Kuldeep Paul

ChatGPT Ads Index

What ads in ChatGPT cost, how they perform, who is buying them and how the platform has changed since launch, compiled from every public source I could find.

Compiled by , data aggregatorUpdated 364 recordsMethodology

$4.00median CPC (47 reports)
$38median CPM (29 reports)
0.98%median CTR (46 reports)
1.9%median conversion rate (9 reports)

Medians of distinct reported values in USD; ranges use their midpoint. See all 184 data points.

Median reported CPM by month (USD)

Feb: $60; Mar: $60; Apr: $35; May: $43; Jun: $77; Jul: $40; Aug: $47; Sep: $36; Oct: $13$0$45$90FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOct$13
CPMs fell from the $60 launch price within two months; October reflects cheaper newer markets. Source: ChatGPT Ads benchmarks

ChatGPT Ads at a glance

Launched
9 February 2026 (US pilot); announced 16 January 2026
Availability
89 countries as of 21 October 2026 · openai.com
Who sees ads
Logged-in adults on Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and under-18 accounts are ad-free · help.openai.com
Placement
Below the answer, clearly labelled; not shown near health, mental-health or political conversations
Buying
CPM (Views), CPC (Clicks) and conversion-optimised CPC via a relevance-weighted second-price auction
Recommended bid
$3–$5 starting CPC · help.openai.com
Minimum
$25 daily budget for self-serve (US); launch-era commitments were $200K+
Advertisers
100,000+ have run campaigns · openai.com
Revenue
$1B annualised run rate within 200 days of launch (OpenAI, Sept 2026)
Measurement
ChatGPT pixel, Conversions API, UTM parameters; landing pages are checked by OAI-AdsBot

Latest changes

Full timeline →
  1. Oct 26, 2026Multi-image ads open beta in Ads Manager4–6 square images sharing one title and body.
  2. Oct 21, 202626 more countries; 100,000+ advertisersChatGPT Ads reaches 89 countries; more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns.
  3. Oct 18, 2026Multi-image visual format during image generationOpenAI rewrites its ads help article and introduces a multi-image ad format.
  4. Sep 23, 2026Asia expansion takes ChatGPT Ads past 60 countriesSeven more Asian markets including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
  5. Sep 22, 2026Equativ joins as technology partnerEquativ launches Ad Studio for ChatGPT Ads.
  6. Sep 17, 2026Shopify storefront integrationChatGPT Ads integration announced for Shopify merchants.

Most-reported advertisers

All 141 →

Target (Retail), Adobe (Software), Williams-Sonoma (Retail), Expedia (Travel), Best Buy (Retail), Audible (Media & entertainment), Ford (Automotive), Mazda (Automotive), Albertsons (Grocery), BestMoney (Finance), Jotform (Software), Mrs. Meyer's (Consumer goods).

In this index

  1. ChatGPT Ads benchmarks: CPM, CPC, CTR, ROAS184
  2. Brands advertising on ChatGPT141
  3. ChatGPT Ads timeline and changelog39
  4. OAI-AdsBot: the crawler that reviews your landing pages

Questions

Does ChatGPT have ads?

Yes. OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in the United States on 9 February 2026. Ads appear below ChatGPT's answers for logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise accounts, and users identified as under 18, do not see ads. As of 21 October 2026, ChatGPT Ads were available in 89 countries.

How much do ChatGPT ads cost?

Across 184 publicly reported data points, the median reported CPC is $4.00 and the median CPM is $37.64. CPMs launched around $60 in February 2026 and fell to $25–$45 by April as CPC bidding arrived. OpenAI recommends starting CPC bids at $3–$5.

What is the minimum spend for ChatGPT ads?

At launch, OpenAI asked pilot advertisers for commitments of roughly $200,000–$250,000. That fell to $50,000 in April 2026, and the self-serve minimum was removed in May 2026. US self-serve campaigns now start from a $25 daily budget; in India the minimum daily budget is ₹725.

What is the average CTR of ChatGPT ads?

The median click-through rate across 46 reported figures is 0.98%, with most reports between 0.6% and 1.5%. That is well below typical Google Search ad CTRs; ads sit beneath the answer rather than above it.

How do you run ads on ChatGPT?

Through ChatGPT Ads Manager (self-serve, at ads.openai.com), through OpenAI's Ads Solutions sales team, or through agency and technology partners such as Criteo, StackAdapt, Adobe, Kargo, Pacvue and the major holding companies. Campaigns are organised as campaign, ad group and ad. Billing is per impression (CPM) or per click (CPC), with conversion-optimised bidding.

What do ChatGPT ads look like?

A labelled unit under the answer showing the advertiser name, favicon, headline, description, image and landing page. Product ads add price and star ratings. OpenAI has since tested product carousels, multi-image ads and Sponsored Agents, which open a chat with the brand's own AI agent.

Which brands advertise on ChatGPT?

Early advertisers included Target, Adobe, Expedia, Williams-Sonoma, Best Buy, Ford, Audible and Mazda. This index tracks 141 brands named in public reporting; OpenAI says more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns.

Analysis using this data

  1. The $4 click: what 184 data points reveal about ChatGPT AdsCPC anchored to OpenAI's recommended bid, CPM and CPC converging, and a $250K club turned $25-a-day long tail.

How to cite this data

This dataset is free to use, including commercially, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The one rule is attribution:

  1. Credit the source as “Kuldeep Paul, kuldeep.cc” wherever you use a figure, chart or table from it.
  2. Link to this page (https://kuldeep.cc/data/chatgpt-ads), not to the download file, so readers can check the source of every number.
  3. Include the date. These figures change; say “as of Oct 29, 2026” or link to the version you used.
  4. Mark changes. If you filter, recalculate or chart the data yourself, say so (“analysis based on data from…”).
  5. Cite the original source for single figures when you quote one reported number; it is linked in every row.

In running text: according to Kuldeep Paul's ChatGPT Ads Index (kuldeep.cc). More in the methodology.

APA

Paul, K. (2026). ChatGPT Ads Index [Data set]. kuldeep.cc. https://kuldeep.cc/data/chatgpt-ads

MLA

Paul, Kuldeep. "ChatGPT Ads Index." kuldeep.cc, 29 October 2026, https://kuldeep.cc/data/chatgpt-ads.

Chicago

Paul, Kuldeep. 2026. "ChatGPT Ads Index." Dataset. kuldeep.cc. Updated Oct 29, 2026. https://kuldeep.cc/data/chatgpt-ads.

BibTeX

@misc{paul2026chatgptads, author = {Paul, Kuldeep}, title = {ChatGPT Ads Index}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {\url{https://kuldeep.cc/data/chatgpt-ads}}, note = {Dataset, CC BY 4.0, updated 2026-10-29} }

HTML link

<a href="https://kuldeep.cc/data/chatgpt-ads">ChatGPT Ads Index</a> (data: Kuldeep Paul, kuldeep.cc)