ChatGPT is useful for Amazon sellers once it can see real data. On its own it guesses at referral fees, has never seen a competitor's storefront and has no idea what your account is gated on. Add Arbitrage Stalker as a custom MCP server and ChatGPT can read the storefronts you track, your saved leads, eligibility on your own account and profit at your buy cost, all from a normal chat. Setup takes a few clicks and no key.
I built Arbitrage Stalker, so this is our own setup guide. If you use Claude instead, follow the Claude connection guide. Both hit the same server.
Why ChatGPT alone gets seller numbers wrong
Ask plain ChatGPT for the profit on a product and you get a confident answer built from whatever fee tables it saw during training. Referral rates, FBA size tiers and closing fees are where it slips by a few dollars. On a $25 arbitrage flip, a few dollars is the whole margin.
It also has no access to the data that drives reseller sourcing. It cannot see which sellers you track, what they listed this morning or whether your account can list a given ASIN. Ask anyway and it either refuses or invents something plausible. Neither helps you buy.
An MCP server fixes both. ChatGPT asks the server, and the server answers from live data. Profit questions run through Arbitrage Stalker's calculator with your saved prep and inbound costs, the same one behind the dashboard, the alerts and the Chrome extension. ChatGPT explains the result. It does not compute it.
Connect ChatGPT step by step
You need a paid Arbitrage Stalker plan, since every paid plan includes AI connections. Create an account if you do not have one. Then:
- In ChatGPT, click Plugins in the left bar. Click Add, then Add custom MCP server.
- Name it Arbitrage Stalker and paste
https://app.arbitragestalker.com/mcpunder Connection. Leave Authentication on OAuth. - Tick I understand and want to continue, then click Create as a plugin.
- Click Connect Arbitrage Stalker, sign in on the page it opens and click Allow. You land back in ChatGPT.
- In a new chat, click + and choose Arbitrage Stalker before you ask your question.
OpenAI moves these menus between releases. If a label in step 1 has changed, look for custom MCP servers or connectors and use the same server address. The Arbitrage Stalker MCP setup page stays current when the clicks change.
What you approve
The Allow page names the app asking and lists what it can do: read your sellers, leads and product data, check what your Amazon account can sell, save products and manage monitors when you ask, and spend credits at app prices. It cannot touch your password, your billing or Seller Central. Every connected app shows up under AI Connection Keys, where you can disconnect it.
Confirm it works
Ask "how many sellers am I tracking?" A real number means you are connected. A generic answer about storefront tracking means you skipped step 5 and the plugin is not on in that chat.
What to ask ChatGPT
Talk to it like a sourcing VA who has your dashboard open.
| Ask | What comes back |
|---|---|
| "What did my sellers add since yesterday?" | New products from your tracked sellers, filterable by brand, category, price or rank |
| "Which of my tracked sellers is producing?" | Each store's new products over the last week and month |
| "Is B0XXXXXXXX worth buying at $12?" | Profit and ROI at your cost, plus velocity and competition |
| "Can I sell these 60 ASINs?" | BUY, APPLY with Amazon's approval link, SKIP, BAD_ASIN or PENDING for your account |
| "Where do I source this?" | Retailers the platform has seen carrying the product or brand |
| "Match these UPCs." | ASINs with rank and Buy Box for each barcode |
| "Score this supplier list." | Ranked results, with the cost of any fresh reads quoted before it spends |
One habit worth building: run the "since yesterday" question each morning. The feed tool takes the time of your last run and returns only what is new, so you never reread old finds.
Ask for the reasoning behind each verdict
ChatGPT shines at explaining. After it gives you a shortlist, ask "why did number three survive?" The explain_lead tool hands it structured evidence on a lead, and ChatGPT turns that into plain English. You still make the buy call.
A morning routine in ChatGPT
Once it is connected, this is a fifteen-minute sourcing block you can run every day.
- Open a new chat and click + to add Arbitrage Stalker. Forget this and ChatGPT answers from memory.
- Ask for the overnight feed. "What did my sellers add since yesterday morning? Hide listings Amazon sells on." You get only new rows.
- Check gating on the whole batch. "Can I sell these?" Up to 100 ASINs per check, against your own account, free.
- Run profit on the BUY rows. Give it the price you can buy at. It runs the app's calculator with your saved prep and inbound costs.
- Ask where to buy the survivors. "Where do I source these?" pulls the retailers the platform has seen carrying each one.
- Save what you buy. "Add these to my lead list" writes them to your account.
Steps 2 and 3 do most of the work. They turn a pile of storefront finds into a short list you can sell before you spend a minute on research.
The same tools from your own scripts
If you outgrow the chat window, a connection key from AI Connection Keys works over plain HTTP too. A GET to https://app.arbitragestalker.com/mcp/tools lists every tool and its arguments, and a POST to /mcp/tools/<tool> with JSON runs one. When a tool refuses, you get HTTP 422 with a code your script can check, like out_of_credits or quota_reached. Credits and limits match what ChatGPT gets.
ChatGPT vs Claude: what differs
Both connect to the same server, call the same tools, see the same data and spend the same credits. Your sourcing answers come from Arbitrage Stalker either way. The differences sit in setup and day-to-day use.
| ChatGPT | Claude | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you add it | Plugins, then Add custom MCP server | Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector |
| Sign-in | OAuth, same Allow page | OAuth, same Allow page |
| Turning it on in a chat | Click + and choose Arbitrage Stalker | Switch it on in the tools menu |
| Claude desktop and phone apps | Not applicable | Connector carries over with no extra setup |
| Heads-up | OpenAI moves the menus between releases | Turn the connector on per chat in the tools menu |
Pick the one you already pay for and open every day. The tool you check at 7 a.m. is the one that makes you money. For a longer take on how AI agents fit a seller's week, I wrote about AI agents for Amazon FBA on my other blog.
Limits to know before you trust it
ChatGPT with an MCP server is a fast research assistant. It has edges, and you should know where they are.
It reads data the platform has
If you ask about an ASIN the platform has never imported, the server says it is not in the cache. Ask ChatGPT to import it. That costs one credit, and the answer comes on the next try.
Some calls cost credits
Most tools are free. A fresh Apex Read costs one credit (free if the product already has a current verdict). Batch scoring costs one credit per uncached ASIN, and it quotes the total first and waits for your yes. Listing a whole brand's catalog costs 10 credits with a daily cap. If you run out, it refuses and says so, and every free tool keeps working. Plans and credit details sit on the pricing page.
It will not ungate you
Eligibility checks hand you Amazon's approval link. The server never submits the request, because failed attempts count against your account. You click, you decide.
It cannot touch Seller Central
No orders, no listings, no prices, no billing. If you want an assistant reading your own Seller Central data, that is Amazon's Selling Partner plugin, a different product. The roundup of Amazon MCP servers covers which server does what.
You still own the buy
ChatGPT can screen fifty leads faster than you can open them. It does not know your cash position, your prep center's backlog or that you swore off a category after last Q4. Use it to cut the list, then make the call yourself.
Get it running
Connect it, click + in a new chat, and ask what your sellers added since yesterday. If the answer is a real list of products, ChatGPT is now reading your sourcing data. The MCP server guide has the address and every client's setup in one place.
Let the deals come to you
Arbitrage Stalker watches proven storefronts, scores every lead against your numbers, and tracks each deal to sold and rebuy. Capped feeds keep your finds exclusive.
Start your 7-day free trial