HOW TO · 10 MIN READ
How to advertise on ChatGPT: a step-by-step guide to ChatGPT ads
By the Seamwire team · Updated
THE SHORT ANSWER
To advertise on ChatGPT, open an ad account in OpenAI's Ads Manager at ads.openai.com, add OpenAI's tracking Pixel to your website, and build a campaign: choose whether you pay for views or clicks, set a daily budget and a maximum bid, describe the conversations you want to appear in, and upload an ad with a title, a short description and an image. OpenAI reviews every ad before it runs. Self-service buying is open to businesses registered in India, the UAE, the UK, the US and most other large markets, as long as your category is allowed. Everything below was checked against OpenAI's own help centre, documentation and ad policies on 12 November 2026.
What are ChatGPT ads?
ChatGPT ads are sponsored cards that appear below ChatGPT's response when the conversation is relevant to what the advertiser sells. Each card shows the advertiser's name and logo, a title, a short description, an image and a link. It is labelled as sponsored and kept separate from the answer.
OpenAI began testing ads in the United States in February 2026, opened a self-service Ads Manager in May 2026, and extended self-service buying to India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa on 31 August 2026. People on ChatGPT's free and Go plans see ads. People on Plus, Pro and Business plans do not, and nor do accounts identified as under 18.
Who can advertise on ChatGPT?
Two things decide it: where your company is registered, and what you sell. OpenAI requires the legal entity that advertises and is billed to be based in a country on its availability list. India, the UAE, the UK and the US are all on it, with most of Europe, the Gulf, South-East Asia and Latin America.
The category rules are stricter than Google's or Meta's. OpenAI says it is starting with consumer categories and widening over time. Check your category before you spend time on an account.
| Status | Categories | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Supported | Household and consumer goods, local services, travel and entertainment, digital products, education | The categories OpenAI names as its focus |
| Restricted | Financial services, health services, legal services | Approved case by case in the US; generally not allowed for advertisers elsewhere |
| Not allowed | Alcohol, tobacco and vaping, gambling, dating and adult content, political content, recreational drugs, counterfeit goods | Applies in every country |
| Not allowed | Individual property listings and individual job listings | A property or jobs platform can advertise itself, without pointing at one listing |
How to advertise on ChatGPT, step by step
- Check the policy. Read OpenAI's ad policies for your category and country before anything else. If you are in a restricted category outside the US, stop here.
- Create the ad account at ads.openai.com. You give a brand name and logo, which appear on your ads, and choose a billing currency. The currency and time zone are fixed when the account is created, so choose them carefully.
- Set up conversion tracking. Add OpenAI's measurement Pixel to your site, or send events from your server with the Conversions API. Where the law requires consent for tracking, configure it before the Pixel loads.
- Create a campaign and choose an objective: Views (you pay per thousand impressions), Clicks (you pay per click) or Conversions (optimised towards a conversion event, and billed per click or per thousand impressions, never per conversion).
- Set the budget: daily or lifetime, one per campaign. OpenAI sets a minimum daily budget that depends on your currency.
- Create an ad group. Set the maximum bid, the countries and devices, and the context hints: plain descriptions of the conversations where your product is relevant.
- Write the ad: a title, a description, an image and the landing page address. Write two or three versions so you can compare them.
- Add tracking parameters to the landing page address, so the visits show up correctly in your own analytics.
- Submit for review. OpenAI checks the advertiser, the ad and the landing page. An ad can sit in review after you switch it on; it only runs once approved.
- Read the report after a few days and adjust: pause ads that get views but no clicks, rewrite hints that bring the wrong conversations, and raise or lower bids on evidence.
ChatGPT ad specifications
These are the limits in OpenAI's documentation for the standard ad card.
| Part of the ad | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Title | 3 to 50 characters |
| Description | Up to 100 characters |
| Image | JPEG, PNG or WebP, at least 640 by 640 pixels |
| Brand name and logo | Set on the ad account; logo at least 256 by 256 pixels |
| Landing page | A public http or https address that OpenAI's ad crawler can open |
| Context hints | Plain-language descriptions of relevant conversations, set on the ad group |
How much does it cost to advertise on ChatGPT?
There is no price list. ChatGPT ads are sold by auction: you set the most you are willing to pay for a click or for a thousand views, and the auction sets what you actually pay. For click campaigns, OpenAI's help centre recommends starting with a maximum bid of 3 to 5 US dollars per click. Ads Manager shows whether your bid is likely to be competitive.
What OpenAI does fix is a minimum daily budget for each campaign, by billing currency. These were the minimums on 12 November 2026.
| Billing currency | Minimum daily campaign budget |
|---|---|
| Indian rupee (INR) | 725 |
| UAE dirham (AED) | 65 |
| Saudi riyal (SAR) | 50 |
| Pound sterling (GBP) | 15 |
| Euro (EUR) | 15 |
| US dollar (USD) | 25 |
| Australian, Canadian and Singapore dollars | 25 |
How ChatGPT ads are targeted
There are no keywords to bid on. OpenAI's system decides when to show an ad from the context and intent of the conversation, the ad's own title, description and landing page, and the context hints you supply. OpenAI is clear that hints guide the matching but are not exact-match keywords and do not guarantee your ad appears in a particular conversation.
