

Sky Canaves tried OpenAI's example 'plan and buy ingredients to make Japanese breakfast for four'; ChatGPT agent shopped her local H-E-B through Instacart, needed her to take over to log in, filled a roughly $130 cart with things she already had, asked before paying and the trimmed order arrived on time. 'It worked, yes', she wrote, but with plenty of friction.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Sep 15, 2025

Given access to Instacart and told to prep an order from the poster's history and current sales, ChatGPT agent picked items with reasoning the poster found oddly generic ("cereal, which is on sale and a usual part of groceries").

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 29, 2025

Testing ChatGPT agent for a week, a Tom's Guide writer asked it to find the hard-to-get Big Into Energy Labubu nearby and chose 'purchase' when it asked. In six minutes the agent found it, added it to the cart and went to checkout, then asked for shipping and card details; she took control of the agent's browser to finish the sale.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 28, 2025

The poster tried to order groceries from H-E-B in Austin with ChatGPT agent, but it failed because access was denied.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 25, 2025

On ChatGPT agent's first day, The Verge's Hayden Field ran its suggested task to find five Japanese-inspired vintage lamps on Etsy under $200 with free shipping and add them to her cart. It worked for 50 minutes and then said it had added five lamps totalling around $825 to her cart, but when she checked Etsy on her own computer the cart was empty, because the agent was using its own browser session.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 18, 2025

Claude Code processed over 200 photos of the poster's household items and created a moving-sale list with descriptions and prices; the poster says it saved hours compared with writing Facebook Marketplace listings by hand.

Claude Code · Shopping · Source date: Jun 23, 2025

Overnight, Operator cross-referenced a list of 60–70 plants across 5 sites into a price comparison table; the poster called it buggy but fun.

OpenAI Operator · Shopping · Source date: Jun 8, 2025

The only shop the poster had found had 60 working days' delivery for a chair, so they asked Operator to find a store with it in stock; 11 minutes later it had.

Poster says:11 minutes

OpenAI Operator · Shopping · Source date: Jun 5, 2025

The Neuron asked Gemini Deep Research for the best car to buy for $20k; it says Gemini researched 481 websites and added a lifetime ownership cost comparison of a Tesla Model 3, Toyota Prius and Camry.

Poster says:481 websites researched

Gemini Deep Research · Shopping · Source date: Feb 4, 2025

ChatGPT agent kept trying coupon codes until it found ones that worked; the poster says it saved them $79.

Poster says:$79 saved

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Oct 10, 2025

The Tom's Guide author uses ChatGPT agent to scour delivery apps and local restaurants for family takeout deals under a set budget.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Oct 10, 2025

A scheduled ChatGPT agent checks every day whether a product is in stock, reports at 8am, and even flags status changes like 'out of stock' becoming 'coming soon'.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Sep 19, 2025

ChatGPT agent logged into Gym Meals Direct, chose meals and sizes, picked Monday delivery and applied a discount.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Aug 4, 2025

From a few photos, ChatGPT agent identified an Apple Watch Series 7, noted display scratches, drafted a German title and description, then finished the eBay DE listing draft after login in about 15 minutes.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 30, 2025

In 11 minutes ChatGPT agent ran 13 searches, skipped JavaScript-heavy sites it couldn't read, and shortlisted wicker daybeds from server-rendered retailers so it could request a quote in Sydney.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 24, 2025

ChatGPT agent transcribed 15 of 16 items from a photographed shopping list (missing onions), found the nearest Harris Teeter and added them to the cart; a safety monitor first blocked the Kroger login, but after the user said they'd log in themselves and entered the password, it ordered the groceries.

ChatGPT agent · Shopping · Source date: Jul 22, 2025

Operator misread parts of a 16-item grocery list and added only 13 items to the cart even after corrections; the author concluded it wasn't ready for real use.

OpenAI Operator · Shopping · Source date: Jun 26, 2025