ChatGPT ads are live. OpenAI started testing sponsored placements in ChatGPT in February 2026 and released a self-serve platform on May 6, 2026.
You can target ads to people using the ChatGPT Free and Go plans with a minimum daily budget of $25 per campaign.
Here is our guide to what we know so far about ChatGPT Ads and what we’ve learned from testing our own money and client budgets on the platform.
Note: OpenAI is making frequent changes to their platform. We’re doing our best to keep this guide updated as much as possible.
Can You Advertise on ChatGPT?
Yes. You can create an ad account via ads.openai.com and run ads directly via OpenAI’s self-serve platform.
You’ll need an email address, business details, a tax ID or EIN, a billing method, and a landing page for what you’re promoting.
What Do ChatGPT Ads Look Like?
ChatGPT has one primary ad unit that contains a business name, image, headline, and description, and looks like this:
OpenAI announced a change to the static ad format on July 9, 2026. Here is an example from their announcement email showing the change:
ChatGPT has two ad types, Static and Product, but both ad types look identical to consumers.
How Much Do ChatGPT Ads Cost?
ChatGPT Ads has three bidding models:
- CPC (Cost Per Click)
- CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions)
- Cost Per Conversion
The minimum bid is $0.01 but based on our performance data so far, you’ll probably pay at least $2 per click and could pay significantly more depending on your industry.
There are two ways to manage budget:
- Daily budget ($25 minimum daily budget)
- Campaign budget ($1 minimum budget)
Who Can See ChatGPT Ads?
Users on the ChatGPT Free or Go tiers can be served ads.
ChatGPT does not serve ads on Plus, Pro, Business Enterprise, or Education tiers.
ChatGPT does not serve ads on conversations associated with “inappropriate topics” or “sensitive contexts.”
If a user tells ChatGPT that they are under 18 years old, or ChatGPT predicts they are likely under 18 years old, that user will not be served ChatGPT Ads.
Approved Categories:
- Lifestyle and household goods
- Local services
- Travel and experiences
- Digital products
- Education
Limited Categories:
- Financial services
- Healthcare & medicine
- Legal services
- Casinos (ads must focus on the travel aspect rather than gambling)
Disallowed Categories*:
- Adult content
- Dating or sexual content
- Tobacco
- Counterfeit goods
- Health claims
- Alcohol (products over 0.5% ABV)
- Drugs
- Financial services
- Gambling
- Political content
- Cryptocurrency
- Credit repair
- Debt settlement
- Debt assistance
OpenAI has conflicting information about what categories they allow. For example, they include legal services and healthcare in both their limited and disallowed categories. We know that as of July 2026, ChatGPT ads for legal services are serving.
Read ChatGPT Ads policies here.
How are ChatGPT ads targeted? Do you bid on keywords?
You do NOT bid on keywords in ChatGPT.
There are three ways to target ChatGPT ads:
- Geographic location
- Context hints
- Audiences (first-party data)
What Countries Can You Run ChatGPT Ads In?
You can target by country, region, DMA, and postal code. You can both target and exclude geographic locations.
- Available Countries:
- United States
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Japan (added July 9, 2026)
- South Korea (added July 9, 2026)
- Regions (e.g. California, Texas)
- Postal codes (in the United States)
- DMAs (Designated Marketing Area, such as New York, Los Angeles, Houston, etc.)
Learn more about ChatGPT Ads geographic targeting here.
How Does ChatGPT Know Where I’m Located?
ChatGPT uses your IP address to estimate where you’re located, and can also use your device location if you haven’t turned off location sharing.
Learn more here.
What Are “Context Hints”?
Context Hints are the “bread and butter” of how you will target ChatGPT ads.
You get a freeform text box at the ad group level where you can tell ChatGPT who you want to target. you can put keywords here, write a few sentences about who you want to target, or even write a massive prompt.
this is one of the top levers that sophisticated advertisers are testing right now to see how ChatGPT responds to various approaches.
Here is an example of a context hint:
Can You Target Audiences in ChatGPT?
You can upload first-party data to ChatGPT To target, exclude, or modify your bids.
This feature isn’t practical yet for many small businesses because you must have at least 25,000 matched users and ChatGPT recommends at least 100,000 users.
You can upload email addresses and/or phone numbers.
How Do You Track ChatGPT Ads Conversions?
In-Platform:
Install the ChatGPT Conversion Pixel on your website to track actions such as form submissions and orders.
ChatGPT will report conversions at the campaign, ad group, and ad level in the UI, and you can also optimize campaigns to bid towards conversions.
