Digital-payments giant PayPal announced today that its wallet will soon be embedded within ChatGPT’s “Instant Checkout” feature, enabling purchases directly in chat starting in 2026.

The integration means users will retain access to the familiar PayPal interface, including their saved payment methods, shipping, and contact information.

The partnership between PayPal and OpenAI comes just weeks after ChatGPT added a “Buy Now” button and rolled out Instant Checkout in marketplaces such as Shopify, Etsy, and is expanding to Walmart.

Leveraging what OpenAI calls the “Agentic Commerce Protocol” (ACP), PayPal will not only serve as a payment option but also act as the connection between the vast PayPal-merchant network and ChatGPT’s new commerce layer, meaning merchants using PayPal can be discoverable in ChatGPT without separately integrating with OpenAI.

Although PayPal is not available in Pakistan, the partnership reflects a broader global shift, where conversational AI tools like ChatGPT are evolving from simple assistants into transactional platforms. It highlights how payments, AI, and commerce are converging internationally, signaling what the future of e-commerce could look like once similar technologies reach local markets.

What to watch:

• How user protections (fraud, data privacy, refunds) are handled when paying inside an AI chatbot via PayPal.

• Whether merchants in Pakistan or international markets leveraging PayPal will gain access to sell via ChatGPT’s interface.

• Whether ChatGPT begins to favor certain payment-merchant flows, potentially altering competition in the e-commerce space.

• How regulators in Pakistan or globally respond to AI-driven commerce and the blending of chat and checkout.