ChatGPT will support direct PayPal payments in 2026, the final piece of the OpenAI e-commerce empire.

Payment giant PayPal has reached a strategic partnership with OpenAI, and ChatGPT will embed a complete payment wallet for the first time, allowing users to complete purchases directly in conversations. (Background: PayPal launched “PayPal Links” compatible with crypto: making P2P payments as simple as texting.) (Supplementary background: Former PayPal president: Bitcoin breaking a million dollars is just a “matter of time,” and its market capitalization could match that of gold.) PayPal and OpenAI have achieved a milestone collaboration, integrating its digital wallet into ChatGPT, marking the payment giant's official entry into the new e-commerce field driven by artificial intelligence. According to a joint statement from both parties, starting next year, ChatGPT, with hundreds of millions of users, will integrate a complete payment wallet for the first time. When users search for and discover products using this leading generative AI tool, PayPal will provide the underlying payment technology to help them convert search intent directly into actual purchases. This news has greatly boosted investor confidence, driving PayPal's stock price up by 14% in pre-market trading, reversing a nearly 18% decline this year. If this increase continues, it would mark the largest intraday gain on record since the stock began trading in July 2015. This collaboration is a key step for OpenAI to expand into the e-commerce sector. Previously, the AI giant had announced partnerships with Shopify, Etsy, and Walmart, allowing its users to discover products from these platforms through ChatGPT. In addition to being the first payment partner, PayPal will also leverage OpenAI's enterprise-grade AI products to accelerate its internal product development cycles. Highlighting security and convenience, building a two-way trust network. According to the agreement, PayPal will not merely provide a payment button. The company will support transactions within ChatGPT with comprehensive backend infrastructure through the adoption of the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). This means PayPal will be responsible for merchant routing, payment verification, and transaction coordination globally, without merchants needing to integrate separately with OpenAI. PayPal CEO Alex Chriss emphasized that PayPal's advantage lies in its vast network of verified users and merchants. He stated: “This is not just about making transactions happen; more importantly, it's a combination of PayPal-verified, the world's largest trusted merchant network, with the largest verified consumer wallet globally.” Users shopping within ChatGPT can choose to pay using bank accounts, credit cards, or balances linked to their PayPal wallet. At the same time, they will enjoy a range of post-purchase services provided by PayPal, including buyer and seller protection, package tracking, and dispute resolution, ensuring the safety and reliability of transactions. Additionally, as part of the collaboration, PayPal will also apply OpenAI's technology more broadly within the company. The company will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise Edition for its 24,000 employees and integrate Codex tools for engineers to accelerate product development cycles and improve customer experience. AI opens a new paradigm for shopping, and PayPal seizes the payment gateway. This collaboration is seen as the beginning of a new shopping model driven by agentic AI. In this model, the role of AI resembles that of a human personal shopping assistant. According to the official statement, among the more than 700 million weekly users of OpenAI, hundreds of millions use ChatGPT to search for products. Starting in 2026, PayPal will bring product information from millions of small and medium-sized enterprises and global brands on its platform, covering categories such as clothing, beauty, and electronics, into ChatGPT, allowing users to complete discovery and purchases directly in conversations. Alex Chriss stated: “It's hard to imagine that agentic commerce won't become an important part of the future.” For PayPal, this deal is part of its broader AI strategy. Recently, the company announced similar collaborations with Google and another AI company, Perplexity, aiming to secure a favorable position in the wave of AI technology reshaping the business landscape. Strong earnings combined with AI positives, stock price reverses downward trend for the year. Alongside the major positive of announcing its partnership with OpenAI, PayPal also released strong third-quarter earnings and optimistic guidance for the year, providing solid fundamental support for the stock's surge. The earnings report showed that PayPal raised its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast to $5.35-$5.39, higher than previous expectations and the market estimate of $5.25. The company’s net revenue for the third quarter reached $8.42 billion, with adjusted earnings per share at $1.34 and adjusted free cash flow at $2.3 billion, all surpassing market expectations. However, the earnings report also revealed growth challenges facing the company. The payment transaction volume for the third quarter decreased by 4.5% year-on-year to 6.33 billion transactions, below market expectations. The number of active user accounts grew by 1.4% year-on-year to 440 million, with growth slowing. In this context, the collaboration with OpenAI is seen as a key strategic move for PayPal to break through growth bottlenecks and inject new vitality into its core payment business. 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