The best AI shopping assistants compared, and a personal shopper that knows what you already own

Why most AI shopping assistants fall short, and what a good personal shopper knows

Most AI shopping assistants are very good at one moment: you know you need something, you ask, and they find it. What they can’t see is everything around that moment. That the scarf in your basket is very like one you already wear. That the boots you bought 26 days ago are still in the box, and the return window closes on Friday. That Priya collects ceramics, and you took wine last time.

So the hard part stays with you: knowing what to buy, when, and what not to buy at all. And some assistants are paid by the shops they send you to, which is worth knowing before you trust the list. A good AI personal shopper starts from you, not from the shop. It knows:

• What you already own: your wardrobe, what’s in the kitchen, and how far your running shoes have gone.
• What your week needs: dinner at a friend’s on Saturday, a race in seven weeks, a trip in 18 days, a move on the 11th.
• Your sizes, brands and budgets: the shirt you always buy, £55 a week for food, £60 left for gifts this month.
• The people you buy for: what they love, what you gave last time, and that Sam has a cat.
• Where it’s cheaper: the same pair at another shop, a price drop worth waiting for, a code for the food shop.
• How long things take: engraving takes 10 days, post takes 2, and you like 4 weeks to break in new trainers.

Then it does the shopping work in good time, gives a reason for every choice, and leaves new spending to you until you say otherwise. Often, the best buy is the one it saves you.

The top AI shopping assistants at a glance

We looked at the shopping assistants people are most likely to use, chosen mostly by reach: three general AI assistants with shopping built in, Amazon’s own assistant, a payments app, and a fashion deals app that has started to learn your taste.

App by app

ChatGPT shopping research

Cost

Free; paid plans from $8 on the App Store

Where

iPhone, Android, web

App Store

4.8 from 11.5M ratings

OpenAI launched shopping research in November 2025 for signed-in Free, Go, Plus and Pro users on mobile and web. Tell it what you need, and it asks a few questions, does the research and comes back with a buyer’s guide. It uses your past conversations and Memory, if you have it on, and narrows as you mark results as more like this or not interested. On Pro, its Pulse feature could suggest a buyer’s guide before you asked, OpenAI said at launch.

Worth knowingAt launch, OpenAI said your chats aren’t shared with retailers and research results are organic, not paid. OpenAI does separately run ads in ChatGPT, and its checkout tools pass your order and payment details to shops. It warns that prices and availability can be wrong. Which countries have it today, and how often you can use it on each plan, aren’t mentioned in the pages we checked.

Amazon Alexa for Shopping (formerly Rufus)

Cost

Free; no Prime or Echo needed

Where

US only; Amazon app and website

App Store

4.8 from 8.5M ratings (the Amazon app)

In May 2026, Amazon combined Rufus with Alexa+ as Alexa for Shopping. Amazon says Rufus helped more than 300 million customers in 2025. It draws on your orders, browsing and past conversations, and you can see and update what it knows about your family, pets, interests and dietary needs, which helps it suggest gifts. It can reorder from past orders, watch prices, build a repeat basket and buy at a price you set (Auto Buy), and for some products Buy for Me completes the purchase with your main address and card.

Worth knowingAmazon’s advertising pages say sponsored products and brands appear within the conversation, and a further ad format, Branded Conversations, is planned for January 2027. Its Alexa privacy pages say your interactions help improve its services, with a small sample reviewed by people. You can review and delete your history, but orders and some remembered details can stay.

Google AI Mode and Gemini

Cost

Free; optional paid AI plans

Where

Google app, Gemini app, web

App Store

4.6 from 5.3M ratings (the Google app)

Google’s shopping draws on more than 50 billion product listings. In Search’s AI Mode and in Gemini, you describe what you want and compare options; you can try clothes on from a photo of yourself, set price-drop alerts, and at some shops check out with Google Pay once you’ve reviewed the order. If you turn on Personal Intelligence, Gemini can also draw on your Memory, Gmail, Calendar and other apps you connect.

