OpenAI launched ChatGPT Walle yesterday and it appears to be a new “wallet model” build on card network agentic VAS (V, MA, AMEX). Agents pay with a network token instead of the card number, and the consumer authorizes each purchase within the OpenAI app. It is live for pro accounts inside dots today (US). Dots is OpenAI’s answer to Muse (Meta’s Muse: The Agent Becomes the Control Point). Launched September 29, Dots are a new class of autonomous agents built into ChatGPT. Unlike a normal ChatGPT conversation, a dot has its own cloud computer, persistent context, and access to the applications you authorize. Wallet is how a dot pays.

This is OpenAI’s second go round in checkout (see Explaining the Death of OpenAI’s Instant Checkout). in round 1, OpenAI tried to take the top of the funnel and the checkout, and merchants said no. ChatGPT Wallet is the opposite bet. The merchant stays merchant of record. The card keeps its rewards and dispute rights. The issuer makes the authorization decision. The token goes into the merchant’s existing checkout form. OpenAI has stopped trying to replace the payments plumbing and is now building on the networks’ plumbing.