OpenAI shows ads inside ChatGPT now. If your customers are the people asking ChatGPT for advice all day, that is a new place to reach them at the exact moment they are working something out, and most businesses haven't built a playbook for it yet.
Updated October 2026: every product fact below was checked against OpenAI's own pages and developer docs this week. It is a young product that changes often, so confirm budgets and eligibility inside Ads Manager before you commit money.
What ChatGPT Ads is
ChatGPT Ads is OpenAI's own ad platform. You sign up and run campaigns in Ads Manager at ads.openai.com, which OpenAI still labels a beta.
An ad appears below the end of a ChatGPT response when there is a relevant sponsored product or service for the conversation. It is labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the answer. OpenAI says ads run on separate systems from the chat model and don't influence what ChatGPT answers, and that conversations are kept private from advertisers. You are buying a card next to the answer, not a mention in it.
Who sees the ads, and where
Plans. Ads show to logged-in adults on ChatGPT's Free and Go plans. People on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu don't see ads, and OpenAI doesn't show ads to accounts it identifies as belonging to someone under 18.
Topics. Ads are not eligible to appear near sensitive or regulated topics, which OpenAI names as including personal health, mental health and politics.
Countries. Testing started in the US in February 2026. Since then ChatGPT Ads has launched in the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea, across 31 European markets, and in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan. OpenAI now says it is available in more than 60 countries.
One catch for new accounts: some new self-serve accounts can only advertise in their home country at first. They become eligible for other supported countries after identity verification is approved and they reach a required amount of spend at home.
Devices. A campaign can target the ChatGPT iOS app, the Android app, the web, or any mix. Leave it alone and it runs on all of them.
Can your business advertise?
OpenAI's ad policies disallow some categories outright at this stage, including dating and adult content, gambling, and political ads. Others are restricted: financial services, for example, are allowed in the US only for approved advertisers in specific product types, case by case. OpenAI also says an advertiser whose main business falls in a restricted category (it gives healthcare and weapons as examples) may not be eligible at all. Read the current ad policies for your category before you build anything.
Your account itself is reviewed too. It can't serve until its brand review is approved, and every new ad goes through creative review when you create it. A clear, specific landing page that matches your ad makes both easier.
What a ChatGPT ad is made of
The standard ad unit is a chat card. It is small, so the words and the image carry all the weight.
| Piece | Set where | What OpenAI asks for |
|---|---|---|
| Advertiser name | Ad account | Shows on every ad |
| Brand icon | Ad account | Image at least 128 by 128 pixels |
| Title | Each ad | 3 to 50 characters |
| Body | Each ad | Up to 100 characters |
| Image | Each ad | JPEG, PNG or WebP, at least 640 by 640 pixels |
| Landing page | Each ad | An http or https link OpenAI's crawler can reach |
Fifty characters is about six words, so write the title as the answer to the question your customer was just asking. Add UTM tags to the landing page so ChatGPT traffic shows up in your own analytics. (OpenAI also runs product-feed campaigns for catalogs, in open beta. This guide sticks to the chat card.)
How a campaign is structured
- Campaign: the objective, the budget, the schedule, and who is eligible (locations, platforms, audiences).
- Ad group: how you bid, and the context hints: short descriptions of when your ads might be useful.
- Ad: the chat card itself.
OpenAI's own guidance is to use separate campaigns when you need separate budgets, objectives or targeting, and separate ad groups for different bids or context hints.
Objectives, bidding and what it costs
There are three objectives:
| Objective | You pay for | Bid strategies |
|---|---|---|
| Views (impressions) | Impressions, quoted as CPM | Fixed bid |
| Clicks | Each click | Fixed bid, or Maximize clicks |
| Conversions | Each valid click, while optimizing for one conversion event | Fixed bid, or Maximize conversions |
The "Maximize" strategies let OpenAI set the bid to get the most results from a daily budget. A fixed bid means you set the amount yourself. Conversion campaigns need conversion tracking first (OpenAI's pixel, its Conversions API, or both) and optimize toward one standard event such as a purchase, a lead or a registration.
