OpenAI has started selling ad space inside ChatGPT. Through OpenAI Ads, its new advertising platform, the company is inviting online retailers and other small businesses into an early rollout and pitching them directly with unsolicited emails. A public site for advertisers is already up. The ads are designed to appear at the point where people ask ChatGPT for help deciding what to buy, and that shifts what both users and brands get out of a chatbot conversation.
From a funding option of last resort to a working ad business
Paid placements in ChatGPT had long seemed a matter of when, not if. Anthropic used a Super Bowl commercial to tease chatbots that slip sponsored picks into their answers, presenting Claude as the alternative without ads. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had previously said advertising would be the very last option for paying for the platform.
Now OpenAI Ads lets brands put their messages directly into ChatGPT conversations, and the first wave is aimed at e-commerce shops and other small businesses. With Claude marketed on the absence of ads and ChatGPT now carrying them, whether a chatbot shows ads may become one more factor people weigh when they pick one.
Inside the sales pitch
A single message to one online store shows how OpenAI is recruiting advertisers. The store heard from an OpenAI account manager who offered it a place in the first group of advertisers. The email argued that tech-minded shoppers usually start from a problem with their own setup and only later choose the accessory that fixes it, and that well-matched ChatGPT ads could bring the store into that choice sooner. It closed by proposing a half-hour meeting this week or early next week, with a booking link attached.
The wording was stiff and template-like, the kind of sales prose that reads as though an AI drafted it and nobody checked it before it went out. An AI company courting advertisers with outreach that looks machine-written is an irony that is hard to miss.
The store still intends to take the meeting to see how the system really works. It has done well with paid campaigns on Reddit and stays curious about new digital channels, and its marketing team will judge whether ChatGPT ads earn back what they cost. Trying a new ad platform early can help the business while giving it firsthand knowledge of how the platform behaves.
The outreach goes beyond retail. A restaurant owner received a similar email that pointed to OpenAI’s advertiser site.
▲ An ad pitch landing in an online store’s inbox
The advertiser site is already open
OpenAI’s portal for advertisers is public. It promotes conversational ads that reach shoppers while they compare products and settle on a purchase, and businesses can browse the ad offering and sign up there to show interest.
Its headline promise is to “reach people in moments that matter.” The line can also be read as a plan to catch people exactly when they feel pressure or are at their most exposed, which may leave some readers uneasy.
The site also showcases a customer. A marketer at Newegg who runs its performance campaigns says ChatGPT ads let the computer parts retailer show up inside the conversation while users research hardware they plan to buy. Put simply, the ads help a brand make the shortlist while a purchase is still being decided. The system is running today; it is not a concept waiting for launch.
Here is what is known about OpenAI Ads so far:
| Aspect | What is known |
|---|---|
| Sales approach | Direct emails to businesses; one store was offered a 30-minute demo |
| First targets | Online stores and small businesses such as restaurants |
| Where ads appear | Inside ChatGPT conversations in which users research and choose products |
| Advertiser entry point | A public site for reviewing the offering and registering interest |
| Existing customer | Newegg, appearing in chats about buying hardware |
| Price signal | Reports of click prices noticeably above traditional ad networks |
Why a ChatGPT click costs more
There are reports that a click on a ChatGPT ad costs noticeably more than a click on traditional ad networks. Advertisers often track this as cost per click (CPC), the amount they pay each time someone clicks an ad. Three factors help explain the premium:
- OpenAI’s finances: The company spends money at an enormous pace and has to build a business that can sustain itself, so premium pricing fits its situation.
- Stated intent: A question to a chatbot often spells out exactly what the person wants to buy, so an ad can reach someone who is close to a decision.
- Sustained attention: People in a chat are typing, reading and replying rather than half-watching, so their focus stays on the exchange.
Online video offers a useful parallel. Advertisers pay a far higher CPM, the price per thousand ad impressions, on livestreams than on prerecorded video on demand (VOD). Compare on-demand uploads that draw 2 to 4 million views a day with a livestream that holds 5,000 people at once, and the livestream earns much more per impression, because its audience is focused and taking part. The trade-off is cost: intense real-time content is much more expensive to produce.
| Format | How people pay attention | Ad pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Video on demand | Passive | Lower CPM |
| Livestream | Focused and participating | Much higher CPM than VOD |
| ChatGPT conversation | Active, with buying intent stated in the question | CPC reported above traditional ad networks |
▲ Passive viewing versus active conversation
What users should watch for
Ethical warnings have trailed AI chatbots since the first ones appeared, yet people seem likely to click on ads in a chat and buy what they see anyway. Users may resist the shift to ads at first, but the deep engagement and clear intent inside chatbot conversations suggest ChatGPT ads will be very profitable.
That makes a personal yardstick more useful than trying to avoid ads altogether. A simple standard for judging any product is whether it does what its box claims at the price it is sold for. The test is not whether it fits every buyer, but whether it delivers on its own promise. Some products fail even that, such as the cheapest graphics cards that cannot meet even modest expectations. Applying the same standard to products you meet through an ad in a chat may make you less likely to be swayed by the pitch.
What to do now
ChatGPT ads are moving into the middle of shopping conversations, and advertisers reportedly pay more per click to be there than on traditional ad networks. OpenAI already has its advertiser site open and is pitching shops and restaurants directly.
If you use ChatGPT to research purchases:
- Read answers and ads as separate things, and notice which is which.
- Check on your own whether a recommended product does what it claims at its price.
If you run a business:
- Review the chat ad products on OpenAI’s advertiser site, and if a pitch arrives, use the demo meeting to see how the system works.
- Plan ads around the moment people explore products and around the intent their questions reveal.
- Because clicks cost more, compare cost and results against the channels that already work for you before setting a budget.