Last reviewed 25 August 2026.
Pricing on this channel has moved faster than any ad platform in recent memory. The figures published in February were obsolete by May. Here is the current picture, with the caveat that it will move again.
What does a ChatGPT ad cost per click?
Roughly $3 to $5 per click, based on figures reported from the pilot Ads Manager. That places it in the middle of the Google Search range, where costs run from about $1 to well over $50 depending on category. For competitive verticals where Google CPCs exceed $20, ChatGPT is currently the cheaper click.
One wrinkle worth understanding. A click here does not always mean a user left the platform. Expanding a sponsored card, or asking a follow up question the ad triggered, can register as a billable engagement depending on campaign configuration. You are buying attention depth rather than navigation events, which makes raw CPC comparisons against search less meaningful than they look.
What about CPM?
This is where reported numbers diverge sharply. A $60 base rate was widely quoted at launch. Agency buyers subsequently reported effective averages nearer $45 depending on inventory composition, and some buyers purchasing through Criteo reported CPMs in the $25 to $35 range.
The spread is not contradiction, it is buying route. Direct, partner and programmatic access price differently, and inventory composition varies. Anyone quoting you a single authoritative CPM has not bought across more than one route.
What is the minimum spend?
This has been the fastest moving number of all. It opened at $250,000. It fell to $50,000 within roughly three months. By mid 2026, direct self serve advertisers at ads.openai.com faced no floor at all, with daily budgets set as low as $25 per campaign.
Partner and agency routes may still impose their own minimums, so the honest answer to “what is the minimum” is now “it depends who you buy through”.
How does this compare to Google and Meta?
On raw CPM, ChatGPT is premium. On cost per acquisition, the picture is less clear and possibly better. By the time someone engages a sponsored card they have typically explained their situation across several turns and received contextual information. That is a far more qualified state than a three word search query represents.
Criteo has reported that referrals from AI assistants convert at roughly 1.5 times the rate of other channels. Early adopters in software and financial services reported click through rates between 1.5 and 3.2 percent. Both figures are early and neither is a benchmark.
What should you actually budget?
For a genuine test rather than a token one, plan on enough spend to reach statistical confidence in your category, which for most advertisers means a defined test budget over a quarter rather than a trickle over a year. The removal of the minimum means you can start small, but starting small and concluding nothing is a waste of the window.
Two things to check before you budget anything. Whether your category is blocked from placement entirely, and whether your product can be explained without visual demonstration, since conversation based advertising is poorly suited to products that need to be shown.
Where prices go next
The likely direction is downward on basic inventory and upward on premium placement, mirroring how Google and Meta matured. As OpenAI scales inventory, supply catches up with demand and CPMs soften. As competition for high intent conversations increases, the good placements get bid up. Expect Q4 to spike, as it does on every platform.
For the full reference, see our ChatGPT ads page. Reporting on pricing has come from Digiday and Adweek.