There is no published price list: you set a budget and bid, and minimum budgets depend on your account currency. Reporting shows impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, average CPC, average CPM and conversions.
Run ChatGPT Ads through the API
You don't have to do everything by hand in Ads Manager. OpenAI publishes an Advertiser API (developers.openai.com/ads) that creates and manages campaigns, ad groups, ads, conversion tracking and reporting from software.
How access works is simple, and a little different from Meta or Google:
- One key per ad account. You create an Advertiser API key in the Settings page of Ads Manager. Each key belongs to a single ad account. There is no "sign in with OpenAI" button.
- The key is the permission. Whoever holds it can manage that account's campaigns, so treat it like a password, and delete it in Ads Manager whenever you want access to end.
- Partners use your key. OpenAI's partner documentation tells tools that manage accounts for their customers to use the key of each customer's ad account.
With that key, a tool can read your account, create the campaign, ad group and ad, upload the image, turn things on and off, change budgets and pull the numbers back: the Ads Manager clicks, done from one plain-English request.
What AdWhispr does with it
AdWhispr connects ChatGPT Ads next to Meta, Google, TikTok and X, so you run all of them from one chat. What ours does today:
- Connect by pasting your key on our site, never in chat. The key goes on the ChatGPT Ads connect page, where it's stored securely. Ask the chat to connect and it sends you that link; it never asks for the key in a conversation.
- Launch = campaign + ad group + chat card ad, all paused. You preview the exact title, body, image and link first, and nothing spends until you resume.
- Maximize clicks only, for now. Traffic, sales and leads goals all run as Maximize clicks on a daily budget. Conversion bidding needs OpenAI to enable it per account, so we bid for clicks and say so.
- Some objectives are refused, not quietly swapped. Awareness, engagement, app install and video goals get a clear "not available here" instead of a different campaign than you asked for.
- More than one ad group and ad per campaign. Add an ad group per customer intent, with its own context hints and up to ten ads, or add ads to an existing group. New groups follow the campaign's bidding and stay paused in a paused campaign.
- Manage and report. Pause, resume, budgets, rename and performance reads.
Where it runs. ChatGPT Ads launching works in the AdWhispr web app agent, through the custom connector at https://adwhispr.com/api/mcp in any MCP client, in Slack, in the AdWhispr app for Shopify, in the Claude Code / Cowork plugin (which launches campaigns but doesn't add extra ad groups yet), in the Claude directory connector, and in AdWhispr inside ChatGPT, so you can run your ChatGPT ads from ChatGPT itself. See which Claude surface does what and running ChatGPT Ads from inside ChatGPT.
A simple playbook for your first ChatGPT campaign
This is general advice from running ads on every platform, not an OpenAI recipe. Adjust it to your business.
1. Write down the questions your customers ask. "What's the cheapest way to meal prep for a family of five?" "Do I need a permit to replace my water heater?" Each distinct need is a candidate ad group.
2. One ad group per customer intent. Group by what the person is trying to get done, not by your product lineup. A cleaning company might run "moving out and need the deposit back," "hosting family this weekend" and "new baby, no time to clean" as three separate groups. You'll see which need actually pays.
3. Write context hints in the customer's voice. "Planning budget weeknight dinners for picky kids" tells the system far more than "meal kits." Situations beat single keywords, because ChatGPT conversations are full sentences.
4. Two or three ads per group. Same intent, different angle: one that leads with the outcome, one that leads with the price or offer, one that leads with proof.
5. Use an image that reads small. One clear subject, high contrast, no tiny text. If a competitor already has a long-running image ad for the same customer, that is a proven starting point. You can turn a competitor's winning image ad into your own and launch it on ChatGPT, Meta or TikTok from the same library. (Why long-running ads are the signal.)
6. Start on clicks, read it weekly. Launch paused, resume with a budget you're comfortable learning on, and after a week cut the groups with impressions but no clicks. Reading performance and cutting wasted spend and running a creative test apply here too.
