How to Shop With ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity in the UK

Asking a chatbot what to buy has gone mainstream in Britain remarkably quickly. In Adyen’s survey of 2,000 UK consumers (Censuswide, November–December 2025), the share of shoppers using AI assistants rose from 12% to nearly 28% in a year, and 44% said they were open to AI handling the whole purchase.

The tools have not kept pace with the headlines, though. Much of what you read about “buying in ChatGPT” describes features that only ever worked in the US, or that OpenAI has since stepped back from. This guide sets out the position as of 17 October 2026: what ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity actually do for UK shoppers, how to prompt them, where the traps are, and what your rights are when the AI gets something wrong. I write it from both sides of the till — as a shopper, and as someone who sells online and builds a 3D shopping mall in the browser.

What can AI assistants do for UK shoppers today?

They can research, compare and explain products, and show clothes on a photo of you. They cannot take your money: in the UK, every purchase finishes on the retailer’s own website. Think of them as an AI shopping assistant — an adviser that gathers offers from across the web — rather than a shop.

Here is the honest state of play, feature by feature:

Feature	Available in the UK?	Notes
ChatGPT product results and side-by-side comparison	Yes	All plans, including Free
ChatGPT shopping research (buying guides)	Yes	Logged-in Free, Go, Plus and Pro users
ChatGPT “Try on” for clothes and accessories	Yes	Since 1 October 2026, on mobile and web
ChatGPT Instant Checkout (pay in chat)	No	US only; from March 2026 merchants use their own checkout
Google AI Mode in Search	Yes	Rolling out in the UK since 28 July 2025
Google virtual try-on for apparel	Yes	UK since December 2025: tops, bottoms, dresses, jackets, shoes
Google agentic checkout and Universal Cart	No	US first; Google says checkout reaches the UK “later”
Shopping cards in the Gemini app	Announced for the US	November 2025 launch covered US users
Perplexity Instant Buy with PayPal	No	US residents aged 18+ only

The pattern is clear. Discovery features — search, comparison, try-on — reach the UK within months. Agentic checkout, where the assistant completes the purchase for you, has so far stayed in the US.

How does shopping with ChatGPT work?

When your question signals that you want to buy something, ChatGPT shows a carousel of products with images, details and links to shops; you can refine, compare and save them, then click through to buy. Four features matter.

Product results. According to OpenAI’s help centre, products are “selected independently by ChatGPT and are not ads”. Since an update on 24 March 2026 you can refine results by chatting, upload a photo to find similar items, and compare products side by side on price, reviews and features.

Shopping research. Launched on 24 November 2025 for logged-in Free, Go, Plus and Pro users, it asks clarifying questions, reads sources for a few minutes and returns a personalised buying guide with trade-offs. OpenAI says it works best for detail-heavy categories such as electronics, beauty, home and garden, kitchen and sports. It also says your chats are never shared with merchants.

Try on. Since 1 October 2026, clothing and accessory listings carry a “Try on” button. You take or upload a selfie and ChatGPT generates an image of you wearing the item. Your reference photo is saved for future try-ons; you can change or delete it under Settings → Personalization → Reference photos.

Favourites. You can save products, or folders of them, to your ChatGPT Library.

What happened to ChatGPT Instant Checkout?

OpenAI scaled it back. Instant Checkout launched in September 2025 for US users buying from US Etsy sellers, with Shopify merchants following. It never opened to UK shoppers. On 24 March 2026 OpenAI wrote that the first version “did not offer the level of flexibility that we aspire to provide”, so merchants would use their own checkouts while OpenAI focused on product discovery. TechCrunch reported that merchants could still offer in-chat purchases through their own apps inside ChatGPT.

For you, the rule is simple: the AI advises, the shop sells. That has an upside — you know exactly who you are contracting with before you pay.

What about Google Gemini and AI Mode?

Use AI Mode and Gemini for research and try-on; buy on the retailer’s site. Google’s shopping features split neatly into “available in the UK” and “US first”.

In the UK you get AI Mode in Search (rolling out since 28 July 2025), which handles complex, multi-part questions and links out to the web, and virtual apparel try-on (since December 2025): upload a photo of yourself and tap the “try it on” icon on apparel listings. Google’s agentic checkout — set a price you are happy with, and Google buys the item on the merchant’s site via Google Pay once you confirm — launched in the US in November 2025. At Google I/O on 19 May 2026 the company said it would expand that checkout to Canada and Australia “in the coming months” and “later to the U.K.”, without a date.

UK retailers are preparing. John Lewis said in March 2026 that its products will appear on AI platforms such as Google Gemini and ChatGPT later in 2026, with purchasing to follow “when and where” the technology is introduced in the UK.