Worth knowingShopping in Gemini needs you to be 18 or over, on a personal Google account with Keep Activity on, and its help page lists 21 countries; the UK isn’t one. AI Mode carries ads labelled Sponsored. Gemini says your chats aren’t used for ads, but its privacy hub says cart and order data in Google Wallet and Google Pay can be, depending on your settings. Try-on makes a picture: it shows the look, not the fit.

Klarna

Cost

Free; paying later and its card can cost extra

Where

iPhone, Android, web, and inside ChatGPT

App Store

4.9 from 2.5M ratings

Klarna is a payments app first, with more than 119 million active users. In May 2026 it launched Shopping Search inside ChatGPT: describe what you want and see live prices, stock and offers from different shops, across more than 100 million products in 13 markets, then buy on the shop’s own site. Its filing describes feeds personalised by AI from what you buy; a shopping chat that remembers you isn’t mentioned.

Worth knowingKlarna says shops can buy clearly labelled sponsored placements alongside the organic results. Paying later and its card are separate products with their own costs and conditions. Its App Store privacy label lists tracking across other companies’ apps and sites, and its privacy page wouldn’t load for our check, so how it uses your data for AI, and how long it keeps it, couldn’t be confirmed.

Perplexity

Cost

Free; Pro from $20 on the App Store

Where

iPhone, Android, web

App Store

4.8 from 517K ratings

Perplexity answers shopping questions with product cards next to an answer with its sources, and remembers what you’ve searched and told it across conversations. When shopping launched in the US in November 2024, Pro subscribers could buy some products from some shops without leaving the app.

Worth knowingIts 2024 launch said the product cards aren’t sponsored, and Search Engine Land reported (third party) in February 2026 that it had stopped testing ads. Its current privacy notice still allows sharing with advertising partners and using your data to improve its AI. Which countries can buy in the app today isn’t mentioned.

Phia

Cost

Free

Where

iPhone with Safari; Chrome on a computer

App Store

4.8 from 23K ratings

Phia started as a price checker for fashion, and says 1.5 million shoppers use it. It compares 350 million items across more than 220,000 sites, including second-hand, with price alerts, coupons and rewards. It now builds a digital closet from your Gmail receipts, purchases through its extension and your photos, works out your top colours, brands and “vibes”, and takes up to ten styling rules from you. Once you have five tops and five bottoms, it sends an outfit idea every day, with your local weather if you add your city.

Worth knowingPhia is free because it earns affiliate commission when you buy through its links. It calls try-on “a vibe check, not a size guide”. Its privacy policy page showed no readable text when we checked, so how long it keeps your closet, and whether it trains AI on it, couldn’t be confirmed. Android isn’t mentioned.

Where Retenna’s personal shopper goes further

Each of these is good at something: ChatGPT and Perplexity at research, Amazon at its own store with your orders in mind, Google at range, try-on and price alerts, Klarna at live offers and paying later, Phia at deals, coupons and second-hand. But they mostly start where you do, with something to buy. Retenna’s personal shopper starts earlier, with what you already own and what your week needs.

Yes

The maker documents it.

Partly

A narrower version: only what you bought from that company, or only clothes; context you choose to connect; prices compared without alerts, or watched mostly in its own store; one job you switch on, like buying at a target price; or shopping results said to be unpaid, in an app that allows ads elsewhere.

Sponsored Commission

The maker discloses paid placements in its shopping results, or commission on what you buy through it.

–Dash

Not mentioned in the maker’s own materials. That doesn’t prove it can’t.

To be fair to them: Google and Phia are strong on prices, Amazon’s memory of your family is real and useful, Phia’s closet learns your taste, and Gemini can draw on your Gmail and calendar if you let it. The difference is in the lower rows. Only Amazon says it remembers the people you buy for, and none of the six mentions chasing returns and refunds before the deadline, or giving a reason and an Undo for what it plans. What you should buy depends on the rest of your week, and a shopper that can only see your basket has to guess the rest.

