Advertising in ChatGPT: how it works, who sees it and how to start it from Bulgaria
Advertising in ChatGPT is a paid, clearly labelled sponsored placement under ChatGPT’s answer, which OpenAI shows to users on the free plan and on the Go plan. It does not change the answer and cannot “recommend” a business; it is shown by relevance to the current conversation, the landing page, the ad text and the context hints supplied by the advertiser. The format includes the advertiser’s name and logo, a headline, a short description, a square visual and a link. You pay per 1,000 impressions (CPM), per valid click (CPC) or per click with optimisation towards conversion (oCPC). Campaigns are created in the OpenAI Ads Manager, which from 2026 is available for self-service registration from Bulgaria. The first test in the US began on 9 February 2026, and in 31 European markets the ads went live at the end of August 2026. Below is everything you need to know before you start.
I am Hristiyan Panov — a Performance Marketing consultant with over 5 years of experience and over €2,000,000 of managed advertising budget for over 90 companies on Google and Meta. Below is a breakdown of the new channel based on OpenAI’s official documentation, without promises and without benchmarks that do not yet exist.
What is advertising in ChatGPT?
The ad block is shown below the end of ChatGPT’s answer, when there is a relevant match with the conversation. According to OpenAI’s official documentation, an ad contains six elements: advertiser name, favicon (logo), headline, description, landing page and visual. One block may contain one or several items from a single advertiser, and in longer conversations OpenAI takes into account the overall context and the user experience.
The most important difference from Google and Meta is the principle of independence of the answer. OpenAI states explicitly that the ads run on a system separate from the chat model and that advertisers cannot shape, order or change ChatGPT’s answers. This means that “having ChatGPT recommend you” is not something that can be bought. What is bought is presence next to a conversation in which the customer is already describing what they need.
Who sees the ads in ChatGPT?
Ads can be shown to users on the free plan and on the Go plan. Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu accounts are ad-free. OpenAI does not show ads to accounts identified as belonging to people under 18, and Temporary Chats do not show ads either. In addition, ads are not shown next to sensitive or regulated topics — personal health, mental health and politics.
For businesses in Bulgaria this has practical significance: some of the most active ChatGPT users are paid subscribers and fall outside the reach. The audience of the channel is not “all ChatGPT users” but that part of them who use the free plan or Go. Personalised ads (based on chat history and memory) are initially not available in the European Economic Area — there the ads rely on the context of the current conversation.
How does OpenAI decide which ad to show?
The system selects and delivers ads according to expected relevance and performance. According to the documentation, it takes into account the context and intent of the current conversation, the landing page, the headline and text of the ad, the context hints supplied by the advertiser and the targeting settings, and, where personalisation is on, selected signals from wider use of ChatGPT. When there are several suitable ads, a second-price auction weighted by relevance is used: the bid matters, but relevance to the conversation weighs more.
Context hints are descriptions of the conversations, topics or needs in which the product is useful. They are set at ad group level and are not exact-match keywords — they do not guarantee display in a specific conversation. In detail about them: how to write context hints.
How do you pay for advertising in ChatGPT?
As of September 2026 there are three campaign objectives. With Reach you pay per 1,000 impressions (CPM). With Clicks you pay per valid click (CPC), with the advertiser setting a maximum bid at ad group level; OpenAI recommends a starting maximum of USD 3–5 per click. With Conversions (oCPC) the campaign is optimised towards a chosen standard event — purchase, registration, enquiry — but payment remains per click, not per conversion. There is also a Maximize results strategy, in which the platform sets the bids itself within the budget.
The minimum daily budget depends on the currency of the ad account. The table published by OpenAI includes, for example, USD 25 per day for the US and GBP 15 per day for the UK; a euro value has not been published at the moment and is shown when you create the campaign. The daily budget is an average over seven days: on a single day the spend can reach up to twice the daily budget, and over seven days up to seven times. Breakdown of the prices: how much advertising in ChatGPT costs.
How do you start a campaign from Bulgaria?
Campaigns are created in the OpenAI Ads Manager (ads.openai.com). The process has five steps: registration with an OpenAI account using a work email, entering the business details (name, website, logo, industry, country, currency, time zone), account verification through Persona, creating a payment profile and adding a card, and inviting the team. The country, currency and time zone cannot be changed after the account is created, so they are chosen carefully. OpenAI states that when a card is added, the bank may show a temporary authorisation of USD 100, which is released after verification.
