TLDR
OpenAI has opened self-service ChatGPT Ads across India, Europe and MENA, taking the live market count to 52 by Index Lab's tally. Ads appear separately from answers for Free and Go users only. OpenAI has not disclosed pricing or booked revenue.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
ChatGPT ad inventory is now purchasable self-service in 52 countries. That puts a new paid placement inside AI answers within reach of ordinary agencies and brands, including in Australia, with no partner intermediary required.
In the coming weeks, we plan to start testing ads in ChatGPT free and Go tiers. We're sharing our principles early on how we'll approach ads, guided by putting user trust and transparency first as we work to make AI accessible to everyone.
January 16, 2026 · View on XWhat opened, where, and what an Australian agency can buy now
OpenAI published A milestone in expanding access to AI on August 31, 2026. It said "Starting later today, advertisers can purchase ChatGPT ads directly via Ads Manager across India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa."[1] OpenAI's Ads Manager Availability page, dated September 2, 2026, listed markets country by country from Algeria to the United States, supporting Index Lab's count of 52 live self-service markets.[2]
Australia was included in the rollout. A Sydney agency can log into Ads Manager and buy this inventory today, without going through a managed partner.
OpenAI introduced a beta self-serve Ads Manager in May 2026, opening the platform beyond its original partner-led model to small and medium-sized businesses.[1] The August 31 expansion is the first time self-service access has reached truly global scale.
How ads appear, what can be targeted, and what OpenAI says about labelling
OpenAI began testing ads in the US on February 9, 2026, for users on its Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education accounts do not see ads.[3] That boundary holds across all 52 markets.
Advertisers can target by the context of a user's current conversation, optional broader ChatGPT usage preferences, geographic location, platform and custom audiences.[1]
OpenAI said in the August 31 document that ads are always clearly labelled and separate from ChatGPT's answers. It said ads do not influence the AI's responses, do not give advertisers access to private conversations, and allow users to control personalisation settings.[1] That claim matters for buyers managing brand safety. No independent audit of ad placement has been published.
What OpenAI has disclosed, and what it has not
OpenAI said in A milestone in expanding access to AI that "In less than 200 days after launch, ChatGPT Ads has reached $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate."[1] That is an annualised run rate, not booked revenue. OpenAI has not published the methodology, and the figure comes from the company's own release without independent corroboration.
There are no published CPMs, CPCs or standard conversion benchmarks for any market. There is no market-level revenue breakdown. A planner comparing this channel against Google's AI Mode ads or Meta has no visibility into what it costs to reach a thousand users in Sydney. The planner also cannot see what click-through rates look like, or what a conversion means in practice. Until OpenAI publishes pricing norms and campaign performance data, buyers have self-service access but lack the numbers to evaluate it.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Which ChatGPT users see ads?
Can Australian agencies buy ChatGPT Ads directly?
What targeting options does ChatGPT Ads support?
Has OpenAI published pricing for ChatGPT Ads?
Jonas Valenti writes about search and how businesses get discovered. He has spent years watching what makes a company visible online, and is unsentimental about tactics that no longer work.