Beyond hints, you can choose countries and regions, choose devices, and upload customer lists to exclude existing customers or to bid differently for them. The documentation describes no targeting by age, gender or interest. Ads are also kept away from sensitive conversations, such as those about mental health or politics.
How to measure ChatGPT ads
Ads Manager reports views, clicks, spend, click-through rate, average cost per click, average cost per thousand views and conversions. Views and clicks update roughly every 15 minutes. Spend can lag by several hours, so a spend of zero early in the day does not mean nothing has been charged.
Conversions are counted through the Pixel or the Conversions API. You can set the attribution window for clicks to 7, 14 or 30 days. Tracking parameters added to your landing page address carry through, so your own analytics can separate ChatGPT ad visits from everything else.
One thing you will not get is a report of what people typed. Conversations stay private from advertisers, and reporting is aggregate only.
Why a ChatGPT ad is rejected or does not show
- The category is not allowed, or is restricted in your country.
- The landing page cannot be opened by OpenAI's crawler: it sits behind a login, blocks bots, or redirects in a way the crawler cannot follow.
- The landing page does not match the ad, or introduces something the policy does not allow.
- The ad makes a claim that cannot be supported: a guaranteed result, a false comparison, an endorsement you do not have.
- The ad imitates ChatGPT's own interface or voice.
- The ad is approved but the bid is too low, the targeting too narrow, or the daily budget already spent.
ChatGPT ads vs being recommended by ChatGPT
These are two different things, and paying for one does not get you the other. An ad is a labelled card below the answer. A recommendation is your company's name inside the answer itself. OpenAI states that ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives.
Being recommended is unpaid and slower: it depends on whether AI crawlers can read your site, whether your pages answer buyers' questions plainly, and what reviews, directories and publications say about you. Since November 2026 you can also claim your business in ChatGPT through OpenAI's Business Hub, which lets you correct your details and see how often you are mentioned. Many businesses will want all three: the claimed profile, the unpaid work and a tested ad budget.
Is advertising on ChatGPT worth it?
Nobody can tell you from benchmarks yet, because the platform is months old and OpenAI has published only a few examples. What can be said is who it suits: businesses whose buyers think out loud before they buy, comparing options and asking what to look for, in a category OpenAI allows.
The honest way to find out is a small test with tracking in place. Run it beside your existing channels for a few weeks and compare the cost of an enquiry or an order. If it works, scale it. If it does not, you have spent little and learned something your competitors have not.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to advertise on ChatGPT?
You set the budget. Ads are sold by auction and billed per click or per thousand views. OpenAI suggests starting click campaigns with a maximum bid of 3 to 5 US dollars, and sets a minimum daily budget by currency: 25 US dollars, 15 pounds, 725 Indian rupees or 65 UAE dirhams when we checked on 12 November 2026.
Does ChatGPT have an Ads Manager?
Yes, at ads.openai.com. It is where you create the account, set up tracking, build campaigns and read the reports. OpenAI still describes it as a beta product, so screens and options change often.
Can I advertise on ChatGPT from India?
Yes. India is on OpenAI's list of countries where self-service Ads Manager is available. The company that is billed must be registered in India or another listed country, and the category must be allowed.
How do I promote my business on ChatGPT?
There are three routes. Claim your business in ChatGPT through Business Hub so your details are correct. Do the unpaid work that gets you named in answers: a site AI can read, clear answers on your pages, and mentions on trusted sites. And, if your category is allowed, run ChatGPT ads for immediate visibility.
Can I target keywords with ChatGPT ads?
No. You write context hints that describe relevant conversations. OpenAI uses them, with the conversation's context and your ad and landing page, to decide when to show the ad. Hints are not exact-match keywords.
Who sees ChatGPT ads?
People on the free and Go plans. Plus, Pro and Business plan users do not see ads, and neither do accounts identified as under 18. Ads do not appear in temporary chats or beside sensitive conversations.
How long does ChatGPT ad review take?
OpenAI does not publish a review time. Most reviews are automated, with some passed to people. Plan for the first ads to take longer, because the advertiser account is reviewed as well as the ad and landing page.
Do ChatGPT ads improve my ranking in ChatGPT's answers?
No. OpenAI states that advertising does not influence ChatGPT's answers. Ads and answers are separate systems.
Do I need an agency to run ChatGPT ads?
No. The Ads Manager is self-service and a small business can run it alone. An agency is useful when you want tracking set up properly, several countries or product lines managed, or someone to keep up with a platform that changes every few weeks.
SOURCES
- 1OpenAI help centre, Ads in ChatGPT: the basics
- 2OpenAI help centre, Ads Manager availability
- 3OpenAI help centre, Creating campaigns for ChatGPT ads
- 4OpenAI, Ad policies (updated 10 September 2026)
- 5OpenAI, A milestone in expanding access to AI (31 August 2026)
- 6OpenAI, Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT (16 January 2026)
- 7OpenAI developer documentation, Ads