What does an AI buying agent for 1688 do?
It does the desk work of buying from China inside your chat: it searches 1688 by words or photo, reads the product, gives you a quote and the link to order, then tracks your order and shows the warehouse photos. You still pay in Rabbit yourself, and people in China receive and check your goods. That is what ChatGPT or Claude does with Rabbit connected, tool by tool.
By Hussayn Delli, founder of Rabbit · Updated November 9, 2026.
How to connect Rabbit to your assistant: how to buy from 1688 with ChatGPT or Claude. This page is about what the assistant does once it is connected.
What is an AI buying agent for 1688?
An AI assistant like ChatGPT or Claude can read the web, but it can’t buy on 1688, pay a supplier or receive a parcel in China. A buying agent gives it tools to act through a service that can. Rabbit is that service: it connects to your assistant as a connector (an MCP server), and your assistant calls Rabbit’s tools with your Rabbit account. Rabbit’s connector has been live in Claude and in ChatGPT since October 30, 2026.
The tools the assistant gets
These are the tools Rabbit gives the assistant, under their real names, and what each one does.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
where_i_stand | Where you stand, product by product: test, batch or brand, what’s missing and the next step. |
search_products | Searches 1688 with your words and shows products with a photo and a price per piece, Rabbit’s fees included. |
send_a_photo, search_by_photo | Gives you a single-use link to drop a photo, then finds the product on 1688 from it. |
read_product_page | The full product page: photos, the seller’s video, variants, features, weight. |
get_quote | The cost of an order for the quantity you want. Up to 3 pieces, delivery is included when it can be priced, as a ceiling: it goes down at weighing, never up. Above 3 pieces, the quote gives the maximum for delivery, paid once the batch is weighed. |
order_link | The link to the product page in Rabbit, where you choose the quantity, order and pay. |
ideas_of_the_week, best_sellers, profitable_products | What sells this week, a country’s best sellers from the 1688 ranking of products sold abroad, and the products Rabbit has already priced that leave a profit. |
save_product, my_products, remove_product | Your products, the same in the app and in the chat, from one conversation to the next. |
my_orders, track_parcel, warehouse_photos, my_invoices | Your orders, where your parcel is, the photos taken when your goods reached the warehouse, your invoices. |
my_custom_searches | Where the searches the team runs by hand for you stand. |
warehouse_address, receiving_slip | For goods you bought yourself: the warehouse address for your seller, and the slip so Rabbit receives, checks and ships them on. |
estimate_shipping | An estimate of shipping for a parcel. An estimate, not a quote. |
connect_my_store, store_preview, put_in_store, store_brief, my_first_sale, my_sales | Your Shopify store, once it’s open to your account: connect it, preview a product with its selling price and estimated profit, put it online after your yes, and follow your sales. |
sell_on_amazon | What Amazon keeps on a sale, and the estimated profit per piece. |
web_search | Searches online stores, social media, ad libraries and search trends. In Claude only. |
my_account | Your name, email and plan. |
Searches count toward your Rabbit quotas. The list of products Rabbit has already priced is free.
What does the assistant do without a Rabbit subscription?
A Rabbit account is enough. Without a subscription, the assistant gets what your account already has in the app: search by words or photo, read a product, a few quotes a day, the link to order, your products, and the tracking, photos and invoices of your orders. The other tools come with a plan.
What stays with you?
- Paying. The assistant never pays. It gives you the link, and you order and pay in Rabbit.
- Saying yes. Nothing goes online in your store, and no receiving slip is created, unless you ask. A product goes in your store only after you’ve seen its preview: same product, same variant, same price.
- Cutting off access. You remove Rabbit from your assistant, or cut off access in Rabbit, at any time.
What is done by people, not by the AI?
- Your goods arrive at Rabbit’s warehouse in China. Every parcel is opened, checked and photographed there, and you see the photos before it ships.
- When the search finds nothing, a person in China searches by hand.
- Rabbit buys on 1688 and ships your goods to you: the assistant only starts and follows each step.
What doesn’t the assistant do?
- It doesn’t show you the supplier. It gets a Rabbit reference, not the 1688 listing, and never the seller’s name or contact.
- It doesn’t search for products Rabbit doesn’t sell, such as weapons, vapes, alcohol, medicines, adult products or counterfeits: the search doesn’t start.
- It doesn’t see any data about your store’s buyers.
Is anything different for a US account?
Yes. For a US account, every amount the assistant reads is in dollars, converted at the day’s rate; without a fresh rate, it gets no amount at all rather than a guess. Four steps are not open yet in the US: the store preview, putting a product in your store, the Amazon calculation and the store brief. The assistant says so and offers a quote or the product page instead. US import duties, and what they now cost on every shipment: the end of de minimis for US resellers. For a US account today, an order of more than 3 pieces can’t be paid in dollars yet: its delivery is paid at the weighing, and that payment isn’t open in dollars. You can order up to 3 pieces, delivery included.
Is it different in Claude and in ChatGPT?
The tools are the same, except web_search, which Rabbit keeps for Claude. In Claude, Claude usually asks your approval before it uses a tool, and you can choose to always allow it. In both, some results show as visual cards, like a carousel of products.
How does Rabbit buy from 1688 for you?
- Search. Send me a 1688 link, a photo or a few words: I search 1688 and AliExpress and show you what I find. You never read Chinese or talk to the supplier, and nothing I write to you is in Chinese. When my search finds nothing, a person in China searches for you.
- Price it. Before you order, I estimate the cost delivered to your door and your estimated profit on each sale. In the US, the import duties on goods from China are counted.
- Order. You order and pay in Rabbit, in dollars with a US account. Your first order doesn’t need a subscription.
- Receive in China. Your goods arrive at my warehouse in China. Every parcel is opened, checked and photographed, and you see the photos before it ships. If a piece doesn’t match, I offer a replacement, a credit or a refund.
- Ship. I ship to you, in the US or in any of the 23 countries I deliver to. A shipping quote is a ceiling: it can go down when the parcel is weighed, never up.
Sources
- Claude Help Center — get started with custom connectors using remote MCP, read on November 9, 2026
- OpenAI Apps SDK — add UI to your MCP server (MCP Apps in ChatGPT), read on November 9, 2026
For your exact situation: your accountant or a customs broker.