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How to Show Up in ChatGPT Shopping and Google AI Mode (2026)

If you sell on Shopify or Etsy, your products likely reach ChatGPT Shopping already, with no application. OpenAI says that if you sell through Shopify or Etsy, "your catalog is already integrated, and no additional setup or application is required," and there are no fees on purchases that start in ChatGPT. Every other store gets in today by letting ChatGPT's search crawler read its product pages, and can apply at chatgpt.com/merchants to share a product feed, which is open to approved partners for now. Google AI Mode takes its products from Google Merchant Center and from the store pages Google indexes, so the route in is a Merchant Center account with free listings turned on.

Getting in is the easy part. What decides whether a shopper sees your product is the data both assistants read: titles, descriptions, prices, stock, reviews, store policies and images. We checked every platform fact against each platform's own pages in 2026, and these programs change often.

How to check whether your products already show up in ChatGPT and Google AI Mode

Check before you set anything up, because many stores are already in. These five places answer it:

Where to lookWhat it tells you
Shopify admin, Sales channels > AgenticHow many of your products are in Shopify Catalog, or why the store isn't eligible, plus sales, orders and sessions from each AI channel and a search preview
Merchant Center, Marketing > Marketing methods, Free listings cardWhether Google may show your products for free across Search, the Shopping tab and Gemini
Merchant Center, Analytics > Products > AI performanceYour share of voice in AI Mode and AI Overviews, and attributes missing from your product data. English queries, for accounts in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India
Search Console, Generative AI performance reportHow often your pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google Analytics 4, traffic acquisitionVisits from ChatGPT, tagged utm_source=chatgpt.com, in the AI Assistant channel. AI Mode visits count as Organic Search

Then ask the assistants yourself. Search ChatGPT for your product by name and for the kind of request a shopper would type, such as "linen duvet cover under $200", and do the same in Google AI Mode. Results change with the person, the wording and the day, and ChatGPT takes a shopper's memory and custom instructions into account, so one search that misses your product doesn't mean you are left out. Shopify's search preview in the Agentic section works the same way; Shopify calls it "a directional signal, not an exact prediction."

How to get your products on ChatGPT Shopping

ChatGPT Shopping is live for ChatGPT users in the US, and OpenAI plans to expand it to more merchants and regions over time. Products appear as visual results with images and prices, in side-by-side comparisons and, for clothes and accessories, with a Try on button that shows the item on a shopper's selfie. OpenAI says product results "are not ads, nor influenced by any OpenAI partnerships." When a shopper buys, ChatGPT sends them to the store's own site or app, and OpenAI takes no fee.

How you get in depends on where you sell:

Where you sellWhat to do for ChatGPT Shopping
ShopifyNothing to apply for. Products reach ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog, which is on by default for eligible stores that sell to US customers
EtsyNothing to apply for. OpenAI lists Etsy catalogs as already integrated, and Etsy decides which items are eligible
WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace or your own siteLet OpenAI's search crawler read your product pages, then list your products through Shopify's Agentic plan or apply to share a product feed

Shopify stores

Shopify Catalog sends ChatGPT each product's title, description, options, images, price and availability. A product is included when:

  • the store is on the Starter plan or higher and not in private mode;
  • the product has a title, at least one product image and a price above zero;
  • it is published to the Online Store, Hydrogen or a headless storefront, and is not Unlisted or hidden from search engines;
  • it is not in an excluded category, such as alcohol, tobacco, weapons or CBD;
  • the store is in good standing with Shopify.

For ChatGPT, Shopify adds that the store must sell to customers in the US, though it can be based anywhere, and must fill in its terms of service, privacy policy and return and refund policy under Settings > Policies. Put any legal disclosures in the first 6,000 characters of a product description. Shoppers check out on your own Shopify checkout, in ChatGPT's in-app browser or a new tab, and you pay only your usual payment processing fees.

