ChatGPT Ads: Formats, Pricing, Minimum Spend and How to Run Them

ChatGPT ads are now open to advertisers in 89 countries, and any business in a supported market can launch a campaign through the self-serve Ads Manager with a daily budget from $25. If you already run search or social campaigns, the main things to learn are how context hints replace keywords, whether to bid on CPM or CPC, and whether to leave OpenAI's automatic ad rewriting switched on when it becomes the default on October 29, 2026.

This guide covers what ChatGPT ads look like, who sees them, what they cost, how to set up a first campaign, and where conversational ad inventory exists outside ChatGPT.

Who Sees ChatGPT Ads

Ads show only to logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscribers do not see ads. When OpenAI announced the program in January 2026, it said ads would not appear for users under 18 or for users its systems predict are minors, and that conversations about health, mental health and politics would not carry ads.

OpenAI says conversations stay private from advertisers and that ads do not change ChatGPT's answers. Advertisers get aggregate performance data, not chat transcripts.

What ChatGPT Ads Look Like

The standard ad is a labeled sponsored unit shown below ChatGPT's answer, separate from the answer itself. It has a headline, a short description, a square image and the advertiser's name, and a click takes the user to the advertiser's landing page.

OpenAI recommends keeping copy short because the unit is small on a phone. Long headlines get truncated on mobile, so put the offer in the first few words.

OpenAI is testing newer placements in the US:

Sponsored Agents, announced in September 2026: a user who clicks the ad opens a separate, labeled conversation with the advertiser's own AI agent instead of a landing page.
Ads during image generation, announced in October 2026.
A larger, more visual format with bigger images, reported in testing in the US.

These are not available to every advertiser yet, and OpenAI has not given dates for wider release.

How Targeting Works

There are no keyword lists. Ads are matched to the context of the conversation, and the main input is the context hint: a plain-language description, set at the ad group level, of the conversations your ad belongs in.

A running shoe brand might write hints such as "someone training for their first marathon and asking about recovery" or "a runner comparing cushioned shoes for long distances". Hints guide matching but don't guarantee delivery, and they are not exact-match rules. Hints that describe one buyer in one situation tend to match better than broad category labels like "running".

You can also restrict a campaign to the iOS app, the Android app or the web, and target by country. Personalized ads are not available in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, so campaigns there rely on conversation context alone.

How Much ChatGPT Ads Cost

ChatGPT ads are sold in an auction on either a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or CPC (cost per click) basis.

	What we know
CPM at launch	$60, fixed, during the US pilot from February 2026
CPC	Added on May 5, 2026, when self-serve opened to all US businesses
Reported CPM now	Roughly $25 to $45 in the US, according to advertisers and agencies, varying by topic
Reported CPC	Starting bids around $3 to $5
Daily minimum	$25 in the US, with local equivalents in other billing currencies
Account minimum	None for self-serve. The six-figure commitments of the early pilot no longer apply

Treat the reported CPM and CPC ranges as a starting point, not a quote. Prices depend on the topic, the country and how many advertisers want the same conversations. Run a small test before committing a large budget.

CPC is the safer choice for a first test because you pay only for visits. CPM suits awareness campaigns and categories where your ad is likely to be one of few that match.

Where ChatGPT Ads Are Available

As of October 21, 2026, ChatGPT ads run in 89 countries. The rollout so far:

February 2026: US pilot with a small group of advertisers.
May 2026: Self-serve Ads Manager opens to all US businesses.
June 2026: Japan and South Korea go live; UK advertisers get self-serve.
August 2026: Mexico, Brazil, 31 European markets and India. India launched without self-serve, so buying there goes through OpenAI's sales team and partners.
September 2026: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan.
October 2026: 26 more countries, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Nigeria, South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

In some markets self-serve accounts are limited to businesses whose legal entity is registered in a supported country. Check the country list in Ads Manager before planning a campaign in a new market.

How to Run a ChatGPT Ads Campaign

Create an Ads Manager account at ads.openai.com with your business details and billing.
Install measurement first. Add the OpenAI Pixel to your site, or send conversions server-side through the Conversions API, so the first campaign can be judged on more than clicks.
Create a campaign and choose the objective, countries, platforms and daily budget.
Build ad groups around situations, not products. Give each ad group a few focused context hints.
Write the ad. A short headline, a description that states the offer, a square image and a landing page that answers the question the user was asking.
Choose CPC or CPM and set a maximum bid.
Check the Creative Enhancements setting (below) before launch.
Review after one to two weeks. Look at which ad groups get impressions and clicks, rewrite hints that don't deliver, and move budget to the ones that convert.

Businesses using HubSpot or Shopify can also connect those accounts to Ads Manager through OpenAI's integrations.

Creative Enhancements: Decide Before October 29

From October 29, 2026, OpenAI turns on Creative Enhancements by default for new and existing campaigns. With it switched on, ChatGPT can:

rewrite headlines and descriptions,
translate ads into other languages,
resize images,
send the click to a different page on your website that it considers more relevant.

Rewritten versions can run without your approval, and Ads Manager does not preview every variant. Brands with regulated claims, strict brand guidelines or landing pages built for specific offers should look at this first. You can switch it off for the whole account and back on for a single test campaign, since campaign settings override the account default.

Measuring Results

Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks and click-through rate. Conversions need the OpenAI Pixel or the Conversions API. OpenAI has also named 18 third-party measurement partners, and brand-safety reporting with Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify is in pilot.

Benchmarks are still thin. One third-party analysis put the US click-through rate at about 0.73%, with Brazil the highest at 1.91%. Compare against your own search and social results rather than these averages.

Conversational Ads Outside ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the largest place to buy conversational ads, but it is not the only one. People also ask questions inside AI chat and AI search on publisher websites: news, sports, finance and lifestyle sites that have added an assistant trained on their own articles. Those readers are often Plus and Pro subscribers who never see a ChatGPT ad, and the conversation happens next to editorial content in a specific topic.

GenDiscover sells ads inside these publisher conversations. Campaigns use the same contextual matching idea as ChatGPT, run on CPM, CPC or CPA, and can be bought through a self-serve dashboard or programmatically over OpenRTB. For the wider picture of how this market is forming, see What Is LLM Advertising?.

FAQ

Does ChatGPT have ads?

Yes. ChatGPT shows ads to logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans in 89 countries. Plus, Pro and Enterprise plans are ad-free.

How much do ChatGPT ads cost?

There is a $25 daily minimum in the US and no account minimum for self-serve advertisers. Advertisers report CPMs of roughly $25 to $45 and starting CPC bids of about $3 to $5, down from the fixed $60 CPM of the early 2026 pilot.

Is there a minimum spend for ChatGPT ads?

Only the daily budget minimum, $25 in the US or its equivalent in other currencies. The large upfront commitments required during the pilot ended when self-serve Ads Manager opened in May 2026.

How do I run ads on ChatGPT?

Sign up for Ads Manager at ads.openai.com, install the OpenAI Pixel or Conversions API, create a campaign with context hints that describe the conversations you want to appear in, and set a CPC or CPM bid. In markets without self-serve, such as India, buying goes through OpenAI's sales team or partners.