Alexa Now Shops by Text: 6 AI Shopping Agents in 2026

Alexa for Shopping's text option is the news. Invited US customers link a phone number, and a contact called "Alexa Shopping" appears. They can text requests in plain language, such as groceries, gift ideas, reorders or price alerts, or send a photo of a recipe or outfit. The agent searches, compares and can check on orders by text. Conversations carry over between texting, the Shopping app, Amazon.com and Alexa devices, and it remembers stated preferences such as dietary needs. Amazon says you can check up to a year of price history, get a text when an item hits your target price, and use auto-buy when the price is right. It is free to US customers signed in to Amazon, according to Amazon's launch page for the assistant, which combines Rufus with Alexa+. It ranks first because it is the only one here that works as a text thread, and it sits on top of Amazon's own catalog. The limits are real: access is invitation-only for now, and order updates, delivery notifications and deals are described as coming "over time".

Google's agentic checkout was announced on November 13, 2025. You track a product with a size, color and maximum budget, and when the price falls into range Google asks for permission, then buys on the merchant's site with Google Pay. At launch it covered eligible US merchants including Wayfair, Chewy, Quince and select Shopify merchants. AI Mode also answers conversational shopping queries with comparison tables and draws on a Shopping Graph that Google says holds more than 50 billion product listings, and shopping is available to US Gemini users. Google also described a "Let Google Call" feature that phones nearby stores to check stock, limited to the US and to toys, health and beauty, and electronics. It is a stronger fit than Alexa when you want one agent that compares across retailers, though the figures here come from Google's launch post and merchant coverage may have grown since.

Instant Buy was announced by PayPal and Perplexity on November 25, 2025. PayPal merchants can be found in Perplexity and checked out in chat, backed by PayPal's identity verification, buyer protection and payment processing, with the retailer staying merchant of record. PayPal named Abercrombie & Fitch, Ashley Furniture, Fabletics, Adorama and Newegg at launch for US users. Press reports disagreed on how many merchants were live at the time, and we did not find a later official count, so treat reach as unconfirmed. Its advantage over Alexa is neutrality: it is not tied to one store. Its weakness is that it is a general search product, with no text-message flow and no persistent shopping thread.

Copilot Checkout was announced on January 9, 2026, per Gigazine's report. Shoppers buy while chatting with Copilot, so guidance, comparison and purchase happen in one conversation. Microsoft's partners are PayPal, Shopify and Stripe, availability began in the US on Copilot.com, and named merchants included Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Ashley Furniture and Etsy. Microsoft also offers Brand Agents, retailer-branded shopping assistants for Shopify merchants, via a waitlist. The report does not say which party is merchant of record, and we could not open Microsoft's own page, so check the terms before building on it. It ranks below Google and Perplexity for consumers because it reaches fewer people, and above ChatGPT because it still completes a purchase in chat.

Retail Gazette reported on March 25, 2026 that OpenAI scaled back plans to make ChatGPT a direct checkout channel after weak uptake of Instant Checkout, and repositioned it as a discovery and comparison tool. OpenAI said Instant Checkout "did not offer the level of flexibility that we aspire to provide." Users can search by uploading images or describing what they need, and see more visual product results. Merchants can use their own checkout, share product feeds, or build custom apps inside ChatGPT; the report names Target, Sephora and Nordstrom as supporting the discovery experience, and Instacart and Target as adopting custom apps. It is the best of the group for finding things and the weakest for buying inside the chat, which is the opposite of Alexa's pitch.

Sparky sits behind an "Ask Sparky" button in the Walmart app and helps find items, summarize reviews and plan occasions such as parties or trips. Modern Retail reported on February 19, 2026 that Walmart CEO John Furner said Sparky users place orders about 35% larger than non-users, and that Walmart US CEO David Guggina said roughly half of app users have used it. Those are Walmart's own figures and do not show Sparky caused the larger baskets. It was US-only at the time. It is a store assistant, not a general shopping agent, so it ranks last in a comparison of agents that roam across retailers, even though it may be the most used.