ChatGPT Ads Manager for advertisers: pricing, minimum spend, formats, targeting and the API

ChatGPT Ads Manager is OpenAI's self-serve tool for buying ads in ChatGPT. This guide answers advertisers' most common questions about it (pricing, cost, minimum spend, login and the API) from OpenAI's own advertiser pages. For the user side, read our explainer on ads in ChatGPT.

This guide is based on OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads Help Center collection, its ad policies (updated September 10, 2026), its Ads API developer docs, the ads.openai.com sign-up page and OpenAI's August 31 and October 5 posts, all checked October 16, 2026. OpenAI calls the product "Ads Manager Beta" and says it "will continue to evolve," so treat every number below as subject to change.

The short version

• Who can advertise: businesses whose advertising and billing entity is based in one of the 63 countries OpenAI lists as available for self-serve. Larger advertisers can work with OpenAI's sales team instead.
• How to start: sign up or log in at ads.openai.com with an OpenAI account, add a card, complete verification, and build a campaign.
• Pricing: you pay per 1,000 impressions (CPM) or per valid click (CPC), never per conversion. OpenAI suggests starting CPC bids at $3–$5.
• Minimum spend: a $25 minimum daily budget in US dollars (€15, £15). OpenAI's help articles list no minimum for campaign-total budgets, and no longer mention the six-figure commitments reported at launch.
• Formats: an ad card below a ChatGPT answer, plus product-feed ads. Visual ads during image generation get a US test later in October. Sponsored agents are an alpha with no sign-up.
• Targeting: by conversation context, not keywords, plus location, device and custom audiences.
• API: an Ads API exists, but OpenAI's docs describe it for approved API partners. The Conversions API is open to advertisers.

Who can advertise on ChatGPT?

OpenAI offers two routes:

1. Self-serve through Ads Manager. OpenAI's availability page says "the legal entity that will advertise and be billed must be based in a country listed as available." On October 16, it listed 63 countries. They include the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, Brazil and all 27 EU member states. OpenAI's August 31 post says self-serve buying opened to India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa that day.
2. Sales-managed. "For more complex needs, we offer sales support to larger advertisers," says ads.openai.com. OpenAI said on August 31 that ads are available in more than 40 countries through its Ads Solutions team and agency and technology partners.

A listed country doesn't guarantee approval: you still pass business verification and the ad policies. The campaign help article adds that "some new self-serve ad accounts can initially advertise only in their home country." They become eligible for other supported countries once identity verification is approved and they reach a required level of spend at home; OpenAI doesn't publish that amount.

How do you get access? (login and setup)

These steps are from OpenAI's Help Center articles "Quickstart: Launch your first campaign" and "Ads Manager Account Setup", as published on October 16, 2026. The Help Center doesn't give version numbers.

1. Sign in. Go to ads.openai.com and log in with an OpenAI account. OpenAI suggests one tied to your work email. You can use your ChatGPT login or create a new one.
2. Create the ad account. You can enter your website URL and let Ads Manager draft a first ad from your site's metadata, or skip that step. You then enter an advertiser name. It fills three fields: Account Name (internal), Brand Name (shown on your ads) and Legal Name (used for billing and verification). Country, currency and time zone are locked after creation.
3. Set up billing. Add a card and a billing profile. "Billing must be set up before your campaigns can deliver."
4. Complete verification. OpenAI says business verification can take up to seven business days.
5. Invite your team. There are three roles: Admin, Member (create and manage campaigns) and Viewer.
6. Build and submit a campaign. Every ad is reviewed against the ad policies before it can serve.

How do ChatGPT ads work? Campaigns, ad groups and ads

Ads Manager uses a three-level structure, according to the Quickstart:

• Campaign: objective, budget, dates and targeting.
• Ad group: bid and optional context hints.
• Ad: title, description, image and landing page.

You can build campaigns one at a time or bulk-upload a CSV. Ad specs, per the Launch Campaigns article: Titles are recommended at 16–24 characters, with a 50-character maximum. Copy is recommended at 32–48 characters, with a 100-character maximum. Images must be square and no larger than 1200 × 1200. Landing pages must not block OpenAI's crawlers; OpenAI's bots page says OAI-AdsBot visits submitted landing pages to check them against its policies.

What ad formats are available?

Last verified: October 16, 2026

OpenAI's October 5 post doesn't say whether visual ads will be sold self-serve, and as of October 16 OpenAI hadn't said the test had started. All placements reach only Free and Go users who aren't identified or predicted as under 18, as our ads explainer explains. For what each plan costs, see our ChatGPT plans comparison.

How does targeting work?

ChatGPT ads aren't bought on keywords. According to "Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics", ads are matched on the context and intent of the current conversation, your ad and landing page, and, if the user has personalization on, "select signals" from their wider ChatGPT use.