The last row matters most once something buys for you. Amazon, Google and Klarna disclose sponsored results, and Phia earns commission. Retenna’s personal shopper never takes commission, uses affiliate links or shows sponsored or paid placements: it recommends for you, not for the shops.

A week with Retenna’s personal shopper

It’s Tuesday. There’s dinner at Priya’s on Saturday, a £45 scarf in your basket, boots you haven’t worn and a train that ran late on Monday. Before anything is bought, Retenna checks what you own, what’s left in your budget and where you’ll be, and it chases the money you’re owed.

What it joined upPriya’s shared plans: dinner at hers on Saturday. What you’ve told it: she collects ceramics from small makers. Your budget: £60 left for gifts this month. Your usual route: your Thursday lunch walk passes a ceramics shop. Your wardrobe: the scarf you saved is a lot like one you own and have worn 11 times. Your orders: boots bought 26 days ago, not worn yet, with returns closing on Friday. And your ticket and live train times: Monday’s train ran 34 minutes late.

What it ruled outWine for Priya, because you took wine last time. The £45 scarf, because it’s very like one you already wear. Keeping the boots, because they’re unworn after 26 days, and £85 comes back if they go by Friday.

A gift that suits Priya, inside your budget. £45 not spent on a scarf you already have. And £99 back: £85 for the boots and £14 for the late train. So on Saturday, you just turn up with the right gift.

Buying what your week needs, in time

A gift is the easy part. Most shopping is for something else in your life: a race, a trip, a party, a move, the food shop. Because your personal shopper shares one picture of your week with every other expert, it buys for what’s coming, early enough to matter, and looks for a better price as it goes.

When something changes, only what it affects moves. If a rail strike is called for the Friday you leave, you’re moved to the 13:00 coach with seats together and packing is done by Thursday night, while the hotel and Saturday’s dinner stay as they are.

Why it’s better with your other experts

Your personal shopper shares one living model of you, and one picture of your week, with every other expert. So it buys what the rest of your life actually needs:

• Your stylist knows your wardrobe, added from photos, receipts and order emails, product links and more, plus your colours, your shape and virtual try-on. So your shopper buys the gaps, not duplicates.
• Your nutritionist sizes the food shop to where you’ll be, inside your budget and around your allergies (always check labels; it isn’t medical advice).
• Your beauty and grooming expert picks products and checks their ingredients, and your shopper restocks the ones you like.
• Your personal trainer knows when your trainers are worn out, and when race day is.
• Your wellbeing coach and planner make sure a move, a trip or an engraved gift has what it needs, in time.
• The people you love: it remembers what they love and what you gave last time, and anything that reaches them, like a cat-safe plant for Sam’s new flat, asks you first.

The everyday jobs it takes off your hands

Add it up, and this is the shopping work that stops living in your head.

How it learns your sizes, brands and budget

Everything your personal shopper knows sits in one living model of you. It learns from what you do, what you choose and what you tell it, and every fact it learns says where it came from:

• The white shirt you always buy, in your size. So when your favourite frays, it suggests the same one, not a search.
• You like 4 weeks to break in new trainers. From your runs and your last two pairs, so the new ones arrive in time for race day.
• Your Thursday lunch walk passes a ceramics shop. From your usual route, so Priya’s gift is collected on the way.
• Your scarf is a favourite. You’ve worn it 11 times, so a near-copy in your basket can wait.
• You’ll wait for a better price on things you don’t need yet. You bought the last four things on your saved list after they dropped, so the blind waits for a price drop, and race-day trainers don’t.

The more it learns, the less it needs to ask:

1. Day one It asks. Your sizes and the brands you trust, your budgets for food and gifts, and what the people you buy for love. You choose, and it remembers.
2. Within weeks It suggests. “A £38 handmade bowl for Priya, from the shop on your Thursday walk?” One tap, and it’s held for you, gift-wrapped.
3. In time It decides the way you would, further ahead: the food shop sized to the week you’re having, the scarf left in the basket, the blind bought once its price drops, the boots back before the window closes. New spending still waits for your yes, unless you change that rule.

