Can ChatGPT find suppliers in China?

Partly. ChatGPT or Claude can search the web, translate a Chinese listing and compare what it finds, with links to its sources. On its own it can’t see what sits behind a 1688 sign-in, pay a supplier, or receive and check your goods. Connected to Rabbit, your assistant searches 1688 through Rabbit, which buys and checks your goods in China.

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. Every tool it then gets: what an AI buying agent for 1688 does. This page answers the question before: what the assistant can do alone.

What can ChatGPT or Claude do on its own?

• Search the web. Both can search the web for current information and answer with citations, links you can open to check the source.
• Translate. Paste a listing written in Chinese, or a seller’s message, and it gives it back in English.
• Compare. Give it several offers, and it lines up their prices per piece, their minimums and their variants.
• Prepare your questions. What to ask a seller about materials, packaging or a test report before you order.

OpenAI itself warns that search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or wrong: open the source before you rely on an answer.

What can’t it do on its own?

• See what sits behind a sign-in. A web search reads the pages a search engine can reach. Part of 1688 lives inside an account: the 1688 ranking of products sold in the US that Rabbit uses for its US list was read in a 1688 account, on October 31, 2026.
• Pay a supplier. The assistant has no means to pay a seller in China.
• Receive your goods. A 1688 seller ships within China. Someone has to receive the parcel there and send it on to you.
• Check your goods. Whether the pieces match the listing is seen on the pieces themselves, not on a web page.

Can it tell you whether a supplier is reliable?

Not for sure. It can read what is public about a seller, but the same photo often appears on many listings (why the same product photo is everywhere), and a web page can’t show you your own batch. What tells you is your goods, checked before they leave China. At Rabbit, every order is photographed at the warehouse before it ships, and you see the photos first.

What changes with a connector?

A connector, or app, links the assistant to another service so it can use that service’s information and tools, and take actions in it. In ChatGPT, some apps show cards in the chat, and ChatGPT may ask your approval before it reads information or completes an action. In Claude, a custom connector is a remote MCP server you add yourself; Anthropic advises connecting only servers from organizations you trust.

The assistant then does more than read the web: it works through a service that can do what it can’t.

What does the assistant do once Rabbit is connected?

Rabbit’s connector has been live in Claude and in ChatGPT since October 30, 2026, at rabbitimport.com/mcp. Through it, your assistant searches 1688 by words or by photo, reads a product in English, gets you a quote and the link to order in Rabbit. Rabbit buys on 1688, receives and checks your goods in China, and ships them to you. When the search finds nothing, a person in China searches by hand.

What stays out of reach, even connected?

• The supplier’s identity. The assistant gets a Rabbit reference, never the seller’s name or contact.
• Paying. The assistant never pays: you order and pay in Rabbit.
• Some products. It doesn’t search for products Rabbit doesn’t sell, such as weapons, vapes, alcohol or counterfeits.

For your exact situation: your accountant or a customs broker.