Etsy announced Tuesday the launch of its native application within ChatGPT, offering shoppers a novel way to explore its vast catalog of over 100 million listings.
This new experience is designed to overcome the limitations of traditional keyword-based queries. Instead of typing broad terms like “wooden coffee table,” users can now articulate their needs using natural language. For example, a user could ask, “Help me find a Mother’s Day gift under $100 for my mom who loves gardening.”
Currently in beta, this feature allows users to directly tag @Etsy within a ChatGPT prompt. The Etsy app then surfaces relevant product listings, enabling users to browse, compare, and click through to the Etsy platform for more detailed information or to complete a purchase.
This marks Etsy’s second foray into integrating with ChatGPT. Last September, Etsy was an early partner in ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout integration, which permitted direct product purchases within the chat interface. However, this initiative concluded in March, suggesting it did not meet OpenAI's performance expectations. Reports indicated that Etsy did not observe a significant volume of sales from this integration, prompting the shift towards developing a native app within ChatGPT instead.
Concurrently with this launch, Etsy also revealed it is piloting a beta conversational search experience on its own platform, specifically tailored for gift discovery. This "gift assistant" functions as a virtual personal shopper, guiding users through a conversational flow to generate ideas, refine preferences, and present suitable products.
These developments are part of Etsy’s broader AI strategy, which encompasses an AI-powered discovery experience featuring curated collections and a comprehensive suite of seller tools. These tools include functionalities for generating product titles and descriptions, as well as a writing assistant to aid in drafting messages to buyers. In 2024, Etsy introduced a new "Designed" label to identify AI-generated content, enhancing transparency as such artwork becomes more prevalent on the platform.
The announcement of the ChatGPT integration closely followed Etsy’s Q1 2026 earnings report, which surpassed revenue forecasts with $631 million. Marketplace gross merchandise sales increased by 6% year-over-year. Notably, active buyers grew for the first time in two years, reaching 86.6 million, and Etsy also reported 5.6 million active sellers.
In February, the company divested Depop to eBay for $1.2 billion in cash, a strategic move to concentrate on its core marketplace operations.
Etsy joins a growing roster of companies, including Angi, SeatGeek, Tubi, and Wix, that are building native applications within ChatGPT. Developers have had the capability to build apps within the chatbot since October.