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ChatGPT has shown ads since 9 February 2026. Anyone can now buy them in Ads Manager, OpenAI’s self-serve tool, and on 31 August OpenAI said the ads had reached a $1 billion annual run rate in under 200 days.
I read every OpenAI ads announcement from February to October and the press coverage of what early advertisers got. Then I put the reported click rates next to 53 US Google Search accounts I can see through the Google Ads API.
ChatGPT ads facts, October 2026
| Topic | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who sees ads | Logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans |
| Who doesn’t | Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education users, and anyone under 18 |
| Where | The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa |
| How you buy | Ads Manager at ads.openai.com, the Shopify app, the HubSpot app, or OpenAI’s sales team |
| Bidding | CPM (per 1,000 views) or CPC (per click) |
| Formats | A sponsored card under an answer, visual ads during image generation (US test), Sponsored Agents (US test) |
| Tracking | Pixel, Conversions API, and attribution partners such as Triple Whale, Northbeam and AppsFlyer |
| Topics with no ads | Health, mental health, politics and other sensitive subjects |
The country list comes from three OpenAI updates and the 31 August announcement covered by MediaPost. OpenAI hasn’t published one full list in a single place, so check Ads Manager for your market before you plan a budget.
How ChatGPT ads rolled out
OpenAI started with a small US test and moved fast. Self-serve buying arrived in May, three months after the first ad showed.
The original announcement, Testing ads in ChatGPT, still carries the updates at the top. It’s the best single page for the rules on who sees ads.
Who sees ChatGPT ads
Only logged-in adults on the two cheapest plans. Free users can also turn ads off, but then they get fewer messages a day.
| Plan | Sees ads |
|---|---|
| Free | Yes, unless they opt out for fewer daily messages |
| Go | Yes |
| Plus and Pro | No |
| Business, Enterprise, Education | No |
| Anyone under 18, or predicted to be | No |
That matters for B2B. Most people who use ChatGPT for work are on a Business or Enterprise seat, and they won’t see your ad at work. You reach them on their personal Free account in the evening, if at all.
How ChatGPT picks which ad to show
There are no keywords to bid on. OpenAI matches your ad to three things:
- The topic of the conversation the person is having now
- Their past chats, if memory is on
- How they’ve reacted to ads before
When more than one advertiser fits, ChatGPT shows the most relevant ad first. People can turn off ad personalization, and then only the current chat is used.
You get fewer controls than in Google Ads. Qualifying advertisers can add Negative Phrases to keep ads away from topics their brand avoids. There’s also an opt-in setting that rewrites your headline and description to fit each conversation and translates them. If your industry needs approved wording, leave that setting off.
Ad formats in ChatGPT
There are three formats so far. Only the first is open to every advertiser.
- Sponsored card. An image, your business name, a headline and a short description under ChatGPT’s answer, with an Ad label. This is the format in the screenshot at the top.
- Visual ads in image generation. Announced on 5 October 2026. When a Free or Go user asks ChatGPT to make an image, a labelled ad can show next to it. US only, with a first group of advertisers.
- Sponsored Agents. Announced on 16 September 2026. After someone clicks an ad, they can choose to chat with an agent your business sponsors, then go to your site. A US test with selected advertisers.
Shopify merchants in the US can run ads from the ChatGPT Ads app, and their products come in from the Shopify Catalog. OpenAI said the app opens in other ad markets from 23 September. HubSpot users can create ads and follow up leads from inside HubSpot.
How to set up ChatGPT ads
OpenAI’s advertiser page lists three steps. When I opened it from the UK on 17 October 2026, it offered £500 of ad credit when you spend £500.
- Go to openai.com/advertisers and click Start now. You land in Ads Manager.
- Create a campaign and set the budget and goal. The structure is campaign, ad group and ad, the same as Google Ads.
- Add your ads one at a time, or upload them all from a CSV file.
- Add the pixel to your site, or send conversions through the Conversions API or a partner such as Hightouch, Tealium or LiveRamp.
- Launch, then check results in Ads Manager or your attribution tool.
There’s also an Ads Manager plugin inside ChatGPT. You can create, edit and analyse campaigns by typing a request. If you want the same thing for Google Ads, my guide to connecting Google Ads to ChatGPT shows how.
What ChatGPT ads cost
OpenAI doesn’t publish a rate card or a minimum spend on its advertiser page. You set a budget and bid in Ads Manager, on CPM or CPC.
Third-party guides quote CPMs between $25 and $60. None of the ones I read links to an OpenAI price list, so treat those as rumours until you see your own auction.
If you bid on CPM, the number that matters is what each click costs you. The sum is the CPM divided by 1,000 times your click-through rate, and my CPM calculator does it for any CPM:
| CPM you pay | At 0.6% CTR | At 1% CTR | At 2% CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10 | $1.67 a click | $1.00 a click | $0.50 a click |
| $25 | $4.17 a click | $2.50 a click | $1.25 a click |
| $60 | $10.00 a click | $6.00 a click | $3.00 a click |
The 0.6% is the one CTR I found from a named advertiser. Peter Jaffray of Choice OMG, a Canadian agency, told MediaPost he got about 0.6% on a ChatGPT test, against about 2% on his search ads.
Here’s the comparison I’d make. Across the 53 US accounts I can see that spent $1,000 or more on Search between 30 May and 28 August 2026, the median cost per click was $4.34 and the median CTR was 8.54%.
So at a $25 CPM and a 0.6% CTR, a ChatGPT click costs about the same as a Google Search click. The difference is the person behind it. A Google searcher typed what they want. A ChatGPT user was talking about something related, and your ad showed up next to it.
