Agentic checkout does not create one universal refund button. It divides responsibility between the shopping agent, the merchant, the payment provider and, sometimes, the card issuer. The practical rule is simple: before a checkout completes, cancel the checkout session; after it completes, use the merchant’s refund process, and use a payment dispute only when the purchase meets the relevant dispute rules.

That distinction matters because an AI assistant may look like the storefront while the merchant still controls the cart, takes payment and remains responsible for fulfilment. The screen where you asked to buy something is not necessarily the business that charged you.

Verified against primary documentation on 11 October 2026. This guide explains published systems and US consumer guidance; it is not legal advice.

Start by identifying the stage of the purchase

There are three different moments that people often collapse into “cancel my order.”

  1. The agent is still assembling or confirming the cart. No completed purchase exists. You can stop the interaction.
  2. A checkout session exists, but payment has not completed. The session can usually be cancelled or allowed to expire.
  3. The order is complete. The merchant has accepted the transaction. From here, cancellation means an order cancellation or refund under the merchant’s process—not merely closing the agent.

OpenAI’s published Agentic Commerce specification makes this state change explicit. A checkout session can move through states such as “not ready for payment,” “ready for payment,” “completed” or “canceled.” The cancellation operation applies only before the session is completed or already canceled. Once the session is completed, the merchant’s order and post-purchase systems take over. See the checkout specification.

Before confirming, read the agent’s final summary as if it were the last page of a normal checkout. Check the merchant name, item, quantity, delivery address, shipping service, tax, total and any recurring terms. If one of those is wrong, do not assume it will be easy to repair after payment.

Who actually fixes a completed order?

In OpenAI’s current commerce model, the merchant is the merchant of record. The merchant provides the authoritative cart, processes payment through its own systems or payment provider, fulfils the order and handles refunds and chargebacks. The assistant displays information and passes messages, but it does not become the seller simply because checkout appeared inside the conversation. OpenAI describes those roles in its Agentic Commerce key concepts.

That gives buyers a useful escalation order:

  • First, open the order confirmation and identify the merchant.
  • Use the merchant’s published cancellation, return or refund route.
  • Save the order number, agent transcript or receipt, promised delivery date and your contact with the merchant.
  • If the merchant does not resolve an eligible problem, contact the payment provider or card issuer and ask about the applicable dispute process.

Do not start with a chargeback just because the purchase involved an AI agent. A card dispute is a regulated payment remedy with its own conditions and deadlines. It is not a general-purpose returns desk, and it does not automatically override a merchant’s disclosed policy.

The agent should preserve a record of your intent

One concern with agentic shopping is proof: what exactly did the buyer authorize, and what did the agent change along the way?

Google’s Agent Payments Protocol, or AP2, proposes cryptographically signed “mandates” for that problem. An intent mandate can capture what the user asked an agent to find, while a cart mandate records the final items and amount that the user approved. Google says these records are designed to create verifiable evidence and an audit trail for transactions initiated or assisted by agents. The protocol is described in Google Cloud’s AP2 announcement.

A mandate can make accountability clearer, but it does not itself promise a refund. It can help show what was authorized. The merchant’s terms, payment-network rules and applicable law still govern what happens after the sale.

For buyers, the practical habit is to keep the last confirmation screen or receipt. If the agent offers a compact summary, save it. Useful evidence includes:

  • the exact product or service;
  • the approved total and currency;
  • whether shipping and tax were included;
  • delivery timing;
  • the merchant of record;
  • return, cancellation or subscription terms;
  • any limit you placed on the agent.

That evidence is more valuable than a vague claim that “the AI bought the wrong thing.”

Limited payment credentials still need review

Agentic systems are being designed so an assistant does not simply hold a reusable card number. OpenAI’s production guidance describes delegated payment credentials with restrictions such as a maximum amount, an expiry and use by a particular merchant or payment context. The merchant or its payment service provider still processes the payment. See OpenAI’s production guide.

Those controls can reduce some forms of misuse. They do not make every order correct. An agent can still select the wrong size, infer the wrong address, misunderstand a budget or accept a substitution the buyer did not intend. A technically valid authorization is not proof that the item will satisfy the buyer.

Treat limits as guardrails, not as a replacement for confirmation. For higher-value or hard-to-return purchases, require an explicit review step immediately before payment. Our guide to agentic payments explains the broader payment flow, while the risks of agentic commerce looks at failure modes beyond refunds.

What to do when an order never arrives

For US buyers, the Federal Trade Commission says online sellers must ship when they say they will. If no shipping time is stated, the general rule is shipment within 30 days. When a seller cannot ship on time, it must notify the buyer, provide a revised date and explain the right to cancel for a full refund rather than accept the delay. The FTC explains those obligations in its guidance on orders that never arrive or arrive without being ordered.

If an agent-assisted order is late:

  1. Find the merchant’s promised shipping or delivery date.
  2. Ask the merchant for a specific status and a cancellation or refund if appropriate.
  3. Keep the confirmation, tracking record and messages.
  4. If you paid by credit card and the merchant does not resolve non-delivery, review the issuer’s billing-error process promptly.

The same evidence would matter in an ordinary web purchase. Agentic checkout changes the interface, not the need to document the transaction.

Rules outside the United States differ. Even within the US, product type, payment method and the reason for the refund can change the available remedy. Check the merchant’s terms and the guidance for your jurisdiction.

Refund request or chargeback?

A refund is the merchant reversing all or part of a completed sale. It is normally the first route for a return, cancellation, duplicate order, failed fulfilment or an agreed price adjustment.

A chargeback is a payment dispute handled through the issuer and payment network. It may apply to unauthorized charges, wrong amounts, goods not delivered as agreed or other recognized billing errors. It is not guaranteed, and the issuer will ask for facts and evidence.

The FTC says US credit-card billing errors can include unauthorized charges, incorrect amounts and charges for goods not delivered as agreed. To use the federal billing-error process, the written notice generally must reach the issuer within 60 days after the first statement containing the error. The issuer generally has 30 days to acknowledge the dispute and must resolve it within two billing cycles, no more than 90 days. Debit-card protections are different, especially for disputes about goods that were not delivered or were different from what was promised. The FTC’s source above summarizes those distinctions.

This is why the payment method matters. “Paid through an AI agent” is not a payment category. The buyer may have used a credit card, debit card, wallet or another method, each with its own protections.

A five-minute resolution checklist

When something goes wrong, collect the facts before opening support chats in several places.

  • Merchant: legal or trading name shown on the receipt.
  • Order: order number, item, amount, currency and date.
  • Agent record: final confirmation, mandate or transcript if available.
  • Payment: card or wallet used and the descriptor on the statement.
  • Fulfilment: promised date, tracking and actual status.
  • Requested outcome: cancel, replace, refund or correct the amount.
  • Timeline: when you contacted the merchant and what it said.

Then use the narrowest remedy that fits. If the transaction is not complete, cancel the session. If it is complete and the merchant can fix it, request the specific remedy from the merchant. If the merchant fails to resolve an eligible payment problem, ask the issuer about a dispute before the relevant deadline.

For an example of how the interface and merchant roles fit together, see our explainer on ChatGPT Instant Checkout. Google’s different shopping interface is covered in AI Mode shopping.