Google's Universal Cart Is Shopping, Evolved

Let's be real, online shopping has always been kind of a mess. Bouncing between tabs, forgetting what's in which cart, missing a price drop by a day…

Well Google just decided to fix all of that in one swing.

At I/O 2026, they announced Universal Cart, which is a single persistent cart that follows you across Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail. Add something while watching a YouTube review, pick it back up while chatting with Gemini. It's all the same cart.

And it's not passive. Powered by Gemini, it tracks price drops, surfaces price history, flags when something's back in stock, and even catches compatibility issues before you buy, like if two PC parts you've added don't actually work together.

When you're ready to check out, you can pay with Google Pay in a few taps or hand off to the merchant's site. Launch partners include Nike, Target, Walmart, Sephora, Wayfair, and a handful of Shopify stores.

Under the hood, it runs on the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard Google built with retail partners that's now expanding into hotels and food delivery. There's also an Agent Payments Protocol in the works that would let AI agents make purchases on your behalf, within limits you set.

The honest caveat: Google is positioning itself as the middleman between shoppers and every retailer on the internet. That's a lot of purchase data flowing through one place, and brands aren't entirely comfortable with it. Google says retailers stay in control, but the jury's still out on what that means long-term.

For everyday shoppers though? This is one of the most useful things Google has shipped in years. It will be available to use in the US this summer.

Watch my video breakdown on it here and follow @jessicanaziri for the latest tech and AI updates!