What happened? ChatGPT now shows ads
On August 18, 2026, OpenAI announced it would expand advertising in ChatGPT to Europe. Since August 24, the ads have been served in 31 European countries, including Germany. Since August 31, there has also been a dedicated Ads Manager in an initial beta version.
Not every user sees ads. They are shown to adult users of the free version and the low-cost "Go" plan. Anyone using ChatGPT on a Plus or Pro subscription or through a Business, Enterprise or Edu account stays ad-free. The ads appear below the answer, clearly labeled "Sponsored" and kept separate from the answer.
This is the first time an advertising channel sits directly inside the conversation between customer and AI. Exactly where more and more people now ask which provider, which product or which solution suits them. For businesses this is genuinely new, and that is precisely why a sober look is worth it before the first budget is spent.
Below some answers, ChatGPT now shows a labeled ad that fits the topic of the conversation. According to OpenAI, the answer itself remains unaffected. So you can buy space below the answer, but not the recommendation in it.
How the ads work: context instead of keywords
Anyone who knows Google Ads thinks of keywords first when it comes to search ads. ChatGPT works differently. What matters is what the conversation is about at that moment. OpenAI looks at the intent behind the conversation, the landing page of your ad and so-called context hints. With these hints, you as an advertiser describe in which situations, for which questions and for which needs your offer is relevant. They do not guarantee a fixed placement.
That sounds like a detail, but it fundamentally changes the work on a campaign. Instead of collecting search terms, you need to understand very precisely in which moments your customers have a problem and how they describe it. Anyone who already knows which questions customers ask before they buy has a clear advantage here.
In the EU and Switzerland there is also an important restriction. Personalized advertising based on the user profile is heavily limited for now and requires users' explicit consent. Delivery therefore relies mainly on the context of the conversation. For you as a business, this means the quality of your description and your landing page counts for more than any audience setting.
The ad below the answer or the recommendation in it
The most important sentence in OpenAI's announcement is this one: advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides. For your strategy, that is decisive. From now on there are two completely different ways to appear in ChatGPT. Either your ad sits, labeled, below the answer, or ChatGPT names your business in the answer itself as a recommendation.
On screen the two look close together, but they work very differently. A recommendation in the answer carries the credibility of neutral advice. An ad is an ad, and users know it. The following overview shows the differences as I assess them from my work with paid and organic visibility:
| Feature | Ad below the answer | Recommendation in the answer |
|---|---|---|
| Placement | Below, labeled "Sponsored" | Right in the answer |
| Cost | Ongoing, as long as you spend budget | Groundwork, then no cost per click |
| User trust | Perceived as advertising | Feels like neutral advice |
| Who sees it | Only users on Free and Go | All users, including paid plans |
| Effect | Immediate, ends with the budget | Builds up and lasts |
| Control | Direct, via campaign and budget | Indirect, via content, data and reputation |
My assessment from practice, as of October 2026. The ad channel is new and keeps evolving.
One point in this overview is often overlooked. People who use ChatGPT intensively for work often have a paid plan and therefore see no ads at all. In the B2B space in particular, you reach part of the decision-makers exclusively through the organic recommendation. That is my assessment from practice, not an official figure, but it should feed into every budget plan.
Who should run a test now
Not every business should jump in right away. From my experience with Google Ads and social ads, I know that new ad channels have two faces in their early phase: there is often little competition yet, but at the same time there are few benchmarks and the tools are not yet mature. A test is therefore worthwhile above all where customers already prepare their decision in conversation with the AI.
Good candidates are online shops with clearly describable products, providers of advice-intensive services where customers have many questions beforehand, B2B companies with long decision paths, and software and digital offers. Travel, further education and leisure offers also fit well, because a lot of planning and comparing happens here.
Wait or check very carefully applies to businesses in strictly regulated industries such as health, law or finance. Here, besides OpenAI's rules, your own professional and advertising rules apply, and not every category is approved for ads. I would be just as cautious with very small local businesses on a tight budget. For them, a well-kept Google profile with good reviews usually brings more than an experiment in a new channel.
Why your website decides success
Because ChatGPT factors the landing page of your ad into its selection, your website becomes part of the campaign. A slow, cluttered page with vague statements will struggle, no matter how well the ad is written. A fast page that clearly says what you offer, for whom and on what terms has the advantage.
This reveals a pattern I see again and again in my work. The things that make a page strong for ads in ChatGPT are almost the same ones that make it strong for Google and for organic AI visibility: speed, a clear structure, understandable answers to your customers' questions and clean structured data. Investing in this foundation improves several channels at once.
The landing page itself is especially important. Don't simply send visitors from an ad to your homepage. Someone who asked ChatGPT for a solution to a specific problem expects a page that addresses exactly that problem. Otherwise the visitor is gone within seconds, and you have paid for a click that brings nothing.
Measurement and privacy: the catch with the pixel
To measure success, OpenAI offers its own pixel and a server-side Conversions API. In your ad account you then see impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate and conversions. What many only notice later: in Germany and much of the EU, a third-party tracking pixel on your website generally requires consent. Anyone who installs a pixel usually needs a cookie banner and an update to the privacy policy.
