Reddit's AI Shopping Search Testing Goes Live
Reddit formalizes pre-purchase research behavior, scanning discussions to deliver shoppable cards with pricing, images, and buy links.
Before purchasing anything online, a huge number of consumers type their query into Google followed by "reddit," knowing that somewhere in the platform's vast network of forums, real people have already had a lengthy, unfiltered argument about it. Now, Reddit wants to formalize that behaviour, and make money from it.
The platform announced on Thursday, February 19, that it is testing a new AI-powered shopping feature within its Search tool. For a small group of users in the United States, relevant search queries will now surface an interactive product carousel at the bottom of results, complete with pricing, images, and direct links to retailers.
The feature is built around Reddit's existing community discussions rather than generic ad inventory. When a user searches for something like "best noise-cancelling headphones" or "electronic gift ideas for a college student," the AI scans related posts and comment threads, identifies products that have been genuinely mentioned and recommended by users, and assembles them into structured, shoppable cards.
Each card displays product images and current pricing. Tapping on a card surfaces more details and a link to a partnered retailer where the purchase can be completed. For the initial test, consumer electronics queries will also pull from the catalogues of Reddit's Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) partners, meaning some products shown may come from advertising relationships, alongside organically mentioned items.
Reddit described the intent plainly in its blog post saying, the feature is designed to surface top-recommended products directly from discussions, giving users instant information without requiring them to manually dig through threads and then cross-reference retailer sites.
This test is not an isolated experiment. It sits within a deliberate, accelerating effort by Reddit to build a revenue stream around its search product. Last year, the company launched Dynamic Product Ads, its first shoppable ad format. Now, it is layering AI-driven discovery on top of that foundation.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman flagged the platform's AI search engine as the next major business opportunity during the company's most recent earnings call, both as a product improvement and a revenue driver.
The underlying user numbers support that ambition. Weekly active users for search grew 30% over the past year, rising from 60 million to 80 million, while adoption of Reddit Answers, the platform's AI-powered Q&A tool, exploded from 1 million users in Q1 2025 to 15 million by Q4.
What makes Reddit's approach distinctive is what it is built on. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have long integrated shopping features, but those are largely driven by influencer content and algorithmic curation. Reddit's version mines organic, peer-to-peer conversation.
A product surfaced because hundreds of users in a photography subreddit vouched for it carries a different kind of authority than a paid placement. Reddit's challenge will be preserving that sense of authenticity as commercial partnerships deepen.
The company has acknowledged this tension, emphasising that the test is designed to keep community perspectives central and that refinements will be based on user feedback and engagement data.
OpenAI's ChatGPT also introduced an "Instant Checkout" feature in September 2025, enabling purchases from Etsy and Shopify directly within conversations. The direction is clear. AI is becoming the new storefront.