US artificial intelligence firm OpenAI Inc.’s latest generative AI platform GPT-5 will be available on KakaoTalk, South Korea’s No. 1 mobile chat and messenger app, from October.
Chung Shina, chief executive of Kakao Corp., Korea’s top mobile platform operator, said at the company’s annual developers conference on Monday that GPT-5 will be integrated into KakaoTalk next month, the first tangible result of the Kakao-OpenAI partnership, forged in February.
She said a new ChatGPT tab will be added to the top of the KakaoTalk chat interface, giving nearly 50 million users access to OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-5, without downloading the US app separately.
Hong Min-taek, chief product officer (CPO) of Kakao, gives a presentation at the ‘if Kakao’ conference held at the Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 23, 2025
The model can process and generate both text and images, and conversations or content created with ChatGPT can be shared instantly into existing chatrooms, according to Kakao.
“The KakaoTalk window will become a window of possibilities where more can be realized,” Chung said. “KakaoTalk is no longer a simple messenger app. You will experience a greater world through the Kakao AI.”
KAKAO AGENT
Korea has the most paid users of ChatGPT outside the US.
Kakao CEO Chung Shina (left) had a chat with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Feb. 6, 2025 (Courtesy of Kakao)
Besides the ChatGPT-KakaoTalk integration, Kakao plans to launch Kakao Agent, an AI-powered assistant designed to link messaging with other services across its ecosystem, such as gift sending and receiving, Kakao Map, reservations and Melon, its music streaming app.
The company said the agent will eventually evolve into a broader AI platform involving affiliates, public institutions and external partners.
To support the move, Kakao in August opened PlayMCP, a platform that enables developers to build and register tools for AI services.
Kakao revamps KakaoTalk for the first time in 15 years, including the addition of ChatGPT to the mobile chat app
Oliver Jay, head of international business at OpenAI, welcomed the collaboration with Kakao.
“We are delighted to work with Kakao to deliver ChatGPT in a new and localized way,” he said. “By combining ChatGPT with Kakao’s ecosystem, we expect AI to become even more useful in people’s daily lives in Korea.”
Write to In-Soo Nam at isnam@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.