Reference page. Last reviewed 25 August 2026.
Sponsored placements inside ChatGPT went live on 9 February 2026 for users on the Free and Go tiers in the United States. This page covers how the format works, what it costs, who is allowed to buy it, and what has changed since launch. For the running record of platform changes, see our ChatGPT ads changelog.
How ChatGPT ads work
An ad appears as a clearly labelled card below the assistant’s response. It carries an advertiser name, a short headline, a description, and a link. Subscribers on Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education plans do not see them at all.
The important difference from search advertising is targeting. There are no keywords to bid on. Placement is decided contextually, from the topic of the current conversation and the user’s prior interactions, rather than from a query string or a cookie profile. That changes how you plan creative, because you are matching a conversation subject rather than an exact phrase.
What ChatGPT ads cost
Reported pricing sits at roughly $3 to $5 per click. CPM figures vary considerably by buying route. A $60 base rate was widely quoted at launch, with agency buyers reporting effective averages closer to $45, and some buyers purchasing through Criteo reporting CPMs in the $25 to $35 range.
Minimum spend has fallen sharply. It opened at $250,000, dropped to $50,000 within three months, and by mid 2026 direct self serve advertisers faced no floor at all. Partner and agency routes may still set their own minimums. Full breakdown in our analysis of what ChatGPT ads cost, and a comparison against search in ChatGPT ads versus Google Ads.
Which categories are blocked
Ads cannot appear near content relating to health, mental health, politics, gambling, legal services or financial services. This is the single most consequential planning fact on this page, because it removes several of the highest value lead generation verticals in digital advertising from the addressable market entirely.
If your business sits in a restricted category, paid placement is closed to you and organic citation inside AI answers is the alternative worth pursuing. See the full list of banned categories and how to get cited inside AI answers.
Is it working
Early signals are positive but thin. Criteo has reported that referrals from AI assistants convert at roughly 1.5 times the rate of other channels, and early adopters in software and financial services have reported click through rates between 1.5 and 3.2 percent. OpenAI reportedly reached around $100 million in annualized advertising revenue within six weeks of launch, across more than 600 advertisers.
What does not exist yet is vertical benchmark data. Nobody can tell you what a good cost per acquisition looks like in your category, because the channel is months old. Anyone quoting confident vertical benchmarks is extrapolating from very little.
The wider landscape
Perplexity introduced sponsored follow up questions in late 2024, but its advertising programme is currently paused. Google has shown ads in AI Overviews since 2024, and after an Adweek report claimed it would bring advertising to Gemini in 2026, publicly denied it. Anthropic used a Super Bowl advertisement to position Claude as remaining ad free.
ChatGPT is therefore the only AI assistant with meaningful open advertising inventory right now, and any sensible strategy should be built to survive that changing. Our wider guide to LLM advertising covers every platform.
Working with us
We plan and run campaigns on this channel. See our services, or request an assessment to find out whether your category and margins make it worth testing yet.
Sources
Primary reporting has come from Adweek and Digiday, alongside announcements from OpenAI.