Google AI Mode works differently for Shopify stores. Shopify says product discovery there "is powered by Google Merchant Center," so your products show up in AI Mode only once the Google & YouTube channel or another feed sends them to Merchant Center. The steps are in the Google AI Mode section below.

Etsy shops

OpenAI's merchant page lists Etsy catalogs as already integrated. Etsy says buyers in the US can discover and buy eligible Etsy items in ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot, paying in US dollars. Etsy decides which items are eligible, and its help center describes no seller setting for it.

Every other store

Stores on WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace or their own code have three routes into ChatGPT:

  1. Let ChatGPT read your product pages. This works today. OpenAI's search crawler is called OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers," and recommends allowing it in robots.txt and letting its published IP addresses through your firewall or CDN. A robots.txt change takes about 24 hours to register. Product pages need to load publicly, without a sign-in.
  2. List your products through Shopify's Agentic plan. The Agentic plan is for merchants that don't run their store on Shopify, and it has no monthly subscription fee. You import your products into Shopify by CSV or through Shopify's API, each with a link to its page on your own store. Products that meet the Shopify Catalog rules above then reach ChatGPT, and shoppers buy on your existing checkout.
  3. Apply to share a product feed. OpenAI's FAQ says a feed is optional when ChatGPT already crawls your site, but "feeds give you greater control over how your products appear, helping ensure more accurate and up-to-date information." Feed onboarding is open to approved partners; other stores apply through the form on chatgpt.com/merchants and join a waitlist, and OpenAI says it is building a self-serve merchant platform. The feed is a daily file with nine required fields for each variant: item_id, title, description, url, brand, seller_name, image_url, availability and price, as set out in OpenAI's product feed specification. If you already keep a Google Merchant Center feed, the same specification accepts a Google-compatible feed as a tab- or comma-separated file once OpenAI confirms that format for your account, so one feed can serve both assistants.

Feeds matter more than they used to. Profound, which sells AI visibility tracking, found that the share of ChatGPT's shopping recommendations drawn from its integrated catalog of merchant data, rather than web search, jumped from about 8% to about 61% overnight after a 2026 model update. It estimates that brands outside that catalog now miss about 65% of shopping recommendations, and that Shopify's integration supplies about 35% of the catalog's results. That is one vendor's tracking rather than OpenAI's data, but it points the same way as OpenAI's own advice.

Payment providers are opening routes too. Stripe's Agentic Commerce Suite lets merchants that take payments through Stripe request connections to AI agents; Wix is rolling it out to eligible stores, and WooCommerce lists it as coming soon.

How to get your products on Google AI Mode Shopping

Google AI Mode shows products from the same sources as the rest of Google Shopping: Merchant Center data and the store pages Google crawls. Merchant Center feeds "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results," according to Google's guide to AI features. Free listings are the unpaid route, and Merchant Center's AI performance report counts them as the organic traffic it measures in AI Mode.

  1. Set up Google Merchant Center and verify your website. On Shopify, the Google & YouTube app syncs products and shipping to Merchant Center. WooCommerce stores use Google for WooCommerce. Other platforms have their own Google channel, or you upload a feed file.
  2. Check that free listings are on. They are on by default for new accounts; the Free listings card under Marketing > Marketing methods shows the status. Free listings need a return policy and shipping settings.
  3. Fill in the product data Google asks for. Every product needs an ID, title, description, link, image link, price and availability, plus a brand and GTIN where the product has them, a shared group ID for variants, and color, size, age group and gender for clothing.
  4. Let Google show your pages in AI features. Pages must be indexed and eligible for a snippet in Search. Search Console's Settings > Search generative AI setting must stay at its default, which includes your site in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
  5. Add conversational attributes, if you want to go further. These optional fields (question_and_answer, document_link, related_product, item_group_title, variant_option and popularity_rank) answer the detailed questions shoppers ask in AI Mode. Google recommends adding them through a supplemental data source. In Google's testing with lululemon, the brand's conversational attributes were used 50% of the time in relevant AI Mode product recommendations.

