OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Wallet, a new payment feature that lets its AI agents make purchases on a user's behalf without ever seeing the user's actual credit card number. The tool rolls out first to U.S. ChatGPT Pro subscribers who are 18 or older and hold eligible U.S.-issued cards, giving a narrow slice of users the ability to let an AI shop for them while keeping a human finger on the approval button.
The wallet is built into dots, OpenAI's always-on AI agents, and works by having users review every purchase before it goes through, according to New Orleans CityBusiness. Before anything is bought, the shopper sees the items, the total cost, and which card is selected, then signs off with a security check such as Face ID or a fingerprint scan, OpenAI says, describing it as “the first wallet that lets agents pay without access to users’ actual card details and that requires a security check for every purchase.”
Once a purchase is approved, the payment network — not the AI agent — steps in to handle the money. The network issues a payment token, a stand-in for the real card number, and that token is what reaches the transaction, OpenAI says, keeping the card details hidden from both the business and the AI agent itself.
Built With the Big Three Card Networks
OpenAI developed ChatGPT Wallet in partnership with American Express, Mastercard and Visa, and says shoppers keep their card's existing rewards and protections for eligible disputes with businesses. The company is also publishing a Commerce Partner Playbook, offering tools and guidance meant to help merchants support customers who show up through an AI agent rather than a browser, per OpenAI.
Some restrictions apply at launch. ChatGPT Wallet does not support debit cards, according to the OpenAI Help Center, and for eligible Chase cards, the user must be the primary cardholder rather than an authorized user. OpenAI's wallet terms add that shoppers must be at least 18, legally able to enter a contract, and residing in the United States, using a U.S.-issued card they own or are authorized to use.
The fine print also spells out who is actually on the hook for what gets bought. Per OpenAI's terms, the merchant is the seller and merchant of record, meaning the purchase is a transaction between the user and the merchant — not between the user and OpenAI. Those same terms say ChatGPT will ask for approval on each purchase before it's submitted, unless a user grants the AI standing authority to approve purchases in advance.
Eventually, Users May Set the Rules and Walk Away
OpenAI expects that, over time, users will be comfortable delegating more buying power to their AI agents by setting parameters up front — spending limits, specific purchase categories, or windows of time in which an agent is free to act — rather than approving every single transaction by hand. For now, though, human review stays in the loop for every purchase.
OpenAI is deliberately starting small. The limited rollout will let the company test and refine the feature before expanding it more broadly, according to TechCrunch. That caution tracks with how slowly agent-driven shopping has actually caught on elsewhere: TechCrunch notes that DoorDash and Uber have so far reported low numbers of orders placed by AI agents, even as Meta's Muse, which has more than 10 million users, has seen AI-assisted shopping become a top activity on its app.
Banks Are Split on Letting AI Agents In
OpenAI's launch lands amid a broader, uneven scramble across the payments industry over how much access to give AI shoppers. JPMorgan Chase is blocking AI agents from shopping with its customers' credit cards when those customers hand agents their card numbers directly, according to PYMNTS. By contrast, the outlet reports that cards from Bank of America, Capital One and Citigroup are already being used by agents when customers allow it.
Other firms are leaning on tokenized workarounds similar to OpenAI's approach rather than exposing raw card numbers at all. Stripe's Link wallet gives an AI agent a one-time virtual card instead of the customer's own card, the same PYMNTS report notes — though merchants told The Wall Street Journal that those virtual cards cost more on average to accept because they're classified as commercial cards rather than consumer cards.
Consumers themselves appear wary of fully handing over the wheel. A PYMNTS Intelligence survey of 5,241 consumers across the United States, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates found that 52% want to choose how they pay when an AI agent lines up a $300 purchase, while another 25% would accept an AI's recommendation but insist on keeping final approval.
Mastercard, one of OpenAI's wallet partners, has been building toward this moment for more than a year. The company launched Agent Pay in April 2025 as its program for payments initiated by AI agents, using agent-specific tokens with programmable spending controls and agent verification, according to The Paypers. Mastercard went on to enable all U.S. Mastercard cardholders for agent-initiated transactions in late 2025, the outlet reports. Visa made its own move in June 2026, announcing it was integrating Visa Intelligent Commerce into OpenAI's experiences, while payments platform Clink has added support for Mastercard Agent Pay alongside its existing Visa Intelligent Commerce integration so agents built on it can pay over either network.
