Advertisers test ChatGPT ads
- Advertisers are piloting a ChatGPT Ads Manager interface to buy ads inside ChatGPT responses. - Early tests reach fewer than 20% of eligible free and ChatGPT Go users in the U.S., per industry reporting. - The conversational ad environment appears different from search, and many brands say they are not yet ready to optimize for it (searchengineland.com) (thedrum.com).
OpenAI is testing a new Ads Manager inside ChatGPT, giving some marketers direct tools to buy and adjust ads in the chatbot. (searchengineland.com) Search Engine Land reported on April 22 that advertisers are seeing a dashboard for running, monitoring, and optimizing campaigns in real time, instead of relying on basic reports such as weekly comma-separated value files. The publication said brands including Best Buy and Expedia have appeared in early ad tests. (searchengineland.com) OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in the United States on February 9, 2026, for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go tiers. OpenAI said on March 26 that it would expand pilots to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in the following weeks. (openai.com) (help.openai.com) ChatGPT ads work differently from search ads because they appear below the end of a response, inside an ongoing conversation, rather than beside a list of links. OpenAI said ads are matched to the current chat topic and, for users who allow personalization, can also use past chats and past ad interactions. (help.openai.com) (openai.com) OpenAI has tied the ad push to the economics of its lower-cost plans. On January 16, the company launched ChatGPT Go globally and priced it at $8 a month in the United States, while saying ads would help fund broader access to Free and Go without putting ads in Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Education accounts. (openai.com 1) (openai.com 2) (help.openai.com) The company has also drawn tighter lines around where ads can run than most web ad systems. OpenAI’s ad policies, published March 20, bar ad placement near health, mental health, politics, legal and financial advice, gambling, self-harm, weapons, and other sensitive or regulated topics. (openai.com) OpenAI says advertisers cannot alter ChatGPT’s answers and do not get users’ conversations. The company says ads are clearly labeled as sponsored, shown on separate systems from the chat model, and can be personalized only if a user chooses that setting. (openai.com) (help.openai.com) (openai.com) The ad market is still treating the format as an experiment. A recent Drum opinion piece said many marketers still do not know how to measure or “rank” inside large language model products, while OpenAI’s advertiser sign-up page describes the effort as an exploration rather than a full public launch. (thedrum.com) (openai.com) The next test is whether OpenAI turns this pilot into a broad self-serve business. The new Ads Manager suggests the company is building something closer to Google Ads or Meta’s ad tools, but the rollout remains limited and phased. (searchengineland.com) (openai.com)