And Perplexity?

Perplexity is a strong research tool in the UK, but its in-chat buying is US-only. Its help centre limits Instant Buy with PayPal to US residents aged 18 or over with a personal PayPal account. Perplexity’s habit of citing sources inline is useful for shopping: you can open the review or spec sheet it relied on and check it yourself.

How do you shop with an AI assistant, step by step?

Describe the need with a budget and constraints, compare a shortlist, then verify everything on the shop’s own page before you pay.

1. Log in. Shopping research, Favourites and try-on need an account. OpenAI says results take your memory and custom instructions into account, so check those settings if you want a clean slate.
2. Describe the problem, not the product. Say what it is for, the size of the room or household, your budget in pounds and your deal-breakers. Add UK constraints: “UK retailers only”, “delivered by Friday”, “free returns”.
3. For bigger purchases, switch on shopping research. Answer its questions and mark suggestions “Not interested” or “More like this”.
4. Ask for a table and for the downsides. “Compare the top three in a table: price, warranty, noise level, common complaints in reviews.” Asking for weaknesses forces trade-offs into the open.
5. Click through and check five things: who the seller is, the final price including delivery, that your variant is in stock, the delivery date and the returns policy.
6. Pay on the retailer’s site. Never type card details or passwords into a chat — no legitimate UK checkout through an assistant asks for them.

Prompts that tend to work better:

Instead of	Try
“best air fryer”	“Dual-basket air fryer under £150 for a family of four, quiet, dishwasher-safe baskets, UK retailers only. Three options with their downsides.”
“gift for my dad”	“Gift under £50 for a dad who cycles to work and already has lights and a lock. Nothing that needs a clothing size.”
“is this a good price?”	“This link: [URL]. What is the lowest price you can see for this exact model, from which UK retailer, and how recent is that information?”

What are the traps?

Stale prices, model-written labels, over-trusting try-on, ads next to answers and dodgy shops at the end of a link.

Prices lag and are not always the lowest. OpenAI’s help centre says the price in ChatGPT’s first answer “typically” reflects the first merchant listed, “which may not be the lowest available price”, and that price and shipping changes can take time to show. For shopping research, OpenAI warns it may get details such as price and availability wrong and points you to the merchant’s site.

Labels and review summaries are generated. Tags such as “Budget-friendly” or “Most popular” are created by ChatGPT and, in OpenAI’s words, are “not guarantees or verified statements”. Review summaries are model-generated from public reviews that OpenAI does not verify.

Try-on shows the look, not the fit. OpenAI states that try-on images “do not guarantee fit or size”. Google’s tool is likewise about how an item might look on you. Choose your size from the retailer’s size chart.

Ads on free plans. OpenAI began rolling out ads to Free and Go users in the UK on 4 June 2026. They are labelled as sponsored and separated from the answer, and OpenAI says ads do not influence answers. Product results are not ads — but it pays to know which is which.

The shop at the end of the link. Assistants surface offers from across the web. Before paying an unfamiliar retailer, check the company name and address, the terms, and that the web address is what you expect.

Who is responsible if the AI gets it wrong?

The retailer you bought from, because your contract is with the shop, not the assistant. Your consumer rights are the same as for any online purchase.

Situation	What applies (England)
Changed your mind about goods bought online	Usually 14 days to cancel from the day after delivery, then 14 days to send them back (Citizens Advice)
Item faulty or not as described	Your claim is against the retailer, whatever the AI said
Paid by credit card, item over £100 and up to £30,000	Section 75 claim against the card provider — usually only when you bought directly from the trader, not via a marketplace or PayPal
Paid by debit card	Ask your bank for a chargeback
Paid with PayPal	Open a dispute within 180 days

If ChatGPT quoted £30 less than the shop, the shop’s checkout price is the one that counts — which is why you check it before pressing “Pay”.

When is an AI assistant worth it, and when is it not?

AI assistants shine when you do not yet know what you want; they are weaker when every pound or the exact fit matters. A price comparison site or the shop’s own filters will often beat them on those.

They are genuinely useful for purchases with many constraints — a quiet appliance for a small flat, a present for someone with specific hobbies, choosing between three models. They are weaker for things where scale, texture and proportion matter: clothes, furniture, homeware. A generated image or a spec table will not show you how an item looks in a real space next to other things.

That is the gap we are building for at Aderlo City. In a virtual mall you walk into 3D shops and showrooms in your browser and order as you would in any online shop. The two approaches work well together: start with a question to an assistant, then decide once you have seen the product up close.