Google also lists what you don't need. Its guide says Google Search ignores llms.txt and other AI text files, that there's no need to break content into small chunks, and that generative AI search doesn't require structured data. Product structured data still helps your pages qualify for rich results in ordinary Search.

How does ChatGPT choose which products to show?

ChatGPT picks the products that match what the shopper asked, then ranks the merchants that sell each one. OpenAI's help page on shopping lists what it weighs:

  • the shopper's question and context, including ChatGPT's memory and custom instructions;
  • structured product data from merchants and other providers, such as price and description, plus other third-party content;
  • price, reviews and ease of use, depending on what the shopper asked;
  • for each merchant: "availability, price, quality, and whether they are the maker or primary seller of that item."

OpenAI's developer documentation says rich media, reviews and performance signals "improve ranking, relevance, and user trust" in ChatGPT. Review summaries come from reviews on public websites, and ChatGPT may shorten your product titles and add its own labels, such as "Budget-friendly."

Read together, that favors the maker or main seller of a product, with complete product data on its own pages, accurate prices and stock, reviews that are public and a full set of product images.

Do you need checkout inside ChatGPT or Google AI Mode?

No. Showing up in an assistant and selling inside it are separate, and you can do the first without the second.

  • ChatGPT. OpenAI says it is "moving away from a standalone Instant Checkout experience": shoppers find products in ChatGPT and buy on the merchant's own site or app. Some older OpenAI pages and many guides still describe Instant Checkout. OpenAI calls ChatGPT apps optional and "best suited for larger merchants who want more control over the shopping and purchase experience."
  • Google AI Mode and Gemini. Checkout through Google's Universal Commerce Protocol puts a Buy button on eligible products, and you stay the seller of record. It is open to select merchants through an interest form, with Merchant Center onboarding in the US now and Canada and Australia to follow. It needs a Merchant Center account with approved free listings, a return policy with its cost, window and link, a customer support contact, and the native_commerce attribute set on each product that can be bought. Subscriptions, personalized goods, final-sale items and pre-orders can't use it.
  • Shopify stores in the US had Google's direct checkout switched on by default in 2026, once Google matched the store to its Merchant Center account. Shopify notes that Google Analytics and custom pixels don't fire in that checkout. To turn it off, open Sales channels > Agentic, turn off Allow Shopify to manage for me, open Google AI Mode and Gemini and switch off Direct checkout. Your products still appear in AI Mode, and shoppers buy on your site instead.

What product images do ChatGPT and Google AI Mode need?

Images are one of the few inputs every platform names in its rules. Google Merchant Center, which supplies AI Mode, sets the most:

  • a main image of at least 500 x 500 pixels for every product from January 31, 2027, and 1500 x 1500 or larger recommended (image link);
  • a unique image for each variant, showing only that variant;
  • no promotional text, watermarks, added logos, borders or placeholders;
  • up to 10 additional images, such as other angles, details and the product in use, and up to 5 lifestyle images of at least 600 x 600;
  • metadata on any image made with generative AI saying so, such as the IPTC DigitalSourceType value TrainedAlgorithmicMedia.

The other platforms ask for less:

PlatformWhat its rules say about images
Google apparel try-onOne garment on one front-facing model or mannequin with arms down, or laid flat, with the whole garment visible; at least 512 x 512, ideally 1024 or more
OpenAI product feedOne main image per variant (image_url, a direct public link to a JPEG or PNG) and optional additional views. No minimum size is published
Shopify CatalogAt least one image for a product to be included. Image coverage is one of the listing quality signals in Sales channels > Agentic

Sources: Google's virtual try-on page, OpenAI's product feed specification and Shopify's Catalog requirements. Google's guide to AI features adds a plainer instruction: "Add high-quality images and video."