Especially if your site has deliberately done without a banner so far, as I describe in my article on cookieless tracking, this is a real trade-off. Server-side measurement and properly set UTM parameters are often the more elegant way to see a campaign's effect without burdening your own site with extra scripts. Which route suits you depends on your goal and your existing setup.
Important note: I am not a lawyer, and this section is not legal advice. Whether and how you may use a pixel in a privacy-compliant way, please clarify with a lawyer or your data protection officer. I take care of the clean technical implementation.
Typical mistakes in first campaigns
Because the channel is new, I am already seeing a few patterns that cost budget without delivering anything. Most of them I know from the early days of other ad platforms, and with some experience they are easy to avoid.
Treating ChatGPT like Google Ads. Simply carrying over your keyword lists misses the principle. In ChatGPT it's about situations and needs, not individual search terms. Descriptions that are too general. If your context hints fit almost any conversation, your ad reaches many people who will never become customers. The wrong landing page. The homepage is almost never the best choice, a page that matches the request almost always is.
No clean measurement. Without clear goals and working tracking, after a few weeks you cannot say whether the channel pays off. Forgetting organic visibility. For me, the most expensive mistake is putting money into ads while ChatGPT, right above them in the answer, recommends your competitors. Then you pay for a spot where the customer has just read that someone else is the better choice.
Before thinking about ads in ChatGPT, one simple question is worth asking: what does ChatGPT answer today when a customer asks for a provider like you? Knowing that answer tells you whether you need advertising just to appear at all, or whether you are already recommended and can add ads in a targeted way.
My advice: get recommended first, then advertise
For most businesses I see a clear order. First, make sure ChatGPT knows your business, classifies it correctly and recommends it for matching questions. That is the field of Generative Engine Optimization, optimization for AI answers. This visibility works for all users, including those on paid plans, and it doesn't cost you a cent per click.
Ads are then a sensible addition. For example to quickly promote new offers, to capture seasonal peaks or to cover topics where you are not yet strong enough organically. If you already have experience with Google Ads, you will recognize many familiar principles, but you will have to rethink: away from the search term, toward the conversation situation.
My advice for getting started: begin with a manageable test budget, a clearly defined offer and a matching landing page. Decide beforehand how you will measure success. And keep an eye on how your organic presence in the answers develops in parallel. It is exactly this combination of paid and organic visibility that will make the difference in the coming years.
Conclusion
Advertising in ChatGPT is the first ad channel that sits directly in the conversation between customer and AI. For businesses this is a real opportunity, especially for online shops, advice-intensive service providers and B2B companies. But the ads sit below the answer, not in it. The recommendation itself cannot be bought, it comes from good content, clear data and a strong reputation.
Those who act wisely now first build organic visibility in the answers and use ads specifically as an amplifier. I am happy to look at where your business stands in ChatGPT today and whether a test with ads is worthwhile for you.
Frequently asked questions
OpenAI has not yet published fixed prices or packages; costs result from your budget and the competition for the respective conversation situations. In your ad account you see, among other things, the average cost per click and per thousand impressions. For a first test, I recommend a manageable budget with a clear goal so you can decide reliably after a few weeks.
According to current industry reports, targeting by region, city and postal code has been possible since September 2026, but exact availability differs by country. Campaigns based on product data currently run only at country level. That is interesting for local providers, but it does not replace a well-kept Google profile.
You can create campaigns yourself in Ads Manager, provided your industry is approved and the ads pass review. Alternatively, access runs through OpenAI directly or through partner agencies. Important: the country and currency of the ad account cannot be changed after setup, and agencies are invited into your account with their own roles.
Yes, OpenAI supports campaigns based on product data, similar to what you know from online retail. This is particularly exciting for shops, because customers in ChatGPT often ask specifically about products and comparisons. What matters here are well-maintained, complete product data and fast product pages.
No. Advertisers see no individual conversations and no specific user questions, only aggregated metrics such as impressions, clicks and conversions. You steer which situations you want to reach through your descriptions. That makes it all the more important to understand beforehand which questions your customers ask.
The ads are deliberately kept short. Under the current specifications, you have 24 characters for the title and 48 for the text. That forces a very clear message and makes the landing page all the more important, because that is where the visitor has to find everything else.
Special caution is needed here. Besides OpenAI's policies, your industry's professional and advertising rules apply, and not every category is approved for ads. For these professions, the organic recommendation in AI answers is usually the more suitable and safer route.
The ads are served in 31 European markets: all EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The UK launched separately earlier. For businesses in German-speaking countries, the channel is therefore available everywhere.
No, the two channels complement each other. On Google, someone usually searches with a clear term; in ChatGPT, they tend to describe a situation and seek advice. Coordinating both well lets you reach customers in different phases of their decision.
The simplest way is to ask the questions your customers would ask and see who gets named. For a reliable picture, however, you need many questions, different phrasings and a comparison with competitors. That is exactly what I check in my free AI visibility check.