What you control:

• Context hints at the ad-group level, written as descriptive phrases. OpenAI says they "are not exact-match keywords or targeting rules" and don't guarantee delivery.
• Location: a country is required. Most campaigns can also target regions, cities and postal codes.
• Device: Android app or web, iOS app or web, and desktop web.
• Custom audiences: uploaded email addresses, phone numbers (raw or SHA-256 hashed) or Google advertising IDs. You can include them, exclude them, or apply bid multipliers from 0.1x to 10x. Inclusion and bid multipliers need at least 25,000 matched users; smaller audiences work only for exclusion. OpenAI says to avoid custom audiences when targeting the EEA or Switzerland, where ad personalization isn't available.
• Negative Phrases to keep ads away from particular topics, for "qualifying advertisers" only.

OpenAI's August 31 post says "advertisers do not receive access to people's private conversations."

How much do ChatGPT ads cost? Pricing, bidding and minimum spend

Last verified: October 16, 2026

Sources: OpenAI Help Center, "Create Campaigns for ChatGPT Ads" and "Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics."

• The auction. Ads are chosen by "a relevance-weighted, second-price auction."
• No pay-per-conversion. Even conversion-optimized campaigns bill per click or per impression.
• The objective is permanent. To change it, you create a new campaign.
• Daily budgets are averages. One day can reach twice the daily budget; a Sunday-to-Saturday week is capped at seven times it.
• Card billing uses thresholds. You're charged when unpaid spend hits a threshold. OpenAI's example ladder runs $25, $50, $100 and $200 as you build payment history.

Is there a minimum spend? In self-serve, the only floor in OpenAI's help articles is the minimum daily budget. The Next Web reported on April 22, 2026, that the launch minimum of $200,000–$250,000 had fallen to $50,000; EMARKETER reported a similar drop on May 26. OpenAI says "the introduction of Ads Manager in May opened the platform to small and medium-sized businesses." OpenAI doesn't publish terms for sales-managed deals.

What are advertisers actually paying? OpenAI doesn't publish average prices. The Information reported in October that OpenAI has slashed ad prices, according to an October 15 summary by Shopifreaks. In the same summary, one agency founder said his clients pay about $5 per click, versus $30–$50 on Google. These are reported figures, not OpenAI's.

How do you measure results?

Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, average CPC and CPM, and conversions. Spend can lag seven to eight hours, so a $0 reading doesn't mean nothing was charged.

Conversion tracking uses the OpenAI Pixel, the Conversions API, or both. The Conversions API docs list standard events such as order_created and lead_created, and a one-day view-through window reported as a separate metric. OpenAI says totals may include modeled conversions.

What can't you advertise? Policies and prohibited categories

OpenAI's ad policies, updated September 10, 2026, sort products into three tiers:

• Allowed: household and consumer goods, local services, travel and experiences, and digital products and education.
• Approved advertisers only, US only, case by case: financial services, healthcare and medicine, and legal services. Credit repair, debt settlement and bullion are prohibited.
• Disallowed: political content, gambling, alcohol over 0.5% ABV, tobacco and vaping, dating and adult content, cannabis and THC, counterfeit goods, individual housing or job listings, and ads that mention abortion, immigration, race, religion or gender identity.

No ads appear next to health, mental-health or emotionally reliant conversations, or topics such as politics or self-harm. OpenAI says most reviews are automated "with human oversight and calibration," and rejections can be appealed.

Is there a ChatGPT Ads API?

Yes, with limits. OpenAI's docs describe an Ads API at api.ads.openai.com/v1, with resources for campaigns, ad groups, ads, insights, files, audit logs and conversion setup. The partner setup page says "API partners can use the Ads API to configure measurement and campaign resources for client accounts." It doesn't describe direct access for advertisers.

Two other tools are open to advertisers:

• The Conversions API, with a key and Pixel ID created from the conversions tab in Ads Manager.
• The ChatGPT Ads Manager plugin, which drafts ads, edits campaigns and analyzes results from ChatGPT or Codex, asking you to confirm each change.

What's confirmed, reported and uncertain

• Confirmed (OpenAI, October 16, 2026):
  • the 63-country self-serve list
  • the sign-up and verification steps
  • the CPM, CPC and optimized billing models and the $3–$5 suggested CPC
  • minimum daily budgets by currency
  • the format statuses in the table above
  • the policy categories (September 10 version)
  • the Ads API's partner framing
• Reported:
  • the price cuts and the ~$5 click example (The Information, via Shopifreaks, October 15)
  • the earlier $200,000–$250,000 and $50,000 minimums (The Next Web, April 22; EMARKETER, May 26)
• Uncertain:
  • typical CPMs and CPCs today
  • whether visual ads will be sold self-serve, and when the test starts
  • when sponsored agents and API access open more widely
  • Ads Manager's launch date: OpenAI says May, while The Next Web reported April 15

For how ads fit OpenAI's business, see our OpenAI explainer.