Expanding How Businesses Can Purchase ChatGPT Ads
OpenAI is advancing its ChatGPT ads pilot by simplifying participation for businesses, while ensuring the experience remains useful, private, and clearly distinct from ChatGPT's responses. Advertisers can now create ChatGPT ads through partners or a new beta self-serve Ads Manager. OpenAI is also rolling out cost-per-click (CPC) bidding and expanded measurement tools, providing businesses with more flexible options to buy, manage, and evaluate campaign performance-without sharing conversations or personal details with advertisers. These changes open the door for more businesses to participate and lay the foundation for a broader ads platform designed around how people use ChatGPT.
OpenAI initially collaborated directly with a small group of advertisers to launch campaigns in ChatGPT. As the pilot has grown, access has been broadened through partners, and beta self-serve tools for advertisers are now being introduced.
OpenAI has been working with leading agency partners including Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP to support businesses purchasing ChatGPT ads. Technology partners such as Adobe, Criteo, Kargo, Pacvue, and StackAdapt have also been added, with plans to continue expanding the partner ecosystem.
Through these partners, advertisers can access ChatGPT ads using the tools and workflows they already rely on to grow their businesses. Partners help support campaign budgeting, bidding, and advertising creative, while OpenAI's ads system retains control over all delivery decisions.
A beta self-serve Ads Manager is now beginning to roll out, allowing US-based advertisers to sign up and purchase ads that appear directly in ChatGPT.
The Ads Manager is designed to make it easier for companies of all sizes-from SMBs and startups to global brands-to grow their businesses via ChatGPT. Businesses can register as advertisers, add payment information, set budgets, bids, and pacing, upload ads, launch and manage campaigns, and view performance through the portal.
OpenAI is gradually opening Ads Manager to more businesses as testing and refinement continue. Interested businesses can sign up for an account at ads.openai.com.
CPC Bidding Now Available
In the first phase of the pilot, advertisers could purchase ChatGPT ads on a CPM (cost-per-mille impressions) basis as a preliminary way to understand demand, delivery, and early performance in a new environment. Now, cost-per-click (CPC) bidding is being added so advertisers can align their spending more directly with the actions people take after seeing an ad.
This is significant because many ChatGPT conversations are active and decision-oriented. Users are often learning about a category, comparing options, or deciding what to do next. In those moments, a click can be a meaningful signal that an ad was relevant and helped someone move forward. Advertisers are only charged based on a click outcome.
Both CPM and CPC buying will continue to be supported, and over time OpenAI expects to offer additional ways for advertisers to bid and optimize for the outcomes that matter most to them.
Expanded Measurement Capabilities
One of the most requested features during the ads pilot has been more robust measurement to help advertisers understand performance and what drives results.
OpenAI recently launched Conversions API and pixel-based measurement so advertisers can better understand what happens after someone engages with an ad-such as a purchase, lead, sign-up, or other meaningful action.
These tools are designed to improve measurement while protecting user privacy. Advertisers receive aggregated performance insights that help them understand campaign impact, without access to individual conversations.
Better measurement not only helps advertisers understand performance but also improves the experience for ChatGPT users. Stronger signals help OpenAI show more relevant ads, increase the quality of ad matching, and build optimization systems that are accountable to real outcomes rather than impressions alone.
Building the ChatGPT Ad Platform
OpenAI is still in the early stages of building advertising in ChatGPT, and the focus remains on supporting broader access to powerful AI while staying consistent with OpenAI's principles-ensuring ChatGPT's answers stay independent, conversations stay private, and users remain in control of their experience.
As people turn to ChatGPT to explore what they may need, evaluate options, and make decisions, OpenAI sees an opportunity to help them discover relevant products and services through ads. Over time, OpenAI plans to evolve its ad platform with new formats, objectives, and capabilities to help businesses reach customers in useful and relevant ways, providing opportunities for businesses of all sizes to grow and thrive.