How you shape it, and stay in charge of spending

Your rules, in your own wordsYou choose what it simply does and tells you about after, and what waits for your yes. To start with, your own plans and places you’ve used before are done for you, and anywhere new and new spending ask first. Anything that involves another person always asks first, so a plant delivered to Sam’s flat waits for you whatever your spending rule says. Here’s the same Thursday under each setting for new spending:

Budgets you setSuch as £55 a week for the food shop, and a budget for gifts. It plans inside them and keeps track of what’s left, so the £38 bowl for Priya fits the £60 left for gifts this month.

A reason and an Undo, every timeEvery plan comes with why it was chosen, and an Undo. Undo a suggestion and pick something else, and it learns from that too.

It notices what you undoKeep undoing the same kind of choice, such as a brand it keeps suggesting, and it says so and suggests a rule, like asking you first next time.

See, change or forget what it knowsYour living model is yours to read: “You always buy this white shirt, in your size.” Change it or forget it, and it stops shopping around it. You can also export or delete everything Retenna holds about you.

How to choose

If you only want help finding one thing, one of these will do it well. If you want a personal shopper that knows what you own, buys what your week needs in time and leaves new spending to you, that’s Retenna.

For finding and buying one thing

• ChatGPT shopping researchA thorough buyer’s guide for a bigger purchase
• PerplexityQuick product research, with sources you can check
• Amazon Alexa for ShoppingBuying on Amazon with your orders and family in mind, in the USFormerly Rufus. Sponsored products can appear in the chat.
• Google AI Mode and GeminiThe widest range, with try-on and price alerts where it’s available
• KlarnaLive prices and offers from many shops, and paying later
• PhiaFashion deals and second-hand prices, with a closet from your receipts

For a personal shopper that knows your life

What to check before you let one buy for you

• Who pays it. Amazon, Google’s AI Mode and Klarna carry labelled sponsored results, and Phia earns commission when you buy through its links. That doesn’t make every answer paid, but look for the label. Retenna’s personal shopper never takes commission, uses affiliate links or shows paid placements.
• What it shares with shops. Buying through an assistant passes your name, address and payment details to the shop. OpenAI said your shopping chats aren’t shared with retailers; Google says cart and order data in Wallet and Google Pay can be used for ads, depending on your settings.
• What it can buy without asking. Amazon’s Auto Buy buys at your target price, and Buy for Me completes a purchase with your main address and card. Check the limits, which card it uses, and how to cancel.
• Whether the details are right. OpenAI warns that prices and availability can be wrong, and try-on shows the look, not the fit. Check the price, the stock and the seller before you pay.
• What it remembers, and whether you can delete it. Deleting Amazon chats can leave orders and remembered details behind, Perplexity’s notice lets it use your data to improve its AI, and Phia’s privacy policy couldn’t be read when we checked.

How Retenna’s personal shopper works

Questions

Sources

Checked 23 October 2026. Ratings and prices are from Apple’s US App Store; everything else is from each maker’s own pages, except where labelled.

• ChatGPT: App Store, shopping research launch, checkout for shops, ads in ChatGPT
• Amazon: App Store, Alexa for Shopping, Rufus features, help, Alexa privacy, sponsored ads in Alexa for Shopping, Branded Conversations
• Google: App Store, shopping and checkout, try-on, shopping in Gemini, Personal Intelligence, Gemini privacy hub, ads in AI Mode
• Klarna: App Store, Shopping Search in ChatGPT, SEC filing, privacy
• Perplexity: App Store, shopping launch, memory, privacy notice
• Phia: App Store, FAQ, how the closet works, privacy policy
• Third-party reporting: Search Engine Land, on Perplexity’s ads

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