Etsy is known for its marketplace for handmade goods, but beyond that human touch, the company wants its shoppers to use AI.
On Tuesday, Etsy launched a beta version of its app on OpenAI-owned ChatGPT. Once you’re connected to the ChatGPT Etsy app, all you have to do is tag @Etsy and give the command to generate results that are compared or opened on the Etsy website.
In an Etsy News blog post, Chief Product and Technology Officer Rafe Colburn wrote that ChatGPT The app “gives buyers an in-depth look at sellers’ items” and can help when subtle items are important.
“At the same time, Etsy’s app on ChatGPT is poised to give us early insight into when Etsy is relevant in the buyer’s journey, opening the door to understanding how and when shoppers choose to use chat search,” Colburn wrote.
In other words, while the ChatGPT Etsy app helps customers find certain items, it also provides Etsy with information about when people choose to use both ChatGPT and Etsy when shopping.
I picked up Etsy’s ChatGPT app to test it out
After connecting to the Etsy app, I told @Etsy I wanted a handmade birdhouse under $50. It responds with five lists showing the item name, price, seller name, rating and whether there is free shipping. There were also buttons above the list that I could click to sort by custom, personal, under $25 and free shipping.
I found it interesting that I could sort by “handmade,” even though that was the keyword in my search. When I selected the filter, only one result disappeared: a PDF of a DIY birdhouse.
How about using the Etsy app on ChatGPT to find a handmade birdhouse, under $50.
However, I found these same filter options with different instructions — a birthday gift for a cat-loving friend and a Mother’s Day gift under $100 — so they seem to be there by default. One exception: For Mother’s Day gifts under $100, the “under $25” filter has changed to “under $50,” meaning it will increase as your budget grows.
When I clicked “view details” under the listing, as promised, I was taken to the item’s page on Etsy.
Under ChatGPT’s results, it noted that some birdhouses are merely decorative and do not work for birds, and that shipping can push the total cost to over $50. It also lists the two most effective bird products, along with their prices and shipping costs.
To narrow down my options or find durable, weatherproof birdhouses, ChatGPT said I can tell it more about the birds I want to attract and whether I want a decorative or real breeding birdhouse.
On the other hand, the Etsy website allows me to filter by material, those shipped from the US, different birdhouse materials and styles, specific bird species, features like weather resistance and squirrel proof and more.
This is not Etsy’s first ChatGPT
When ChatGPT has introduced Instant Checkout in September to allow people in the US to buy products through ChatGPT, Etsy was the first partner. Six months later, in March, Modern Retail, a media outlet that covers the retail industry, reported that both OpenAI and its retail partners had backed away from the feature.
An Etsy spokesperson told Modern Retail that while the Instant Checkout integration made potential buyers see Etsy products and drove referral traffic, Etsy didn’t see a “significant increase in sales.”
When asked why it launched the ChatGPT app after the previous Instant Checkout integration failed to drive sales, an Etsy representative did not immediately respond.
The Future of AI for Etsy
As Etsy continues to test its ChatGPT beta program, it is using what it learns to design a similar chat experience on Etsy. “It’s early days, but we’re iterating quickly and learning from real-world usage what’s important to consumers,” Colburn wrote.
In the photo shared within the blog post, i An AI chatbot named Gift Helper is shown helping someone find a Mother’s Day gift under $150.
Checking out Etsy’s Gifting Assistant in beta.
In this context, it seems that Etsy’s ChatGPT app is less about driving sales and more about the company figuring out how to design its own AI tools.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, sued OpenAI in 2025, alleging that it infringed on Ziff Davis’ copyrights in training and using its AI programs.)
