How to Advertise in ChatGPT
Set up Ads Manager, write context hints, meet the ad specs and pass review. Includes what we saw running campaigns in two live accounts.
To advertise in ChatGPT, create an account at OpenAI Ads Manager, verify your business, add billing, and build a campaign with one ad group and at least one ad. A ChatGPT ad is a labeled card that appears below an answer for users on the Free and Go plans. You describe the conversations you want to appear in with context hints, and OpenAI reviews every ad before it serves. Our first ads took about a day to clear review, and recent ones cleared in a few hours.
Who can advertise in ChatGPT?
Any business whose legal entity is based in a country with self-serve access can sign up directly. As of 10 November 2026 that includes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, India and Türkiye, among others. OpenAI keeps the full country-by-country availability list, and businesses elsewhere can create an account and be notified when access opens.
Account access and targeting are separate. Some new self-serve accounts can advertise only in their home country at first, and gain other supported markets after identity verification and qualifying spend at home. Check the eligible locations shown in your account before planning an international launch, as set out in OpenAI's country targeting rules.
Who sees ChatGPT ads?
Eligible users on ChatGPT Free and Go see ads. ChatGPT Business and the other ad-free plans in OpenAI's ads FAQ are outside that inventory, so if your buyers mostly use paid plans, ads will not reach them.
OpenAI says it generates answers independently of advertising. A campaign can put your brand in a sponsored placement, while whether the answer itself mentions you follows a separate process covered in our guide to ChatGPT recommendations.
How do you set up an Ads Manager account?
- Create the advertiser account. Have one person sign up and invite teammates afterwards. If your company already has an account, ask its administrator for an invitation.
- Confirm the settings that lock. OpenAI fixes the country or region, billing currency and time zone after account creation, so check them with finance first. See Ads Manager account setup.
- Verify the business. Ads may not serve until verification is complete. Ads Manager shows a banner when this step is outstanding.
- Add billing. A payment problem stops delivery even when ads are approved.
- Skip the campaign step if you aren't ready. An ad created during signup can start running once it passes review and the account, billing and campaign settings allow delivery.
How is a ChatGPT campaign structured?
Every campaign has three levels, and each setting lives at one of them.
| Level | What you set |
|---|---|
| Campaign | Objective, budget, dates, countries |
| Ad group | One theme, context hints, maximum bid |
| Ad | Title, copy, image, landing page |
Start with one campaign, one ad group and two ads that give different reasons to click. Pick the Clicks objective if the first question is whether people visit the page. Choose Conversions only when a supported event already fires reliably. Costs and budgets are covered in how much ChatGPT ads cost.
What are the ChatGPT ad specs?
A standard ad has a title, a line of copy, one square image and one landing page, shown with your advertiser name and favicon.
| Element | Recommended | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Title | 16–24 characters | 50 characters |
| Copy | 32–48 characters | 100 characters |
| Image | Square PNG or JPG | 1200 × 1200 px |
| Landing page | One URL per ad | Must be reachable by OpenAI's crawlers |
These limits come from OpenAI's launch guide. A multi-image format with four to six square images entered open beta on 26 October 2026, described in OpenAI's ad creation guide. Confirm the validation shown in your own account before exporting assets.
How do you write context hints?
Describe what you offer, who it helps and when it is useful, in a full phrase. Context hints tell OpenAI which conversations your ad group is relevant to. They are not exact-match keywords and cannot reserve a placement against a particular prompt.
| Weak hint | Stronger hint |
|---|---|
| dental software | Appointment scheduling for independent dental offices that need automated reminders for recurring visits |
| invoicing tool | Invoicing software for small agencies that bill overseas clients in more than one currency |
The examples are illustrative. OpenAI's guidance is to keep each ad group focused, use descriptive phrases over standalone terms, and create a separate ad group for a meaningfully different product, audience or use case. See OpenAI's context-hint guide and its ad group best practices. Only describe features the product has.
What should you check before launch?
- Open the exact destination URL on a phone, tracking parameters included. Follow the redirects and confirm the page still shows the offer.
- Complete the form or purchase as a test and confirm the conversion event arrives.
- Let OAI-AdsBot reach the page. OpenAI uses it to validate landing pages during review, and login walls, bot challenges or redirects can block it. See OpenAI's landing-page crawler guide.
- Match the ad to the page. OpenAI can reject ads that are misleading or inconsistent with their landing page.
Why is my ChatGPT ad not delivering?
Check five things before you touch the creative: review status, account verification, campaign budget, campaign end date and billing status. OpenAI lists these in its advertiser FAQ. In Ads Manager, an ad marked Not serving shows the reason when you hover over the status. Impressions are the first evidence that an ad is live.
What did we see in our first ChatGPT campaigns?
We have run campaigns for a local services business in a smaller European market and for a US advertiser in a regulated consumer category. Four things were different from what the documentation suggests.
- Review got faster. Our first ads took about a day to clear. Recent submissions on the European account cleared in a few hours. OpenAI publishes no review timeline, so plan a launch date with a day of slack.
- The regulated category was much harder. The US account had a far rougher path through review than the European one. If your category is regulated, allow extra time and read OpenAI's ad policies before writing creative.
- CPC moved around in the first weeks. Cost per click swung noticeably early on before settling. Judge a test on its full run.
- Campaigns took longer to settle than on Google Ads. In our accounts the early learning period ran longer than we are used to in search campaigns. Budget for at least two weeks before drawing conclusions.
These are observations from two accounts. Client names and sectors are withheld.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to advertise in ChatGPT?
The minimum is $25 a day per campaign on a USD account, and OpenAI suggests a starting maximum bid of $3–$5 per click. Our two accounts paid $1.64 and $6.36 per click. See the full cost breakdown.
How long does ChatGPT ad review take?
OpenAI publishes no fixed time. In our accounts it ran from a few hours to about a day, and longer in a regulated category. Every edit sends an ad back through review.
Can you target keywords in ChatGPT ads?
No. You write context hints that describe relevant conversations, and OpenAI matches ads on relevance. A hint can contain a keyword, but it guides matching and does not guarantee a placement.
For the broader channel decision, read how to reach customers in ChatGPT. If you'd like help choosing the first offer and buyer situation, talk to CiteMine about ChatGPT Ads.
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