Since May 2026 any business can advertise inside ChatGPT — the old $50,000 minimum spend is gone. That opens a channel with comparatively few competitors in it. This post covers how ChatGPT Ads work, what they cost, and who should test them.
How ChatGPT Ads work
Ads appear as labelled placements inside a conversation. The key difference from Google: there are no keywords. Delivery is driven by the context of the conversation — what the person is discussing, not what they typed into a search box.
That changes how you plan. You don’t submit search terms; you describe the problem your product solves and the situations where it’s relevant.
Who sees them
Only people on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users see no ads at all.
That isn’t a drawback so much as a filter. Free is by far the largest tier, so for broad consumer offers it’s the right audience. For enterprise software, though, your buyer is probably on Plus — and will never see you.
Budget and pricing
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum budget | $25 per day, per campaign |
| Billing | CPC (Clicks objective) or CPM (Reach objective) |
| Typical CPC | $2.50–$8.00 |
| Access | ads.openai.com, self-serve |
CPC sits noticeably above Google Search, which tends to run $1–3. The reason is the context: someone asking ChatGPT is mid-research and describing their problem in detail. Intent is higher, so the price is too.
To get started you need an email address, business details, a tax ID or EIN, a billing method and a landing page.
Where ads run
Initially the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, with rollout extending across Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa. Check availability for your market in the account before planning — the list keeps moving.
What you can control — and what you can’t
Available: location, context signals around topics and needs, objective (clicks or reach), daily budget.
Not available: keyword lists, granular demographic targeting, extensive manual brand-safety rules. OpenAI handles category and sensitive-context exclusions.
Coming from Google Ads, this feels like a loss of control. The fairer reading: the platform is young and depth of control tends to follow, as it did on every other channel.
Who should test it
Probably yes: offers with a clear problem attached that people research in writing — software, training, consulting, health, financial products, considered purchases.
Probably not: impulse buys, purely visual products, hyper-local services. For those, Meta and Google remain the better fit.
A realistic first test
- One product, one landing page. Not the whole catalogue.
- $25–50 per day for at least two weeks. Anything shorter produces noise, not data.
- Your own tracking. Don’t rely on platform numbers alone — check them against your own measurement.
- Separate evaluation. Don’t fold the budget into existing channels, or you won’t know what worked.
What to expect
The channel is new. That means little competition, but also little collective experience and thin benchmarks. Treat the first few weeks as a learning budget rather than a revenue channel.
The real advantage is timing. Gathering data early means you understand the mechanics before prices rise with competition.
The short version
No keyword targeting — context instead. $25 a day minimum. CPC above Google, but intent above it too. Visible only to Free and Go users. Worth testing for considered purchases, less so for impulse buys.
If you want to weigh up whether the channel suits your offer, get in touch — we can settle that before any budget moves.
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Five years inside Meta's advertising ecosystem working with its largest advertisers: analysing the business, building a strategy around it and setting up the advertising structure end to end. Now founder of OFU Digital.
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