MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Google this week introduced Universal Cart, a Gemini-powered hub that follows a consumer across search, Gmail and YouTube, holds products from various merchants in a single cart, tracks prices as they change and completes a purchase once certain conditions are met.
Consumers have the option of checking out themselves using Google Pay, or they can transfer items to the merchant’s website or app and make a purchase there.
“As agentic technology advances, shopping has the opportunity to become even more powerful, intelligent and fun,” Google said in a blog post introducing Universal Cart. “We've been building the foundation for agentic commerce — from a common language for agents with Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to the payments infrastructure to make agentic checkout seamless. Today at Google I/O 2026, we introduced the next step that brings this all together: the new Universal Cart.
The company describes Universal Cart as an intelligent shopping cart and a new hub for shopping on Google and that works across merchants and across services.
“The moment you add a product to your cart, it gets to work in the background — finding deals and price drops, giving you insights on price history and alerting you when an item is back in stock,” according to the blog post. “It all runs on our Gemini models, so your cart gets even smarter as the models improve.
Universal Cart uses “intelligent reasoning” to anticipate a user’s needs and address problems. “Say you’re building your first custom PC and add a few parts from several retailers to your cart. Your cart will proactively flag any product incompatibilities and suggest alternatives,” the company said. “Since the cart was built on Google Wallet, it understands your payment method perks, loyalty information and merchant offers so it can help you choose. This lets you quickly find opportunities for hidden savings or points without having to remember them yourself.”
Regardless of how a consumer completes a purchase via Universal Cart, the brand stays the merchant of record. Participating merchants include Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Target, Sephora, and Shopify. Each keeps its customer relationship when someone checks out through Google Pay from a Universal Cart.
Universal Cart is rolling out across search and the Gemini app in the United States this summer, with YouTube and Gmail to follow.
