What are ChatGPT ads?

Sponsored placements OpenAI shows below ChatGPT's answers to logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans. Each ad has a brand name, headline, short description, image and link, and is labelled as sponsored and kept separate from the answer.

How do I advertise on ChatGPT?

Through OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager, which opened to US businesses in May 2026 and has since expanded to Europe and other markets. You create an account, install the pixel or Conversions API, build a campaign with ad groups and context hints, and submit ads for policy review. Larger advertisers can also buy through OpenAI's sales team or agency partners.

How much do ChatGPT ads cost?

You pay either per thousand impressions or per click, set at auction. In the US pilot, CPMs were reported around $60 at launch and have fallen since, and OpenAI's CPC guidance at the self-serve launch was a starting maximum bid of $3 to $5. Check the current minimum in Ads Manager, as it has changed more than once.

Do ChatGPT ads influence ChatGPT's answers?

OpenAI says no. The ad appears in a separate, labelled unit below the answer, and paying for ads does not make ChatGPT recommend your brand in its response.

Can advertisers see my ChatGPT conversations?

No. Advertisers only see aggregate reporting such as impressions, clicks, spend and conversions. Matching happens on OpenAI's side, and conversations are not shared with advertisers.

Who sees ads in ChatGPT?

Logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans. Users on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans see no ads, and nobody under 18 is shown them.

Should ChatGPT ads replace Meta ads?

No. ChatGPT ads capture demand from people already asking what to buy, much like search. Meta creates demand among people who were not looking. For most DTC brands, ChatGPT works best as an incremental test funded alongside a working Meta account, not out of it.

ChatGPT ads: what DTC brands scaling Meta should do with them

Mart Hendrik19 Sep 202612 min read

ChatGPT ads are sponsored placements that OpenAI shows beneath ChatGPT's answers to adult users on the Free and Go plans. They are matched to what the person is asking about right now, not to who they are, which makes them much closer to search than to Meta. For a DTC brand that means a new place to catch demand, not a replacement for the channel that creates it.

For three years the question was whether ChatGPT would ever carry ads. In 2026 it stopped being a question. OpenAI started testing ads in the US on February 9, opened a self-serve Ads Manager to US businesses on May 5, and took the product into 31 European markets in late August.

Every brand we talk to is now being pitched on it, usually by someone who has run it for a few weeks. So here is the plain version: how the placement works, what it costs, what is genuinely different from Meta, and a sensible way for a brand already spending five or six figures a month on paid social to test it.

The short answer to the question everyone asks first: ChatGPT ads are worth testing if your customer asks for advice before they buy. They are not a way out of needing good Meta creative, and anyone selling them as one is selling you something.

What ChatGPT ads are

A ChatGPT ad is a sponsored unit that appears below a ChatGPT answer. It sits in its own box, it is labelled as sponsored, and it is separate from the answer itself. OpenAI's position is that ads do not influence what ChatGPT says.

The unit is small and mostly text. Each ad carries:

Your brand name and favicon.
A short headline.
A line or two of description.
An image.
A link to a landing page.

There is no video, no sound and no long copy. Character limits have been reported differently across sources and have already changed once, so check them in Ads Manager before you write anything.

Who sees them

Logged-in users on the Free and Go plans.
Adults only. Nobody under 18 is shown ads.
Not Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education users. Paying subscribers see no ads at all.

That last point shapes the audience more than people expect. Some of the heaviest ChatGPT users are on Plus and are out of reach. What you get instead is the very large free user base, which skews broader and less technical than the people you probably picture using ChatGPT.

How targeting works, and why it is not Meta

This is the difference that matters. Meta decides who sees your ad based on who they are: interests, behaviour, resemblance to your buyers. ChatGPT decides mainly on what the person is talking about in that moment.

You do not bid on keywords either. Each ad group carries context hints, plain-language descriptions of the conversations the ads belong in, such as "someone comparing protein powders for weight loss". The system uses them as guidance, but it makes the final call, and a hint does not guarantee delivery.

What else feeds the match

Beyond the current conversation, the system weighs approximate location, device, language and time of day. In the US, users who leave ad personalization on can also have their past chats and their history with ads factored in. Users can switch that off in settings.

