Advertising in ChatGPT. A guide to the New Era of OpenAI Ads

For several years, the world grew accustomed to ChatGPT being a free (or paid-for-a-fixed-fee) space, free of banners, pop-up windows, and commercial offers. Users entrusted the artificial intelligence with their most private questions, business plans, and program code, not expecting that someone would try to sell them something. However, keeping such giant neural networks running requires incredible amounts of money. Investors have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the development of artificial intelligence, and OpenAI needs to recoup these investments.

So, after prolonged rumors and closed testing, on May 5, 2026, OpenAI officially opened its self-service platform OpenAI Ads Manager Beta to all businesses in the US, abolishing the huge minimum entry threshold. This means that now almost any company can show its advertising directly in the chats of millions of users. OpenAI plans to earn around $2.5 billion from advertising in 2026 alone, and by 2030 the company has the ambitious goal of reaching $100 billion in advertising revenue.

What is advertising in ChatGPT and what does it even look like?

When you have a conversation with ChatGPT that has a clear commercial intent (for example, you ask: “Which sneakers are better for running on asphalt?” or “Help me choose a CRM system for a small business”), the bot first generates its usual, unbiased answer. And below it, a clearly labeled advertising block appears.

How the ad is visually designed

So that the advertising does not blend in with the text from the artificial intelligence, it has a clear structure. According to OpenAI’s rules, each ad consists of the following elements:

• Favicon (Logo)
A small brand image.

• Advertiser name
The official company name.

• Title
From 16 to 24 characters.
Maximum length: approximately 40–50 characters.

• Description (Copy)
From 32 to 48 characters.
Maximum length: approximately 100–150 characters.

• Image (Creative)
A square image of up to 1200 × 1200 pixels in PNG or JPG format.
The image must be hosted at a publicly accessible link.

• Link (Landing page)
A working URL that is not blocked by OpenAI’s crawlers.

Due to the entry into force of the EU AI Act, companies are obligated to clearly label AI-generated content, as well as advertising. Therefore, every ad in ChatGPT has a mandatory label indicating that it is sponsored content.

Who sees this advertising?

Those who SEE the advertising:

• Adult users.

• Users of the free plan (Free plan) and the Go plan.

• Currently, the display geography covers the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Japan, and South Korea, and information has also been added about an expected launch in Brazil and Mexico.

Those who NEVER see the advertising:

• Users of paid premium subscriptions (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu).

• Minors. If a user has indicated that they are under 18 years old, or if the algorithm has “guessed” from the communication style that there is a child or teenager on the other side of the screen, the advertising is completely blocked.

Can you use the free version and turn off advertising?

Yes. In the chat settings (Settings → Ads controls), you can select the option to switch to an ad-free experience (Ads-Free). But if you choose a free ChatGPT without advertising, the company significantly cuts your capabilities: you will be able to send considerably fewer messages per day, and you will also lose access to tools such as image generation or deep research.

Context instead of keywords

In ChatGPT, there are no keywords in the classical sense. Here, context reigns. OpenAI’s algorithm uses “conversational adjacency.”

The system selects advertising based on three factors:

• The topic of the current conversation — the main signal.

• Hints from the advertiser (Context hints) — the advertiser cannot buy exact words but can give the AI a hint. For example: “Show my advertising when people discuss improving their workspace or office furniture.”

• Personalization (if enabled) — if a user has allowed their previous chats to be remembered (the Memory feature) and has not turned off ad personalization, the algorithm can take their past queries into account.

Information blackout (Privacy Blackout)

Advertisers never see exactly what you write in the chat. They do not know your name, they do not see your prompts. OpenAI gives businesses only general statistics (how many people saw the advertising and how many clicked on it). In order not to violate privacy, while still finding the right audience, OpenAI is testing advanced technologies such as server-side interest cohorts and encrypted topic vectors.

How much does the advertising cost and how does the auction work?

At the beginning of 2026, during the pilot launch, in order to get into the ad account you had to commit to spending at least $200,000 per month. In April, this threshold was lowered to $50,000, and on May 5, 2026, the restriction was removed altogether. Today, the minimum budget to launch a campaign is only $25 per day.

Payment models

Advertisers can choose their campaign goal, on which what exactly they will pay for depends.

Reach

• Model
CPM.

• How it works
Payment for every 1,000 impressions, regardless of clicks.

• Price in practice
During the pilot — approximately $60 per 1,000 impressions.
Now — approximately $25–$60 per 1,000 impressions, depending on the popularity of the topic.

Clicks

• Model
CPC.

• How it works
Payment only for a real click and visit to the site.

• Price in practice
Starting at approximately $3–$5 per click.
With a bid of less than $3, the ad may not be shown.

Conversions

• Model
oCPC.

• How it works
You choose the “Conversions” goal and set a Bid Cap. The AI directs impressions toward clicks that are most likely to lead to the chosen event.

Connected conversion tracking is required through a pixel or Conversions API.

• Price in practice
There is no separate “cost per conversion.”
The real CPC is determined by the auction and can be lower than the Bid Cap.

Second-price auction (Second-Price Auction)

In OpenAI Ads, a second-price auction operates: the winner pays an amount that exceeds the competitor’s bid by only one cent. This encourages advertisers to state an honest maximum price without fear of overpaying. In addition, the auction is relevance-weighted: the AI assesses how well the advertising fits the conversation and may award the win to a cheaper but more useful ad.

What is categorically forbidden to advertise?

At the launch stage, OpenAI allowed advertising only for safe consumer goods, software, services, education, and travel. Everything else fell under a ban:

• Finance: it is forbidden to advertise credit repair services, debt settlement, or alternative investments. Financial services outside the US are forbidden altogether.

• Gambling: no real-money casinos. The exception is a casino hotel with a focus on spa and recreation.

• Alcohol and tobacco: a complete ban, including vapes and nicotine patches.

• Adult content: dating apps, escort services, and intimate goods are banned. Advertising of underwear or swimwear is allowed only as an ordinary catalog, without provocative poses.

• Politics: no election campaigns or lobbying.

• Medicine: advertising of rehabilitation centers or pharmaceuticals is strictly forbidden.

The ban on deception (Misleading ads) stands apart: it is forbidden to exaggerate results, use fake reviews, or imitate the ChatGPT interface. If you make a bold claim, it must be backed up by evidence on your site.

So, is the launch of OpenAI Ads a breakthrough? Absolutely. It is a paradigm shift. Advertisers no longer need to guess what words a user will type into the search bar. The artificial intelligence takes on the hardest part: it analyzes deep intentions, the context of the conversation, and subtly offers a solution to the problem with the help of your product or service.

The technical setup has become maximally accessible thanks to the reduction of the minimum budget to $25 per day. The main lesson OpenAI has learned from its mistakes is that trust cannot be bought. That is precisely why the platform currently remains closed to premium users, and the moderation of brands and topics is the strictest in the world. If you sell high-quality, complex products, software, legal or educational services, and are ready to play by strict rules, ChatGPT Ads today is a gold mine with minimal competition and a maximally engaged audience. But if you need fast, cheap clicks and reach in the millions at any cost, across various geos, good old Google is still waiting for you.