How to advertise on ChatGPT: setup guide for the self-serve Ads Manager

Short answer: Since May 2026, businesses can buy ChatGPT ads themselves in OpenAI’s Ads Manager at ads.openai.com. You need a business in a supported country, a credit card and a daily budget of at least 25 USD. You then build a campaign, an ad group described by free-text “context hints”, and an ad with a title, description, image and landing page. Install the OpenAI pixel before you launch, otherwise you cannot judge results.

This guide covers each step. Everything here was checked against OpenAI’s own pages on October 3, 2026. ChatGPT ads are still labeled beta, so check the linked sources before you rely on any detail.

Where ChatGPT ads appear and who sees them

• Placement: ads appear below ChatGPT’s answer, labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the response. A user may see one or more ad units under one answer (OpenAI Help Center).
• Audience: logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts do not see ads. OpenAI does not show ads to accounts it identifies as under 18, and ads do not appear in Temporary Chats.
• Answer independence: OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers and that advertisers never see chats, chat history or memories – only aggregated performance data (OpenAI, January 16, 2026).

How it got here: OpenAI announced ads on January 16, 2026, started a US test on February 9, 2026, and opened a beta self-serve Ads Manager with CPC bidding, a pixel and a Conversions API on May 5, 2026 (OpenAI). By September 23, 2026, OpenAI said ChatGPT ads were available in more than 60 countries.

Can your business use the self-serve Ads Manager?

Check three things before you start:

1. Your country. The legal entity that advertises and is billed must be based in a country listed on OpenAI’s Ads Manager availability page. On October 3, 2026 it listed 63 countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
2. Your category. OpenAI currently allows household and consumer goods, local services, travel and entertainment, and digital products and education. Financial, health and legal services are allowed only in the US, case by case. Adult content, alcohol and tobacco, gambling, political ads, recreational drugs and unsubstantiated wellness claims are not allowed (Ad policies, version 1.6, September 2026).
3. Your home market. Some new self-serve accounts can at first advertise only in their home country. Other countries unlock after identity verification and a certain amount of spend at home. OpenAI does not publish that amount.

If you manage several brands, create one ad account per advertiser. One login can switch between accounts.

Step 1: Create the ad account

1. Sign in at ads.openai.com with an OpenAI account.
2. Optionally enter your website URL – Ads Manager uses it to draft a first campaign and ad.
3. Enter the advertiser name and account details. Country, currency and time zone cannot be changed later, so choose the ones you report in.
4. Set up billing with a credit card. Campaigns do not deliver until billing is complete.
5. Confirm brand name and logo, then invite colleagues as Admin, Member or Viewer.

Ads stop serving while account review, business verification or billing is incomplete (Quickstart).

Step 2: Install tracking before the first campaign

Set up the OpenAI pixel, and ideally the server-side Conversions API, before you spend. Conversion-optimized campaigns need these events, and without them you only see clicks. Our guide to ChatGPT ads tracking covers installation, deduplication and consent.

Step 3: Create a campaign

A campaign sets objective, budget, schedule and targeting. Campaigns can be built in a guided flow or by bulk upload.

Setting	Options (as of October 3, 2026)
Objective	Views (billed per 1,000 impressions), Clicks (billed per click) or Conversions (optimized, billed per click or impression – not per conversion)
Budget	Campaign total or daily; minimum 25 USD per day
Locations	Country, plus states, cities, markets or postal codes (product-feed campaigns: country only)
Platforms	Android app, Android web, desktop web, iOS app, iOS web
Audiences	Custom audiences from hashed emails, phone numbers or mobile ad IDs; inclusion needs at least 25,000 matched users

A daily budget is averaged over a Sunday-to-Saturday week. One day can spend up to twice the daily budget, the week up to seven times. In the EEA and Switzerland, personalized ads are not available, and OpenAI advises against custom audiences for campaigns there.

Step 4: Create an ad group with context hints

Ad groups bundle ads around a theme. Instead of keywords, you describe the conversations where your ad fits in free text – OpenAI calls these context hints. They are “not exact-match keywords or targeting rules, and they do not guarantee delivery” (OpenAI Help Center). OpenAI selects ads using the conversation, your landing page, title and copy, your context hints and targeting, and – where personalization is on – other ChatGPT signals.

For a shop, write context hints the way customers ask: “comparing running shoes for flat feet”, “gift ideas for a coffee lover under $50”, not single keywords.

Step 5: Create the ad

The standard format is a chat card with:

• a title and description,
• an image of at least 640 × 640 pixels,
• a landing page, shown with your brand name and logo.

Two details are easy to miss:

• Your landing page must not block OpenAI’s crawlers OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot. Check your robots.txt, CDN bot settings and firewall rules.
• You can add your own UTM parameters to the destination URL, so ChatGPT traffic shows up separately in your analytics.

Since September 2026, Ads Manager can also suggest ad copy and images (OpenAI, September 16, 2026). Review the suggestions like any copy.

Retailers: product-feed campaigns

Retail advertisers can create campaigns from a product feed (beta). These ads show catalog items with product images, titles, ratings, prices and sale prices, and can appear as carousels. OpenAI says feed ads have been among the strongest-performing ads in its program. Products uploaded for ads do not appear in organic ChatGPT answers during the beta (OpenAI Help Center).

Step 6: Review, launch and watch

Advertisers, ads, landing pages and placements are reviewed, mostly by automated systems with human escalation. After launch, Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, average CPC and CPM, and conversions. Impressions and clicks refresh about every 15 minutes; spend can lag by several hours. Pausing does not stop charges immediately – they can continue for up to 24 hours.

Other ways to buy

• OpenAI’s Ads Solutions team for larger budgets.
• Agency partners: OpenAI names dentsu, Havas Media, Omnicom Media, Publicis Groupe and WPP (September 23, 2026).
• Advertiser API: campaigns, ad groups, ads, product feeds, conversion setup and reporting can be managed programmatically at api.ads.openai.com (API overview).

Launch checklist for e-commerce

• Business based in a supported country, category allowed
• Pixel and Conversions API live, test purchase visible
• robots.txt and bot protection allow OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot
• UTM parameters on every destination URL
• Product feed prepared if you sell physical products
• Context hints written as real customer questions
• A clear goal (cost per acquisition or ROAS) and a test budget – see ChatGPT ads cost

FAQ

Can any business advertise on ChatGPT?

Businesses can buy ChatGPT ads through OpenAI’s self-serve Ads Manager if the legal entity that is billed is based in a supported country – 63 countries were listed on October 3, 2026, including the United States. Larger advertisers can also buy through OpenAI’s sales team or agency partners. Some categories, such as alcohol, gambling and political ads, are not allowed.

What is the minimum budget for ChatGPT ads?

In the self-serve Ads Manager there is no spend commitment, only a minimum daily budget – 25 USD per day for US-dollar accounts as of October 3, 2026.

Who sees ads in ChatGPT?

Ads can appear for adult users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts do not see ads, and OpenAI does not show ads to accounts it identifies as belonging to users under 18.

Do ads change ChatGPT’s answers?

According to OpenAI, no. Ads appear below the answer, are labeled as sponsored, and OpenAI states that ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives.

Sources

Facts checked on 2026-10-03. Ads in AI assistants change quickly – if something here is out of date, email analytics@webwombats.com.

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