The global digital bank and flexible payments provider said Wednesday (May 20) that it launched the Klarna Shopping Search app in ChatGPT, allowing consumers to search for products, compare prices, check availability and view offers from multiple retailers without leaving the AI chat experience.
The move comes as shopping behavior begins to shift from traditional search bars and retail sites toward AI-powered discovery. Klarna said traffic from AI platforms to retail sites grew nearly 700% during the 2025 holiday season, with those shoppers converting at 31% higher rates.
The basic pitch is simple: Consumers can describe what they want in natural language, then get visual product results with current prices and availability from participating merchants. Once shoppers find an item, Klarna redirects them to the merchant’s site to complete the purchase.
That could solve one of the early problems in AI-assisted shopping. Consumers may ask an AI chatbot what to buy, but they often still need to open browser tabs, compare retailers, check whether prices are current and make sure the item is in stock. Klarna is trying to collapse that process into one flow.
The app is powered by Klarna’s Product Search MCP server, which connects ChatGPT to Klarna’s commerce data. The company said that includes more than 100 million products and 400 million merchant listings across 13 markets.
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For merchants, the launch creates a new path into the shopper’s decision-making process. Retailers can appear in organic results based on relevance, while sponsored placements will be available and clearly labeled. That gives brands a way to show up at the moment when a consumer is not just browsing, but actively asking for help choosing what to buy.
“ChatGPT is where millions of people already turn when they’re figuring out what they want,” David Sykes, chief commercial officer at Klarna, said in the announcement. “We’re plugging our merchant network directly into that moment.”
For Klarna, the integration extends the company’s role beyond checkout and payments. It gives Klarna a position closer to the top of the shopping funnel, where consumers discover products, compare choices and narrow their intent. In an AI commerce market still taking shape, that could make discovery as important as the payment button.
PYMNTS has tracked Klarna’s push to make AI part of the shopping journey, not just a support tool. In 2024, PYMNTS reported that Klarna’s AI assistant added a chat-based shopping experience that helps consumers search for products, compare options and get recommendations based on price, availability and delivery.
More recent PYMNTS coverage has also examined how AI shopping agents are putting new pressure on payments companies as product discovery, checkout and payments begin to converge inside conversational channels. Klarna’s ChatGPT integration extends that trend by moving the company closer to the point where shoppers decide what to buy, not just how to pay.
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