Microsoft Launches Copilot Checkout With In-Chat Payments in US

The AI assistant era just crossed a line: from pointing you at a product to letting you complete the purchase in the same chat. Once payment lives inside chat, the assistant stops being a destination and starts acting like the storefront.

Microsoft is making that shift real.

What Microsoft launched 

Microsoft is rolling out Copilot Checkout in the United States on Copilot.com, letting shoppers complete purchases without leaving the Copilot experience. Microsoft says retailers remain the merchant of record, and it is positioning the feature as a step toward “agentic commerce.”

At launch, Microsoft names early availability that includes Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Ashley Furniture, and items from Etsy sellers.

What it looks like for shoppers 

In Copilot, product answers can appear with options like “Details” and a “Buy” button. If you choose to purchase, checkout opens inside the Copilot flow instead of sending you out to another website.

The Shopify Angle

Warning for Shopify merchants: Copilot Checkout can be enabled by default via automatic enrollment, with an opt-out window. If you don’t want Copilot Checkout to show your products this way, you’ll need to opt out during Microsoft’s stated window.

Microsoft also says non-Shopify merchants can apply to participate through its partner paths.

How payments work 

Microsoft is relying on PayPal and Stripe as key rails for checkout.

PayPal says it will power parts of the “discover, decide, and pay” experience, including branded checkout, guest checkout, and credit card payments, starting on Copilot.com.

Stripe describes a setup where your card details are tokenized, meaning the checkout flow uses a secure token instead of sharing raw card numbers broadly. In Stripe’s language, a token is issued after you enter payment info, and the seller can complete the transaction while remaining the merchant of record.

Plain-English version: you enter payment details in the checkout flow, and Stripe’s system uses a secure token so the merchant can charge you without your raw card number being passed around.

Is buying on Copilot safe? 

The biggest question for shoppers is simple: is this safe? Microsoft’s messaging emphasizes two things:

1. The retailer stays the merchant of record, meaning the purchase is ultimately with the merchant, not Microsoft.

2. Payment partners like Stripe describe token-based checkout, which is designed to reduce exposure of raw payment credentials during the transaction flow.

That won’t answer every privacy question users may have, but it explains how Microsoft is trying to make in-chat commerce feel closer to a standard checkout experience than “giving your card to a chatbot.”

Why this matters beyond shopping

Checkout is a simple use case, but it’s a loud signal about where AI assistants are headed. When a chat interface can close a transaction, it becomes more than an answer engine, it becomes a conversion layer.

Microsoft is also supplying its own “early signal” numbers to make the case that the friction drop is real: its advertising materials say Copilot Checkout tests showed 53% more purchases within 30 minutes, and that when users have clear purchase intent they were 194% more likely to buy (Microsoft internal data, Aug 2025).

Major coverage framed Copilot Checkout as Microsoft’s bid to control the point where browsing becomes buying, with AI shopping behavior rising fast. Microsoft also cited broader market context, including Adobe data on AI-driven ecommerce traffic growth during the 2025 holiday season.