ChatGPT: Shopping

Cut a family grocery bill by planning meals from fridge photos with ChatGPT

Tom's Guide's Amanda Caswell asked ChatGPT for one trick to lower a grocery bill. It said to photograph the fridge, freezer and pantry, ask for five meals using what was already there, and buy only what those meals still needed. It came back with dishes like chicken tacos and bean and tomato soup, leaving Caswell needing maybe $40 of filler items instead of the usual $200. Caswell says the weekly spend went from about $350–$400 to about $200–$250.

Find the exact replacement part for a broken shaver tab from a photo and a voice note to ChatGPT

A small plastic tab broke on Michal Barodkin's Philips shaver after several years. Rather than replace the shaver, they sent ChatGPT a photo of the broken piece and described the problem in a voice message. It found the replacement part, with its Philips part number and a place to order it. It cost six dollars and they picked it up the next day.

Send four AI agents to get real car insurance quotes: Gemini and ChatGPT got none, Claude and Muse got five each

Thy Toeung needed to review their car insurance before their son turned 16. They made a data sheet listing every driver, vehicle and the cover they wanted, and asked Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Muse to act as their insurance-shopping agent and get real quotes from six reputable insurers. Gemini's auto-browse explained it couldn't use the websites and handed back a comparison table to fill in. ChatGPT took 2 hours and 279 messages across 12 attempts and got no quotes; Toeung believes sites such as Allstate, Nationwide and Liberty Mutual block AI agents. Claude ran for 3.3 hours and got 5 real quotes. Muse, on its free tier, used several sub-agents and got 5 quotes in about 20 minutes. Toeung switched insurer and got about twice the cover for around 40% of the previous price.

Hunt for a $400 mixed-metal bracelet on Etsy with ChatGPT Instant Checkout and end with an empty cart (failure)

Business Insider's Jordan Hart tried ChatGPT's new Instant Checkout to find their mom a birthday bracelet in sterling silver and gold, with a $400 budget, starting on Etsy. ChatGPT listed seven Etsy options, but with links rather than a buy button, and one was a $2,400 cuff. Asked to show only items it could sell in the chat, it said it couldn't reliably tell from the product data which were eligible, and Skims and Glossier weren't live yet either. Searching other retailers, it found bracelets from brands such as Kendra Scott and Mejuri that fit the brief, though it had to be asked again for direct links. They didn't love any of them and ended with an empty cart.

Fill a Walmart pickup cart with 26 meal-plan groceries using ChatGPT computer control, stopping before checkout

With school and sports starting, Arthur Sullivan had ChatGPT make a meal plan and grocery list, then logged into Walmart and asked it to arrange the order: pickup time, store brands over name brands, and no purchase without review. Using ChatGPT Work's computer control, it added all 26 items to the cart; the only mistake was one lemon instead of two. Sullivan reviewed the order before buying.

Hand a family's weekly grocery shop to ChatGPT's in-app browser and find it takes nearly an hour

Betting they could do the weekly shop in five minutes, Kirk Simmons connected ChatGPT to the family Google Calendar to find a delivery window, gave it a spreadsheet of favourite recipes and household needs, and let its in-app browser shop. It asked what food was left, suggested a meal plan, turned it into a list, chose between two supermarkets on budget and fresh food, and clicked items into the cart one by one. It took nearly an hour, picked a fruit-and-veg box when asked for a fruit box, and spent time comparing ethical chocolate brands; the shop arrived on time and well under budget.

Pick back-to-school supplies a daughter actually likes, with Target links, using ChatGPT

A parent gave ChatGPT the school's supply list for their daughter; because it already knew the girl's tastes from past chats, it picked specific items and gave direct Target links. They say their daughter, who usually dislikes whatever the parent chooses, didn't change a single item, only a few colours, and everything arrived within a few days.