In AdWhispr, steps 2 to 4 can be one message:
Add three ad groups to my ChatGPT campaign "Spring meal plans":
1) busy parents planning weeknight dinners,
2) families trying to cut their grocery bill,
3) people new to meal prep.
Write context hints for each in the customer's own words, and two ads per group using my "Meal plan clone" image.
You see a preview of every group, hint and ad before anything is created.
OpenAI Ads Manager vs AdWhispr
They don't compete. Ads Manager is where your account, billing and review live. AdWhispr makes the creative and runs ChatGPT next to your other platforms.
| OpenAI Ads Manager | AdWhispr | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | ChatGPT | ChatGPT, Meta, Google, TikTok, X, Reddit |
| How you use it | The web UI at ads.openai.com | Plain English in the web app, ChatGPT, Claude, Slack, Shopify or any MCP client |
| Bidding | Every objective and strategy OpenAI offers | Maximize clicks |
| Creative | You bring it | Clones of competitor winners, plus title and body written for you |
What AdWhispr costs
Research and connecting ad accounts are free. Launching and managing campaigns, including ChatGPT Ads, starts on Pro.
| Plan | Price | Agent calls a month | Image clones a month | Video credits a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 15 | 1 | 0 |
| Pro | $39/mo | 150 | 10 | 15 |
| Plus | $69/mo | 1,000 | 25 | 25 |
| Agency | $149/mo | 3,000 | 50 | 40 |
Brands and ad accounts are unlimited on every plan: connect as many ad accounts as you want on Meta, Google, TikTok and the rest, with no per-account fees. On paid plans, launching, pausing, budget changes and reading your own results don't use agent calls. Researching new brands and making creative do. Your ad spend is paid to OpenAI directly, as with any platform.
FAQ
How do I advertise on ChatGPT?
Sign up at ads.openai.com, set your advertiser name, brand icon and billing, then create a campaign, an ad group with context hints, and a chat card ad. Your account and each ad are reviewed before anything serves.
Who sees ChatGPT ads?
Logged-in adults on the Free and Go plans, below relevant answers. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users don't see ads, and neither do accounts identified as under 18.
Is there a ChatGPT Ads API?
Yes. OpenAI's Advertiser API manages campaigns, ad groups, ads, conversion tracking and reporting. Each ad account creates its own API key in Ads Manager settings.
What does a ChatGPT ad cost?
There's no fixed price. You choose a budget and either set a bid or let Maximize clicks or Maximize conversions set it. Minimum budgets depend on your account currency.
Can I manage ChatGPT Ads from Claude?
Yes, through the one-click Claude directory connector, the AdWhispr custom connector or the Claude Code plugin. And from ChatGPT itself, through AdWhispr in ChatGPT's app store.
My industry isn't eligible. What now?
Check OpenAI's ad policies for your category, make sure your landing page clearly describes a permitted product, and check back, since countries and eligibility keep widening. Meanwhile, AdWhispr runs Meta, Google, TikTok, X and Reddit from one chat. (Not to be confused with running ads from ChatGPT: using ChatGPT as the assistant for your other ad accounts.)
How many ad accounts can I connect to AdWhispr?
As many as you want. Every AdWhispr plan, including Free, lets you connect unlimited ad accounts on each platform, and there is no per-account fee. Many other tools cap the number of ad accounts by plan.
Get started
- Apply for ChatGPT Ads at ads.openai.com and create an Advertiser API key in Settings.
- Create a free AdWhispr account, then paste the key on the ChatGPT Ads connect page.
- Working in Claude Code or Cowork? Run
/plugin, search for AdWhispr and install AdWhispr Ads & Marketing Agent. On Claude's web, desktop or mobile apps, add AdWhispr from the Claude directory. In ChatGPT, install AdWhispr from ChatGPT's app store. - Then ask: "Who has the best ads in my space?" and build your first ChatGPT campaign from what is already working.
