Amazon opens text message shopping with Alexa to invited customers in the US

Amazon's AI assistant Alexa for Shopping can now be used via text message. Amazon announced the move on November 6, 2026. Users text the assistant as if it were a friend, and the assistant finds and buys items for them.

How it works

Users write what they need in plain language, for example that the dog has run out of food. Alexa for Shopping searches for products, compares them and suggests options by text message. The purchase is only completed once the user has approved it.

According to Amazon, the service can also order groceries every week, find products from photos, track prices, send deal alerts and provide order updates. According to The Next Web, it can also buy automatically when a price set by the customer is reached, reorder items and track packages.

Conversations can continue across text messages, the Amazon app, Amazon.com and Alexa devices.

Customers accept terms and link their phone number to the service via a landing page on Amazon.com. The contact appears on the phone as "Alexa Shopping."

Invited customers in the US only

The rollout starts only with a select group of invited customers in the US. Amazon says millions more will get access in the coming weeks. There is no information on when or whether the service will come to markets outside the US.

Rajiv Mehta, a vice president at Amazon, says: "Now your personal shopping agent is just a text away with Alexa for Shopping. Text what you need, and Alexa gets to work on your behalf."

Amazon says more than 400 million customers have used Alexa for Shopping in the past 12 months, and that use of the agentic features has grown eightfold since the start of the year. These are Amazon's own figures.

Ads and competition

According to The Next Web, sponsored products appear in the agent's responses. It is currently free for advertisers, and there are no ads on purchases the agent completes automatically.

The Next Web also reports that OpenAI has added text messaging to its agent Dot, and that DoorDash began accepting orders by text message in September. According to the outlet, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy expects Alexa for Shopping to become the primary agent for purchases at Amazon.

Amazon's announcement does not mention privacy or data limitations.