Most stores fall short of these rules in the same few places: one photo for every color of a product, a single packshot and nothing else, small or watermarked supplier photos, and clothing shown only folded. Google also checks that every image shows the actual product, and its misrepresentation policy applies to images however they were made. If AI made an image, the file Merchant Center fetches must carry the AI metadata tag. Add it before upload if your image tool doesn't write it, then check the hosted file, because exporting, compressing and image CDNs can strip it. The Google Shopping image requirements cover Google's rules in more depth, ChatGPT Shopping's image requirements cover OpenAI's, and how many product photos you need per SKU covers what to put in the extra slots.

How to make a main image for every variant and fill the extra image slots

Nightjar makes product images from photos of the real product, in the web app or inside Shopify admin, where it starts from the products already in your store:

  • A main image for every variant. Photograph each colorway once, even on a phone, and save it as its own Product. Product only, a white Color setting, a soft Shadow and eye-level Framing make a clean main image. At 2K a square image is 2,048 x 2,048 pixels, above Google's recommended 1500 x 1500.
  • The additional and lifestyle slots. A Photoshoot makes four matching images of one scene for two Credits, changing angle, framing and distance while the product and setting stay the same. Saved Backgrounds put the product on the surface or in the place you choose.
  • Clothing ready for try-on. Choose With model, a Fashion Model, a front-facing Pose with arms down and a full-body Camera Distance, so the whole garment shows on a person, as Google's try-on guidelines describe. You can make a Pose from any photo of the stance you want. AI fashion models covers on-model images in more detail.
  • The product stays true to the original. Nightjar is built to keep your product true to the original: it automatically looks at every generated image and retries the ones that misrepresent the product, at no cost to you. Every image starts from a saved Product with its photos, description and dimensions.
  • One look across the catalog. A Recipe saves the whole setup, so the next product's images match the last.

Images made on free Credits carry no watermark, so they meet Google's no-watermark rule, and you own every image you make, including for commercial use. New accounts start with 6 free Credits and no card, enough to make a main image and a four-image Photoshoot for one product.

What doesn't get products into ChatGPT or Google AI Mode

Plenty of advice in this area has no support in what OpenAI and Google publish:

  • llms.txt files. Google says Search ignores them. Shopify writes one for every store automatically anyway.
  • Special schema for AI. Google says there is none to add. Product structured data is still worth having for ordinary rich results.
  • Paying for ads. ChatGPT ads are labeled and shown separately, and OpenAI says advertisers "have no ability to shape, rank, or alter ChatGPT's responses." Running ChatGPT ads from a product feed doesn't put your products in the unpaid results.
  • GTINs as the main reason products are left out. No platform documents that. Add GTINs where your products have them, because Google's free listings ask for them.
  • A minimum image size or a white background for ChatGPT. OpenAI publishes neither. Google's rules above are the strictest documented ones, so images that meet them suit both assistants.

Frequently asked questions

Is ChatGPT Shopping available outside the US? Not yet. OpenAI says shopping is live for ChatGPT users in the US and plans to expand to more regions over time. A Shopify store based outside the US is included if it sells to US customers.

Does it cost anything to get products on ChatGPT or Google AI Mode? No. OpenAI charges no fees on purchases that start in ChatGPT, Google's free listings are free, and Shopify charges nothing beyond normal payment processing for its AI channels.

Do Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity work the same way? Mostly. Microsoft builds organic Copilot results from the web and from Microsoft Merchant Center feeds, and Copilot Checkout is open to English-language merchants selling to US buyers in US dollars, with Shopify stores enrolled automatically. Perplexity's Instant Buy lets US users buy from compatible merchants, and Perplexity says it is "more likely to recommend merchants who provide deeper product details such as availability, reviews, pricing, and specifications."

Can I use AI-generated product images in ChatGPT and Google AI Mode? Yes. Google Merchant Center accepts AI-generated product images when they show the product accurately and carry the AI metadata tag, as the help answer on Google Shopping and AI images explains. OpenAI's product feed specification has no rule about how an image was made.

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