ChatGPT Business Agents: who can publish one and how to set it up

A Business Agent is a labeled chat inside ChatGPT that answers customer questions on behalf of a business, using product and policy information the business provides. As of November 10, 2026 it is available to eligible e-commerce and online service businesses in the United States that have a website, a claimed profile and an approved Persona verification. It explains and links. It can’t take payment, make bookings or look up orders.

When a business appears in a ChatGPT answer, people can open its profile. If the business has published an agent, they can choose to start a conversation with it, to compare two products or ask about a policy, for example.

That conversation is clearly labeled. It’s separate from the person’s original ChatGPT conversation and distinct from ChatGPT’s own answers. The business doesn’t receive the chats.

Digiday reported that OpenAI builds the agent from the instructions and product feed a business supplies, and that businesses can’t bring an agent of their own.

All of these have to be true:

• The business is an e-commerce or online service business.
• It’s in the United States.
• It has a website.
• Its profile is claimed and its Persona verification is approved.
• It meets the industry requirements in OpenAI’s Business Agents Policy.

Verification alone doesn’t guarantee eligibility. OpenAI considers both the business category and what the agent is for, and says it may decline access or defer a category until it can support it safely. Some businesses can manage a profile without being eligible for an agent. OpenAI says it plans to expand to more markets and categories over time.

1. Finish verification

   Make sure both your claim and your Persona verification are approved. You can’t create an agent while verification is pending or after it fails.

2. Open your business

   Open your business in the Business tab. If Shopify setup has already created a draft agent, open it. Otherwise create an agent, if the option is available.

3. Review what the agent will use

   Check the information the agent draws on, such as product details and your return policy.

4. Write its instructions

   Write instructions for how the agent should answer customers, following OpenAI’s Business Agents Policy.

5. Preview it

   Ask the agent questions your customers often ask. If an answer is wrong, update the information or the instructions and test again.

6. Publish

   Select Publish when you’re ready. Customers can only chat with a published agent.

You don’t need Shopify. Connecting a product feed doesn’t publish an agent, and publishing an agent is always a separate, optional step.

OpenAI’s Business Agents Policy applies whenever you create or edit an agent. In summary:

Be honest about what it is

The agent has to be clear that it’s AI representing your business. It can’t pose as a human, an independent adviser or something OpenAI endorses.

Keep the information true and current

No invented offerings, prices, availability, credentials, reviews, guarantees or results. No hiding fees or conditions that matter to the question being asked.

Don’t pressure people

No false urgency, and no pushing a sale or a follow-up after someone has declined.

Ask for as little as possible

No requests for health details, protected traits, government IDs, or financial or login credentials. No sharing a person’s information with your business, and no submitting a form, booking or purchase for them, without explicit authorization through an approved feature.

Stay in its role

General information is fine. Advice that legally requires a professional license is not, and neither is guaranteeing results.

If OpenAI finds a problem it may suspend or remove the agent and ask for changes. For serious or repeated issues it may restrict the business’s ability to create or manage agents at all.

OpenAI’s instruction is to preview the agent with a question customers often ask, and fix and retest if the answer is wrong. We go further. This is our method, not OpenAI’s.

1. Collect 30 real questions. Take them from your support inbox, product reviews and site search, not from guesswork.
2. Write the correct answer to each one first. If you can’t, the agent has no chance.
3. Include the awkward ones. Sale-item returns, out-of-stock products, shipping to places you don’t serve, a discount you don’t offer, and a question the agent should decline, such as one that calls for medical or legal advice.
4. Mark every answer. Correct, incomplete, wrong, or answered when it should have declined.
5. Fix the source, then retest. When an answer is wrong, look first for a missing policy or a stale product detail. That’s a fix in the information, not in the instructions.

That 30-question test is part of Feed & Agent.

Yes. A business can sponsor its agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT Ads. Sponsored placements are labeled and kept separate from ChatGPT’s responses. Additional advertising policies may apply.

It’s optional. Claiming, publishing an agent and advertising are three separate things, and OpenAI says advertising doesn’t influence ChatGPT’s independent answers.

Every factual statement in this guide comes from the pages below, read on November 10, 2026. Where we add our own advice, we say so.

1. OpenAI, Business Agents Policy, November 10, 2026.
2. OpenAI Help Center, Setting up your business on ChatGPT, November 10, 2026.
3. OpenAI, Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT, November 10, 2026.
4. Digiday, OpenAI’s new business agents give brands a free way into the conversation it’s also selling as an ad, November 10, 2026.