This page is updated as the platform changes. Last reviewed 25 August 2026.
Advertising inside ChatGPT went from announcement to open self serve buying in under four months. Most published guides were written at one point on that curve and never revised, which is why so much advice in circulation is now wrong. This is the running record.
2024: the groundwork
Google begins showing ads within AI Overviews, making it the first company to place advertising inside AI generated answers at scale. Perplexity announces sponsored follow up questions at the end of the year, using a conventional CPM model. Neither attracts much attention from mainstream advertisers.
January 2026: the announcement
OpenAI announces its first native advertising format for ChatGPT. The move reverses years of public scepticism from Sam Altman, who had previously described advertising as a last resort. The arithmetic behind the reversal is not subtle: only a small fraction of a very large user base pays for a subscription.
In the same period, Adweek reports that Google has told advertisers it will bring ads to Gemini during 2026. Google publicly and forcefully denies the report.
9 February 2026: launch
Sponsored placements begin appearing in the live product. The rollout is deliberately narrow: an invite only closed beta, logged in adult users in the United States only, restricted to the Free and Go tiers. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education subscribers see nothing.
The format is a single sponsored card below the assistant’s response, carrying an advertiser name, a short headline, a description and a link. Minimum spend at launch is reported at $250,000.
Within weeks, Anthropic buys a Super Bowl advertisement positioning Claude as remaining ad free.
2 March 2026: Criteo
Criteo becomes the first formally identified technology partner, connecting roughly 17,000 of its advertiser clients to ChatGPT’s Free and Go tier inventory. This is the moment the channel stops being a closed pilot for large brands and becomes something a mid market advertiser could plausibly reach.
Spring 2026: self serve opens
Self serve buying opens at ads.openai.com. The minimum spend falls from $250,000 to $50,000, cutting the barrier to entry by eighty percent in roughly three months.
5 May 2026: programmatic and scale
StackAdapt joins as a partner, making programmatic access to ChatGPT placements available for the first time. On the same date, Criteo reports more than 1,000 brands running active campaigns through its API connection.
The self serve Ads Manager beta begins rolling out to advertisers in the United States, with CPC and CPM bidding options and daily budgets available from as little as $25 per campaign.
Mid 2026: the floor disappears
The minimum spend requirement is removed entirely for advertisers buying direct through ads.openai.com. Partner and agency channels may still apply their own minimums. In roughly five months the entry barrier went from a quarter of a million dollars to nothing.
Reported performance in this period: OpenAI reaching approximately $100 million in annualized advertising revenue within six weeks of launch across more than 600 advertisers. Criteo reporting that AI assistant referrals convert at roughly 1.5 times other channels. Early adopters in software and financial services reporting click through rates between 1.5 and 3.2 percent.
Current status, August 2026
ChatGPT is the only AI assistant with meaningful open advertising inventory. Perplexity’s programme is paused. Gemini inventory remains unconfirmed following Google’s denial. Claude remains ad free by stated policy.
Six categories remain blocked: health, mental health, politics, gambling, legal services and financial services.
What to watch
Whether Google reverses position on Gemini. Whether Perplexity restarts. Whether restricted categories begin opening under certification programmes, which is the path every previous ad platform took. And whether CPMs soften as inventory scales, which is the pattern Google and Meta both followed.
Reporting drawn from Adweek, Digiday and OpenAI. Corrections welcome via our contact page.