If you’d rather pay per click, bid CPC and set your maximum from what a lead or sale is worth to you. My CPA calculator works out the most you can pay per click at your conversion rate.
What early ChatGPT advertisers reported
The good numbers all come from OpenAI or its measurement partners. The bad one comes from an agency that ran its own test.
| Advertiser | Result | Source |
|---|---|---|
| WeightWatchers | CPA 15.3% lower than its blended paid search | DV Rockerbox, quoted by OpenAI, 5 Oct |
| Dose (wellness) | 67% of extra purchases came from new customers | WorkMagic, quoted by OpenAI, 5 Oct |
| Portland Leather | 93% of visitors from ChatGPT ads were new | Triple Whale, quoted by OpenAI, 5 Oct |
| An ecommerce advertiser | 3x ROAS over 28 days | OpenAI, 31 Aug |
| Choice OMG’s test in Ontario and Alberta | About 0.6% CTR and no buyers | MediaPost, 31 Aug |
Two things stand out. New customers come up again and again: 93% at Portland Leather and 67% at Dose. ChatGPT ads look better at finding people who don’t know you yet than at closing a sale on the same day.
The second is attribution. Someone sees your ad, asks ChatGPT three more questions, and buys a few days later after a brand search on Google. Google Ads gets the credit. OpenAI’s own answer is geo tests with Haus, Measured and WorkMagic, where you run ads in some regions and not in others and compare sales.
ChatGPT ads vs Google Ads
| ChatGPT ads | Google Search ads | |
|---|---|---|
| What you target | The conversation topic | Keywords the person typed |
| Bidding | CPM or CPC | CPC, CPA, ROAS and more |
| Who sees it | Free and Go users only | Everyone who searches |
| Weekly reach | 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT | Google doesn’t publish a weekly figure |
| Reporting | Aggregate only, no conversation data | Search terms report |
| Best fit so far | New customers for products people research | People ready to buy now |
The search terms report is the biggest gap for me. In Google Ads I can see the exact searches that cost money and add negatives. In ChatGPT you can’t see the conversations, by design.
If you’re deciding between the two, put the budget into Google first and test ChatGPT with money you’re happy to treat as research. My Google Ads vs Facebook Ads breakdown uses the same logic for Meta.
Should you test ChatGPT ads?
I’d test it if you sell something people research before they buy, and you can measure new customers. Retail fits best so far: Newegg, Best Buy, Lowe’s and Vistaprint are the advertisers on OpenAI’s own page.
I’d wait if:
- You sell in health, mental health or politics. Ads aren’t eligible near those topics.
- You’re a local business with a small budget. One CTR figure from one test is too little to plan on.
- Your sales are mostly B2B. Business and Enterprise users don’t see ads.
If you test, change one thing at a time. Run a 30-day test with a fixed budget, send the traffic to its own page, and compare new customers against a region with no ChatGPT ads.
The landing page matters more here
A ChatGPT click arrives mid-conversation. The person has already asked questions and read an answer, so they expect your page to carry on from there. A generic homepage throws that away.
Build one page for the test that answers the questions the chat was about: the price, how it works and what makes yours different. Then check it before you spend.
Check the page before you send ChatGPT traffic to it
Postclick audits the page your ads send people to and shows what stops a visitor from converting. It doesn’t change your ads or bids. Your first page is on us: an audit, two page designs and one built page.
Ads in Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode
ChatGPT is the only big AI chatbot selling ads inside its answers.
- Perplexity showed sponsored answers in 2024 and has since stepped away from ads over trust, MacRumors reported on 18 February 2026, citing the Financial Times.
- Gemini has no ads in the chatbot app. Google sells ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode instead.
- Claude has no ads, and Anthropic says it has no plans for them.
- Google AI Overviews and AI Mode do carry ads, bought through Google Ads. My post on Google AI Overview ads covers where they show and how to get in.
For the tools that help run all of these channels, see my list of AI tools for paid ads.
- Does ChatGPT have ads?
- Yes. Since 9 February 2026 ChatGPT has shown ads to logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education users don't see ads, and neither does anyone under 18.
- How do I advertise on ChatGPT?
- Go to openai.com/advertisers and sign up for Ads Manager. Create a campaign with a budget and goal, add your ads or upload them from a CSV file, add the pixel or Conversions API, and launch. Shopify and HubSpot users can also run ads from apps inside those tools.
- How much do ChatGPT ads cost?
- OpenAI doesn't publish a rate card or minimum spend. You bid on CPM or CPC in Ads Manager. Third-party guides quote CPMs of $25 to $60. At a $25 CPM and a 0.6% click-through rate, each click costs about $4.17, close to the $4.34 median Google Search CPC across the US accounts I can see.
- Can I turn off ads in ChatGPT?
- Yes. Free users can opt out of ads in exchange for fewer daily messages, or upgrade to Plus or Pro, which have no ads. You can also turn off ad personalization, so only the current chat is used to pick an ad.
- Do advertisers see my ChatGPT conversations?
- No. OpenAI says advertisers don't get your chats, chat history, memories or personal details. They get totals, such as views and clicks.
- Which countries have ChatGPT ads?
- The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea, plus self-serve buying across India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from 31 August 2026. OpenAI keeps adding markets, so check Ads Manager for yours.
- Do ChatGPT ads change ChatGPT's answers?
- OpenAI says no. Ads are labelled, shown apart from the answer, and don't affect what ChatGPT says. Answers can affect which ad you see, because the ad is matched to the topic of the chat.
