Razorpay Develops Payment Infrastructure for ChatGPT Commerce
Indian payments company Razorpay is building infrastructure to enable businesses to create storefronts within ChatGPT and process transactions natively within the chat interface.
Indian payments company Razorpay is establishing infrastructure for businesses to build native storefronts and complete transactions directly within conversational AI platforms like ChatGPT. This move aims to capitalize on the emerging trend of AI assistants becoming a new channel for product discovery and shopping.
The company is developing a "ChatGPT-native storefront" capability, allowing merchants to integrate product catalogs and checkout flows directly into AI chat interfaces. According to CEO Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is currently collaborating with approximately 50 brands and several e-commerce marketplaces experimenting with this "agentic commerce" approach. Skincare brand Innovist is among the first to go live with the technology for select users.
Razorpay's solution leverages India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system, utilizing features like UPI Reserve Pay for pre-authorization of funds and UPI Circle for seamless authentication within the chat. This aims to significantly reduce the technical effort and time required for merchants to establish an e-commerce presence on AI platforms.
The competitive landscape is heating up, with rival Cashfree also launching its own in-chat payment solutions for AI applications. However, Razorpay believes its existing merchant relationships will provide a competitive edge, as businesses are likely to consolidate their agentic commerce payment partners. Mathur indicated that merchants integrating with Razorpay's AI commerce solutions may have exclusivity arrangements.
Addressing trust concerns, Mathur stated that Razorpay's architecture ensures customer payment credentials are not shared with the AI models. All transactions require explicit user authorization through the UPI infrastructure, maintaining user control and adhering to data residency and customer consent regulations. The company emphasizes that the AI assistant facilitates discovery, but the payment authorization remains with the user's native UPI account.