Can you get a good deal in the sales using AI?
Hannah is an investigative journalist covering retail issues from fake reviews and unsafe products to supermarket pricing practices. She's been at Which? for 12 years.
Sales season is almost upon us, and many will be using AI to help in their search for a bargain – but our snapshot analysis shows you shouldn't trust it to find you the best price.
More than half of the people we surveyed* used AI chatbots at least some of the time, and 32% said they used them for shopping or researching things to buy. When asked how they would use AI to help them shop online, 29% said they’d use it to find the best deals on specific items.
But when we put ChatGPT (the most used AI chatbot among survey respondents) to the test, we found it struggled to find the lowest price for popular products, surfaced prices for the wrong product, and even provided inaccurate prices in some cases.
Read on to see ChatGPT's accuracy rate in our analysis, the products with the biggest price gaps and our essential shopping tips for the upcoming sales season.
How accurate is ChatGPT at finding the lowest price?
In October, we asked ChatGPT to find the lowest price on 25 products and compared its price to the actual prices we found. Our product list included popular tech products such as laptops and TVs, as well as household appliances like washing machines and vacuum cleaners.
In our snapshot analysis, ChatGPT correctly identified the lowest price and retailer for only eight products. In 68% of cases, there was at least one issue with the result, including the wrong price for a retailer, missing lower prices at other retailers or showing prices for the wrong product.
In a few cases, ChatGPT seemed to pull pricing from price comparison sites, but these seemed to be out of date or inaccurate.
Also, some results included a ‘product result’ or ‘shopping’ box, a prominent boxed section shown above the rest of the search results, which often showed the wrong model or a higher price than the rest of the results.
- Find out more: can AI answer your money questions?
The biggest price differences
For a Lenovo Chromebook, the lowest price we could find at a reputable retailer was £599. ChatGPT told us that, according to Which?, the lowest current price was £399 – a £200 difference. This reference was actually the lowest price in the past six months, rather than the current price. The result also included a ‘product result’, but it was for the wrong product and showed a laptop that was £699 at Argos.
When we asked about a highly rated Hisense TV, ChatGPT said we could buy it on B&Q for £499, but this information was taken from a separate price comparison website, and we couldn’t find this exact TV for sale via B&Q. When we looked ourselves, the lowest price was actually £499, but from a different retailer altogether.
A Microsoft 12-inch Surface Pro laptop was £899 via Amazon. ChatGPT told us the lowest price it could find was £919.08 on the Microsoft Store, but when we clicked through, it was actually £999. So we could’ve spent an extra £100 if we hadn’t done further research.
Does it matter if AI gets pricing wrong?
No AI chatbot is forcing you to buy a product, or selling it to you for a different price than it should. But inaccurate results create confusion and can slow down your decision process.
If you ask ChatGPT for a list of 10 laptops under £400 and seven of the results are priced higher, you’ve likely wasted a good chunk of time going through them to discover the bot gave you only three options.
The opposite is also true - you could miss out on great models in your budget if ChatGPT tells you they are more expensive than they actually are.
- Find out more: how to remove AI from your life
How to find the best deal this sales season
Our retail experts have decades of experience, and we spend weeks every year looking at sales to find the best offers on products that won't let you down, so we know a thing or two about finding a good deal.
Here are our top tips:
- Shop with reputable retailers If you see an amazing deal from a retailer you've never heard of, be cautious. We've found bogus boutiques popping up that trick people into buying poor-quality goods that sometimes never arrive. Each year we survey shoppers to find the best retailers for tech, home appliances, baby products, furniture, homeware and DIY, so check our tables to make sure you are buying with a shop you can trust.
- Be wary of big saving claims Even on a retailer site, don’t take the price at face value. We’ve uncovered pricing practices, including dodgy was/now pricing and recommended retail prices that make savings seem better than they actually are.
- Check the delivery fees These will differ between retailers. Some retailers offer free delivery for a minimum spend, which can make the total cost cheaper than another retailer.
- Use price comparison sites Sites like PriceRunner or CamelCamelCamel (Amazon only) provide helpful price comparisons and some historical pricing data too, to help you decide if it’s a good deal.
- Visit the Which? Deals pages Our experts spend time checking pricing on products we rate so we can pass on the best deals. We tell you the lowest price an item has been in the last six months, to help you see if a sale deal is as good as it sounds.
- Sign up for newsletters Most retailers have a newsletter you can subscribe to, which may offer a discount on your first shop and alert you when their sales start. The Which? Deals newsletter offers deals straight to your inbox.
- Use AI chatbots with caution AI has its place, and some find it useful for advice around what to look for in a product, or where to start when it’s something you know little about. Our advice is not to take an AI chatbot's word for it, though. Use it as a kick-off point, but do your own research too. If you want more personalised advice, check out our new Ask Which? AI tool. It's available for Which? subscribers, and it only uses Which? trusted content from our website and magazines to give you answers. You can ask it specific questions, such as 'find me an energy-efficient fridge for less than £500'. Based on our in-depth testing and expertise, you can trust its answers.
Find out more: Black Friday 2026 – see all our expert advice before the sales begin
What OpenAI told us
We only looked at ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, for this snapshot research, as it was the most used among those we surveyed.
We shared our findings with OpenAI. It said: 'ChatGPT search provides links so users can check prices directly with retailers. Prices in its initial product listings may not be the lowest available. Improving factual accuracy remains a major focus, and we’re working to update pricing information faster.'
- Find out more: AI news and advice
*Based on a survey of 1,078 members of the Which? Connect panel. Data collection conducted online in September 2026.
This article uses insights from the Which? Connect panel, collected from research activities with our members. Find out how to get involved
