Amazon lets you text Alexa to shop, and it can buy for you

Alexa for Shopping is Amazon's AI shopping agent. An AI agent is a program that does not only answer questions, it also takes actions for you. This one finds products, builds your cart, buys and sends delivery updates.

You could already use it in the Amazon Shopping app and on the website. Amazon launched it in May as the new name for its Rufus chatbot, mixing Rufus with the smarter Alexa+ assistant. Now the same agent is available in your text messages.

You accept the terms, link your phone number and start a thread. The contact shows up in your phone as "Alexa Shopping". After that you write the way you normally do.

Amazon gives a long list of examples:

• A to-do list: text "I'm out of dog food, need a birthday gift for my sister, and we're low on paper towels" and it starts on all three.
• Groceries: set up a weekly order, text a photo of a recipe to add all the ingredients, or ask for eggs, bacon and pancake mix in 30 minutes.
• Reorders: text "reorder the laundry detergent I bought last month" and it finds the item and buys it with your approval.
• Photos: send a picture of an outfit you spotted and it looks for similar products on Amazon.
• Deals: ask it to tell you when AirPods go on sale and it watches the price for you.
• Orders: text "where's my package?" and get an answer without opening the app.

In real life You are in the car and remember the cat food is gone. You text "order more of the usual cat food." By the time you park, Alexa has found it, and it asks for a quick yes before buying.

The text version has the same skills as the app. Amazon says Alexa for Shopping adds more than 100 new abilities, from building holiday gift lists to managing baby registries and tracking refunds.

By the numbers: more than 400 million customers used Alexa for Shopping in the last 12 months. The number using its agentic features, the ones where it acts for you, has grown more than eight times since the start of the year.

It can also:

• Compare products: ask it to compare the top-rated robot vacuums and it pulls together details, reviews and prices.
• Show price history: up to a full year of prices for one item.
• Set alerts: it watches Amazon and the wider web for a price drop or a new release, such as new running shoes from a brand you like.
• Shop other stores: a feature called Shop Direct shows products from stores across the web.

Yes. Amazon says the agent learns your habits and tastes. Tell it you only want vegan products and it remembers. Mention you are training for a marathon and it factors that in later.

You can also tell it how you like to shop. For example, "add items to my cart automatically", "only show me organic options" or "give me nutritional information whenever I ask about food".

The catch: auto-adding items to a cart is handy, but it means the agent acts before you look. Amazon says Alexa buys with your approval, so choose your settings on purpose and read what it did before the package arrives.

Not everyone yet. A subset of US customers got a text invitation on November 6. Amazon says the option rolls out to millions more over the coming weeks. If you do not get an invite, you can sign up on a landing page to hear when more go out.

Amazon timed this just ahead of the holiday shopping season.

This launch lands about six weeks after a very public fight. Meta released its Muse agent on September 8. On September 20, Amazon blocked it from shopping on Amazon.com.

Shoppers who tried to use Muse saw a popup saying that continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use. Amazon said it was not told in advance and never authorized the access. It also said Muse does not identify itself as an agent when it buys.

Amazon's rules ask agents to identify themselves with a small text snippet in their web requests. Amazon also objected that Muse can look at a user's account pages and purchase history if the user asks it to.

Amazon said in a statement that apps which buy on a customer's behalf from other businesses "should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate." Meta has said it is working to expand Muse's data protection guardrails.

Amazon has done this before. Last year it sued Perplexity over its Comet browser, which includes a shopping agent. An appeals court dismissed that case in August, but it did not stop Amazon from blocking agents that break its terms.

Because the earlier version worked for Amazon. Amazon said Rufus was used by 300 million customers in 2025 and helped drive nearly $12 billion in extra annual sales. It also said shoppers who use it are 60% more likely to finish a purchase.

Amazon has also said customers make three times more purchases on Alexa+ devices than on the original Alexa. Moving the agent into a text thread puts it where people already spend their day.

The open question: Amazon has not said how cancels, order changes or refunds work in the text thread. It did not immediately answer that question when asked, so test with a small order first.

Pretty much. Meta's Muse and Google's Universal Cart can also track prices and buy for you. DoorDash launched its own text-based ordering agent in September, and said last month that outside agents had placed only hundreds of orders on its platform so far.

The pattern is clear: stores would rather you use their agent than somebody else's. Amazon's agent sees your order history, your lists and your delivery updates, which a third-party agent often cannot.

• You may get an invite: watch for a text from Amazon, and check that it is real before linking your number.
• Texting is the new app: you can shop from the same thread where you chat, with no extra app.
• Set your limits: decide whether you want auto-add to cart, and whether you want to approve every purchase.
• Keep an eye on the cart: an agent can misread a request, so look before you pay.