OpenAI has launched “Businesses in ChatGPT”, a new beta feature that lets companies claim and manage their profiles inside ChatGPT, in the clearest sign yet that the chatbot is pushing into business search and commerce.
The company said on Tuesday that businesses can now claim their profile through a tool called Business Hub, verify that they own the business, and then update key details, add product feeds with pricing and availability, and see aggregated data on how users discover and engage with them on ChatGPT. The insights cover the previous 28 days, including how often ChatGPT referred to a business’s website, how many clicks it sent, and the topics of the answers in which the business appeared.
A second tool, called Business Agents, lets people chat with an agent from a business to ask about its products or services. The feature is initially rolling out to eligible e-commerce and online service businesses in the United States, and businesses can sponsor their agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT advertisements, with sponsored placements labelled as such.
OpenAI said it does not share users’ conversations, or their chats with Business Agents, with businesses. The company also made clear that claiming a profile does not guarantee better placement in ChatGPT’s answers, a point aimed at heading off any suggestion that businesses can pay for prominence in the chatbot’s responses.
The launch is part of a wider push by OpenAI to turn ChatGPT, which is used by about 1.2 billion people each week, into a place where people discover and buy things, not just ask questions. The company had previously explored enabling direct purchases inside ChatGPT through an e-commerce initiative that included a checkout feature and a commission-based model, but it discontinued that effort in March 2026.
The move comes as OpenAI’s business continues to grow rapidly. Its quarterly revenue crossed $10 billion for the first time, according to reports this week, and the company has been expanding into new areas, including a travel agent acquired this week and a growing set of tools for businesses.
For small businesses, the appeal is clear: a free listing in a chatbot used by more than a billion people a week, with data on how customers find them. For OpenAI, the bet is that businesses will eventually pay for sponsored agents and advertising, turning ChatGPT’s enormous audience into a new revenue stream to match its search and social rivals.
The company plans to expand the regions and industries covered by Businesses in ChatGPT and Business Agents, and to develop further management tools for companies. Both features are free at launch, and Business Hub is open to eligible businesses in any market where ChatGPT is available.
Whether the new tools change how people shop remains to be seen. ChatGPT’s answers are already a source of recommendations for many users, and giving businesses a way to manage what the chatbot says about them could make those recommendations more accurate — or, critics will say, more commercial. For now, OpenAI is presenting the launch as a way for businesses to be found, and for users to get better answers.
The launch follows a string of other AI announcements this week, including Google’s general release of its Gemini 4 Carbon model and Anthropic’s release of two new Claude models, as the leading AI labs compete to turn their chatbots into platforms that people use for far more than conversation.