Europe launched narrower: no chat history and no personal profile, just the current conversation and those basic signals, with targeting at country level only. If you sell into both markets, expect the same campaign to behave differently on each side of the Atlantic.

The practical consequence: on Meta, the algorithm finds the buyer and the creative's job is to stop them. On ChatGPT, the conversation has already found the buyer, and the ad's job is to be the obvious answer to what they just asked.

What advertisers can and cannot see

It will come up with your legal team, so it is worth knowing before it does.

Advertisers never see conversations, chat history, memories or personal details. OpenAI says it does not sell user data.
Reporting is aggregate: impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate, average CPC, average CPM and conversions.
Users can limit personalization, opt out of personalized ads, or remove ads entirely by paying for a subscription.

So you will never know exactly what someone asked before they clicked. You will know which ad group and which ad earned the click, which is enough to learn from if the ad groups are built around distinct buying questions.

How to buy ChatGPT ads

At launch, buying went through OpenAI's sales team and a handful of large agency holding companies, with commitments far beyond what most DTC brands would put into an untested channel. The self-serve Ads Manager changed that. It opened to US businesses in May and to Europe at the end of August, and by mid-September it was taking advertisers registered in more than fifty countries.

Ads have to sit in an approved category and clear OpenAI's policy review. Expect health, finance and anything regulated to get more scrutiny, and read the policy before you build a campaign around a claim.

Campaign structure

Three levels, which will feel familiar:

1Campaign: objective, budget, dates and location.
2Ad group: a themed set of ads plus the context hints that describe where they belong.
3Ad: one unit with headline, description, image and link.

Measurement

There is a pixel and a Conversions API, the same model you already run on Meta. Set both up before you spend the first dollar. Start with three to five events that actually matter to the business: purchase, add to cart, lead. Without them you are grading the channel on clicks, and clicks tell you nothing about whether it paid.

What ChatGPT ads cost

There are two ways to pay: per thousand impressions (CPM) or per click (CPC). CPC arrived with self-serve in May, and for most brands testing the channel it is the better starting point, because you only pay when someone reaches your site.

Prices have moved fast. During the US pilot, CPMs were reported around $60 at launch and had fallen sharply within a few months. For CPC, OpenAI's guidance at the self-serve launch was to start with a maximum bid of $3 to $5 per click.

Treat all of that as a snapshot. Prices are set at auction, and the auction in most categories is still thin because most brands have not shown up yet. That is the main reason to test early: the cheap part of a new channel is always the part before everyone else arrives.

The minimum spend has been cut more than once since launch, and published figures disagree. Check the current threshold in Ads Manager when you open the account, and ring-fence a test budget you are prepared to lose in exchange for learning.

ChatGPT ads vs Meta ads

They do different jobs, which is why the framing of one replacing the other is wrong.

Meta creates demand. It interrupts someone who was not thinking about your product and gives them a reason to want it. That is a creative problem: a hook that stops the scroll in the first three seconds and a promise strong enough to earn the next ten.

ChatGPT captures demand that already exists. The person has decided they need something and is asking what to choose. That is an offer problem: a clear reason to pick you, stated in a sentence, landing on a page that proves it.

The part nobody pitching the channel mentions

A sponsored box from a brand the person has never heard of is easy to ignore. The same box from a brand they have seen on Instagram three times this month is a familiar name showing up at the moment of decision. ChatGPT ads harvest awareness that something else built, and for most DTC brands that something else is Meta.

Which means the brands best placed to win on ChatGPT are the ones whose Meta creative is already doing its job. Pull budget from a working Meta account to fund ChatGPT, and you may find you have weakened the thing that made the ChatGPT clicks cheap.

Which DTC brands should test ChatGPT ads now

The useful question is not whether ChatGPT ads work. It is whether your customer asks for advice before they buy.

Strong fit

Considered purchases, where people compare before they commit: mattresses, supplements, skincare routines, fitness equipment, watches.
Problem-led products, where the buyer describes a problem before they know the category exists.
Categories with a clear best-for answer: best for sensitive skin, best under $200, best for small apartments.
Gifting, where people ask ChatGPT what to buy for someone else.