Third-Party Trackers:
You can add utm parameters to your ChatGPT ad urls and track performance via third-party platforms like Google Analytics and CTM.
How Do I Create a ChatGPT Ads Account?
- Go to ads.openai.com
- Sign in with your existing OpenAI account (or create one if needed)
- Follow the prompts to create an advertiser account
- OpenAI will ask for some business verification information, which may include:
- Business name
- Website
- Business address
- EIN / registration information
You will also need:
- Billing method (e.g. credit card)
- Favicon for your ads
I’m an Agency. Should I Create the Ad Account for My Client?
ChatGPT explicitly tells agencies to not create ad accounts on behalf of their clients.
Your client can create the ad account and invite users to the account.
There is not yet a manager account for agencies to use to connect to multiple advertiser accounts, but we expect that OpenAI will offer this feature at some point.
What Reporting Does ChatGPT Offer?
ChatGPT reports the following metrics at the campaign, ad group, and ad level:
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Conversions (if you set up conversion tracking)
- Attributed sales value (if you set up conversion tracking)
- Sales ROAS (if you set up conversion tracking)
- Spend
- CTR (Click-through rate)
- Avg CPC (Cost Per Click)
- Avg CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions)
Can I See What Prompts Triggered My Ads?
ChatGPT doesn’t provide any information about the conversations or other signals that triggered your ads or any demographic or behavior-related information.
Does Running Ads Help Me Show Up More in ChatGPT?
Ads do not influence the organic results that ChatGPT gives users. You’re not going to be able to get ChatGPT to mention your website or business name more often by running ads.
That said, running ads is obviously a way to show up in conversations in which you otherwise would not appear.
I’m Already Getting Traffic from ChatGPT. Why Should I Run Ads?
If you’re already getting traffic from ChatGPT and it’s converting well on your website, you will likely attract more incremental traffic and orders by using ChatGPT Ads.
Just because you’re already getting traffic doesn’t mean that you’re getting all of the available traffic.
Every prompt and result is different, and you’re almost certainly not appearing as a solution in 100% of the organic ChatGPT conversations that are taking place.
Placing ads will allow you to show up in more conversations. And when your ad does show at the same time as an organic result, users are likely to view you as an even more compelling solution because you are dominating the conversation.
The History of ChatGPT Advertising
OpenAI’s stance on advertising as a monetization strategy has shifted dramatically over time, from outright resistance to a full launch.
2024: “Last resort.” In a Harvard interview, Sam Altman called advertising a “last resort” business model for OpenAI. At the time, ChatGPT was growing rapidly on subscription revenue alone, and Altman expressed concern that ads could erode user trust in the product.
November 2025: A softened position. On the Conversations with Tyler podcast, Altman shifted his tone. He acknowledged that OpenAI would likely try ads “at some point” but added that he did not believe advertising would be the company’s biggest revenue opportunity. He also distinguished between ad types, suggesting some formats could be “very good” while others would be “really bad.”
Late 2025: Leadership hires signal intent. OpenAI hired Fidji Simo as CEO of Applications. Simo previously led the Facebook app at Meta, where she oversaw one of the largest advertising businesses in the world. Her appointment made it clear that OpenAI was building the organizational capability to run an ad business, not just considering it theoretically.
December 2025: Internal testing paused. OpenAI tested app suggestion cards that drew user backlash because they looked like ads without being labeled as such. The negative reaction likely influenced the transparency-first approach in the eventual launch.
January 16, 2026: Official announcement. Fidji Simo published OpenAI’s advertising principles and confirmed that ads would begin testing in the coming weeks. Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s CFO, had previously signaled the company’s intent to explore advertising.
February 9, 2026: Ads go live. The first sponsored placements appeared for U.S. users on Free and Go tiers. Launch partners included Target, Adobe, Williams-Sonoma, and Albertsons.
May 6, 2026: Self-serve platform goes live. OpenAI removes budget minimums and makes their ads platform available to businesses of all sizes.
The trajectory from “last resort” to live ads took about two years, driven largely by the economics of running AI infrastructure at scale and OpenAI’s growing user base of hundreds of millions of weekly active users.
ChatGPT Ads vs Google Ads vs Meta Ads
ChatGPT is much more similar to Google Search than Meta.
Meta is “display” advertising, inserting ads into feeds and conversations based upon what they think the user may be interested in, but not specifically in response to a query inserting ads into feeds and conversations based upon what they think the user may be interested in, but not specifically in response to a query.
ChatGPT ads are directly in response to conversation and are based upon an incredibly detailed understanding of what a user is looking for.