Fill a back-to-school supply cart from the teacher's list with Gemini and Instacart

Tom's Guide's Amanda Caswell gave ChatGPT, Gemini and Alexa+ the same school supply list: follow it, stick to required quantities, pick reasonably priced items and skip optional ones. Gemini built an Instacart cart, skipped optional items, asked them to approve colours and totalled about $60–$90 ($105 with the optional water bottle). ChatGPT, on their Walmart account, followed the list carefully but slowly for $92.55; Alexa+ added the optional items and reached $251.48.

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude for Prime Day tech picks, and check the discounts they claim

A TechRadar editor asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude what discounted tech to buy on Prime Day. Gemini focused on deals but overstated one: it said Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones were 50% off when they were actually 20% off at $198 (was $248). ChatGPT tailored picks to their interests from past chats but was less tuned in to actual discounts, and Claude, which knew least about them, gave fairly generic deals.

Catalogue a DVD collection for resale from shelf photos with ChatGPT

A How-To Geek writer photographed the spines of hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays and asked ChatGPT to list them in a spreadsheet with columns useful for resale listings. It built the spreadsheet, correctly classified some PSP discs on the same shelf, and filled in more details on a second pass. They still had to review it by hand: some titles weren't legible, and they warn the AI can hallucinate titles not in the photos.

Handle an eBay buyer's 'not as described' partial-refund demand with ChatGPT

On a $500 eBay sale, an overseas buyer asked for a big partial refund, then said the box wasn't factory sealed and sent photos of a scratch. The seller asked ChatGPT what an experienced seller would do; it said don't argue, don't offer a discount, and tell the buyer to open a return through eBay. Because the order used eBay's international shipping program, eBay handled it: the buyer was refunded, the item wasn't returned, and the seller says they kept the money.

Make a Costco weekly grocery list for under $100 with ChatGPT (real prices came to $167)

GOBankingRates' Kathryn Jackson asked ChatGPT for a full Costco shopping list for the week under $100; it said the list was for a family of two and totalled $95. On Costco's website the same groceries came to $167, some items only came in larger quantities, and the list left out dairy like milk and cheese, tomatoes, other green vegetables, potatoes and other meats.

Look for Black Friday laptop deals with ChatGPT (and double-check them)

TechRadar deals writer Alex Whitelock tested ChatGPT on Black Friday laptop deals. Its first picks were pricey and left out MacBooks; asked for budget options, it suggested sub-$200 Chromebooks they felt were too basic. Prices were up to date and brands well known, but after digging they concluded there were better deals elsewhere and say you need to double-check prices and cross-reference expert reviews.

Find five Prime Day tech gifts under $100 each: ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini

TechRadar's editor-at-large gave ChatGPT (GPT-5), Claude (Sonnet 4.5) and Google AI Mode (Gemini 2.5 Pro) the same Prime Day gift brief: five fun tech gifts under $100, smaller than a bread box, ideally heavily discounted. They found all followed the brief closely; Gemini answered fastest and returned the most varied list and the best breakdown, Claude pulled its picks from TechRadar's own guides, and ChatGPT leaned toward Amazon devices.

Get a full refund for event tickets the seller didn't have, by finding a gap in their terms with ChatGPT

After buying event tickets from a resale site and finding the seller didn't have them in hand, a buyer was refused a refund. They gave ChatGPT the site's terms of service, and it found they required buyers to expressly accept a delayed-fulfilment model, which they were never asked to do at checkout. With ChatGPT they drafted messages citing this and filed complaints with the BBB, FTC and California Attorney General, and say they had a full refund within days.

Pick a mattress under budget from real reviews with ChatGPT

The Sydney Morning Herald's Jessica Yun asked ChatGPT for the best mattress around $600, with top three picks based on quality and value informed by real reviews. They looked at all three, chose a hybrid mattress and paid for it in under 10 minutes, $59 under budget, and say they were delighted with it less than two weeks later.

Poster says:Bought in under 10 minutes, $59 below budget