OpenAI Expands ChatGPT Ads Self-Service Access to India and Europe

OpenAI announced on August 31, 2026, that ChatGPT Ads has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate less than 200 days after launch, and that self-service ad buying through Ads Manager would open later that day across India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Advertising is one pillar of OpenAI’s diversified business model, alongside consumer subscriptions, enterprise offerings, and usage-based APIs. Together, these offerings give people, developers, and businesses choice in how they access OpenAI products, the company said, including an advertising-supported free tier that helps keep ChatGPT available to more than 1 billion weekly active users. OpenAI said the ads platform is now used by tens of thousands of advertisers.

How Ads in ChatGPT Work

OpenAI said people come to ChatGPT with clear goals, such as choosing software for a business, learning a new language, planning a renovation, looking for a job, or exploring a new hobby. Within a conversation, users can frame a decision, establish criteria, understand alternatives, and move toward taking action. The ads system uses the context of the current conversation to show an ad relevant to what someone is exploring. Depending on the country and a user’s settings, it may also draw on context from the user’s broader ChatGPT experience, allowing ads to reflect both what someone is asking about in the moment and, where enabled, their broader interests and preferences.

Ads in ChatGPT are always clearly labeled and separate from ChatGPT’s answers, and advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides, the company said. Advertisers do not receive access to people’s private conversations, and users can control how their ad experience is personalized. OpenAI said the measures it tracks across trust, relevance, and overall experience have remained strong throughout the global rollout.

The expansion is governed by the ads principles OpenAI published on January 16, 2026, when it first detailed plans to test advertising. Those principles state that ads do not influence answers, that conversations remain private from advertisers and user data is never sold to them, and that users can turn off personalization and clear the data used for ads at any time. OpenAI also committed to always offering a way to avoid ads, including a paid ad-free tier, and said it does not optimize for time spent in ChatGPT. The initial test design covered logged-in adults in the United States on the free and Go tiers, excluded accounts where the user is or is predicted to be under 18, and barred ads near sensitive or regulated topics such as health, mental health, and politics.

From Pilot Program to Global Platform

ChatGPT Ads are now available in more than 40 countries through the OpenAI Ads Solutions team and agency and technology partners, per the company’s availability documentation, which lists self-service status country by country. OpenAI said advertisers outside the United States represent a growing share of revenue, and many of its largest clients now use ChatGPT Ads to reach potential customers across multiple markets.

OpenAI said it began with a managed-sales, agency, and partner-led model and has since expanded its ecosystem to more than 50 technology and measurement partners. The introduction of Ads Manager in May 2026 opened the platform to small and medium-sized businesses, which the company said now represent a material share of the business. According to the help center, account creation and self-service availability are handled separately, and advertisers in countries where self-service access is not yet live can sign up to be notified when it becomes available.

The company said CPC and outcome-optimized bidding now account for the majority of campaigns on the platform, while its Pixel and Conversions API have become foundations for measurement and optimization. Capabilities including product feeds, platform and geographic targeting, and custom audiences help advertisers reach the customers most relevant to their businesses, according to OpenAI.

OpenAI cited two recent results as evidence of advertiser outcomes: an ecommerce advertiser achieved a 3x return on ad spend across its campaigns over 28 days, and a technology partner reported that more than 80% of ad-driven ChatGPT traffic came from new customers.

Next Phase of Expansion

OpenAI said its next phase of growth will bring ChatGPT Ads to additional markets and introduce new formats, objectives, buying options, and measurement capabilities. The company also plans to explore new ways for businesses to interact with consumers in more native ways inside ChatGPT. As more people turn to ChatGPT to explore needs, evaluate options, and make decisions, OpenAI said it sees an opportunity to help them discover products and services while helping businesses of every size grow.