Amazon has quietly made a move that could shift how shoppers use AI tools during the busiest season of the year. The company has blocked ChatGPT (OpenAI’s popular chatbot) from accessing its online marketplace. This means it can no longer pull live data from millions of Amazon listings, including prices, reviews and deals. The change directly impacts ChatGPT’s new Shopping Research feature, which many users were beginning to rely on for quick product suggestions and personalised gift ideas.
The timing is striking. Shoppers across the world were searching for Black Friday offers and holiday discounts. Amazon’s sale season pulls in a massive number of users every year, and losing access to its catalogue limits ChatGPT’s ability to guide them through the best deals. For many, the update feels like a sudden speed breaker during a time when AI tools are becoming a go-to for faster decision-making.
How ChatGPT’s Shopping Feature Still Works Without Amazon
Even with the restriction, ChatGPT’s Shopping Research feature will continue to work with websites that allow crawler access. It can still scan reviews, compare products and find options from other retailers. But Amazon listings will not be part of its search results. So, when users ask for Amazon-specific suggestions, ChatGPT may now direct them to check availability on the Amazon website themselves or redirect them to alternatives.
To understand why this matters, it helps to know how the Shopping Research feature works. OpenAI designed it to cut down the time users spend scrolling through endless tabs. You enter your budget, the purpose of the product and any preferences. ChatGPT collects information from accessible platforms and returns neat, ready-to-use lists of recommendations. The feature is available for both free and paid users, making it one of the most accessible AI shopping tools right now. With the holiday season in full swing, usage has naturally gone up.
Why Amazon Decided To Block ChatGPT
So, why did Amazon decide to block ChatGPT now? The first clue came from Juozas Kaziukenas, who spotted the update in Amazon’s robots.txt file on LinkedIn. The file now blocks several OpenAI crawlers. This includes the “ChatGPT-User” agent, which handles live browsing and the “OAI-SearchBot”, which gathers data for indexing.
Industry insiders believe Amazon is protecting its most valuable asset. Its e-commerce data. Prices, reviews and product pages can reveal patterns that help AI systems build better shopping models. If third-party tools get stronger, they could eventually influence users to shop outside Amazon. By blocking these crawlers, Amazon is keeping tighter control over how its data is used, especially at a time when the competition in AI shopping tools is heating up.
There is also speculation about Amazon’s own AI ambitions. The company has been pushing Alexa+ and its expanding AI features. Keeping competitors away could give Amazon more space to strengthen its own ecosystem.
Amazon has said talks with third-party tools are ongoing, so the door is not fully closed. But for now, ChatGPT users will feel the impact.