Weak fit

Impulse products nobody would ever ask an assistant about.
Genuinely new categories nobody is searching for yet. You need to put those in front of people who do not know they want them, which is Meta's job.
Anything that sells on the visual or the feeling. A small text unit cannot carry what a 20-second video carries.
Categories restricted by ad policy.

How to run a first ChatGPT ads test

1Write down the twenty questions a customer might ask before buying from you. Then ask ChatGPT each one and read what comes back, including which brands it names.
2Group the questions into three or four buying situations. Each becomes an ad group with its own context hints.
3Write two or three ads per group. Not variations of the same line, but different reasons to choose you: price, proof, speed, guarantee, fit for a specific situation.
4Use images that read at thumbnail size. One product, one face or one clear claim. Not a lifestyle collage.
5Send each group to the page that answers that question, not to the homepage. The person arrived with a specific question and needs the answer immediately.
6Give it at least two weeks before judging, and judge on conversions and cost per purchase, not click-through rate.

Step one is the one most brands skip, and it is useful even if you never buy an ad. If ChatGPT names three competitors when someone asks about your category and never names you, that is information about your positioning, not just your media plan.

How much budget to move

A small, ring-fenced slice, funded from incremental budget rather than taken out of a Meta account that is working. The goal of the first month is to find out whether the channel reaches your buyer in your category at a cost you can live with. It is not to scale.

What good ChatGPT ad creative looks like

The rule is the same as everywhere: an ad needs a reason to work before it is made. What changes is the reason.

Answer, do not interrupt. The person is mid-conversation. Copy that sounds like a feed ad reads as loud and out of place.
Name who it is for. "Protein for women over 40" does more than "The best protein", because the reader recognises their own situation.
One specific reason, stated as a fact. There is no room for three benefits. Pick the one that separates you and put a number or a proof point on it.
Do not promise what the page does not confirm. If the ad leads with a price, the price should be the first thing on the page.

And fatigue applies here too. People ask similar questions again and again, and the same user will see the same unit more than once. The first ad that works will not work forever, so have the next angle ready before the first one tires.

Where The Ad Runway fits

We build performance creative for Meta: new concepts, formats and variations, on a ten-day cycle, so the account always has something fresh in testing. We do not manage ChatGPT campaigns, the same way we do not manage your Meta campaigns. That stays with you or your media buyer.

The connection is direct, though. ChatGPT ads work best for brands people already recognise, and for most DTC brands that recognition is built in the feed. The stronger your Meta creative, the more familiar your name is when it shows up under a ChatGPT answer.

If you want to know whether your current Meta creative is doing that job, book a call and we will go through the account with you.

Questions we get asked

What are ChatGPT ads?: Sponsored placements OpenAI shows below ChatGPT's answers to logged-in adult users on the Free and Go plans. Each ad has a brand name, headline, short description, image and link, and is labelled as sponsored and kept separate from the answer.
How do I advertise on ChatGPT?: Through OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager, which opened to US businesses in May 2026 and has since expanded to Europe and other markets. You create an account, install the pixel or Conversions API, build a campaign with ad groups and context hints, and submit ads for policy review. Larger advertisers can also buy through OpenAI's sales team or agency partners.
How much do ChatGPT ads cost?: You pay either per thousand impressions or per click, set at auction. In the US pilot, CPMs were reported around $60 at launch and have fallen since, and OpenAI's CPC guidance at the self-serve launch was a starting maximum bid of $3 to $5. Check the current minimum in Ads Manager, as it has changed more than once.
Do ChatGPT ads influence ChatGPT's answers?: OpenAI says no. The ad appears in a separate, labelled unit below the answer, and paying for ads does not make ChatGPT recommend your brand in its response.
Can advertisers see my ChatGPT conversations?: No. Advertisers only see aggregate reporting such as impressions, clicks, spend and conversions. Matching happens on OpenAI's side, and conversations are not shared with advertisers.
Who sees ads in ChatGPT?: Logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans. Users on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans see no ads, and nobody under 18 is shown them.
Should ChatGPT ads replace Meta ads?: No. ChatGPT ads capture demand from people already asking what to buy, much like search. Meta creates demand among people who were not looking. For most DTC brands, ChatGPT works best as an incremental test funded alongside a working Meta account, not out of it.