The campaign structure is a familiar one: campaign (objective, budget, dates, countries), ad group (topic and context hints) and ad (headline, description, visual, page). All ads go through review before they run, and the landing page must be accessible to the robots OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot. Step by step: ChatGPT Ads Manager setup.
Which businesses can advertise in ChatGPT?
OpenAI’s advertising policies (updated on 31 August 2026) allow mainly consumer categories: home and lifestyle goods, local services, travel and experiences, digital products and training. Financial, health and legal services are approved manually and only for approved advertisers, and outside the US these categories are in principle prohibited. Gambling, alcohol and tobacco, dating and adult content, political content, recreational substances and unsubstantiated health claims are prohibited outright.
For the Bulgarian market this means that an online store for tools, appliances, furniture or gifts, a travel agency, a local service or online training has an open road, while food supplements, insurance, loans and law firms do not for now. Full breakdown: who can advertise in ChatGPT.
How is the result measured?
Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, average cost per click, average CPM and conversions. For conversions OpenAI offers the OpenAI Pixel and the Conversions API, which can work together with a shared event ID for deduplication. Every click carries an oppref reference, which the Pixel stores in a first-party cookie and links to a subsequent conversion. In parallel, the advertiser can add UTM parameters to the landing pages and follow the traffic in GA4.
Measurement is set up and checked before the campaign starts, not after the first spend.
- The Pixel sits on the whole path, not only on the landing page. If it is missing from the cart or checkout, oppref is lost and the conversion stays unlinked from the click.
- The same standard event fires from both the Pixel and the Conversions API, with an identical event ID. A different ID means one purchase reported twice.
- UTM parameters survive a redirect. Redirects often strip them and the session enters GA4 as direct traffic.
- The numbers in Ads Manager are reconciled against the till system, not taken at face value.
What does OpenAI say about expected results?
In its official questions and answers, OpenAI states that the platform is in a beta phase and that at present there are no performance benchmarks by advertiser, industry or campaign type. The result depends on the campaign objective, the texts, the landing page, relevance to the user and the overall setup. OpenAI’s only guiding statement is that ads from a product feed are among the strongest in the programme so far. Everything else — CTR, cost per click, conversion — has to be tested in your own account, with a small budget and working tracking.
The absence of an external benchmark changes how the data is read. There is no value against which to say whether a CTR is good — the basis for comparison is the business’s own history in other channels. That is why the baseline figures are recorded before the start: average order value, landing page conversion, acceptable cost per conversion. After the start, the direction is watched, not the individual day. The campaign is touched when the clicks reach a volume at which the difference is not noise, and one thing is changed at a time.
FAQ — Frequently asked questions about advertising in ChatGPT
Does the advertising affect ChatGPT’s answers?
No. OpenAI states that the ads run on a separate system and advertisers have no ability to shape or change the answers. The ad is labelled as sponsored and sits separately below the answer.
Do advertisers see users’ conversations?
No. OpenAI does not share conversations, history or memory with advertisers and does not sell user data. The advertiser receives aggregated data — impressions, clicks, conversions.
Can you advertise in ChatGPT from Bulgaria?
Yes. In the availability table of Ads Manager, Bulgaria is marked as a country with self-service access. Registration is at ads.openai.com with an OpenAI account.
Is there a minimum budget?
The minimum daily budget depends on the account currency and is shown when the campaign is created. The published examples are USD 25 and GBP 15 per day; a euro value has not yet been announced publicly.
Can you pay per sale?
No. Even with campaigns that have a conversion objective, payment is per valid click. There is no pay-for-result model as of September 2026.
Are ads shown next to health or political questions?
No. OpenAI does not show ads next to sensitive topics such as personal health, mental health and politics, regardless of the advertiser’s category.
Conclusion
Advertising in ChatGPT is a new channel with clear rules: a paid placement below the answer, with no influence on the answer itself, shown to users on the free plan and Go, paid per impression or per click. Its strength is context — the customer describes their need in words, not in two keywords. Its weakness at present is the lack of benchmarks and the limited set of permitted categories. The right approach is a controlled test with working tracking, not a bet of the entire budget.
Request a quote for ChatGPT ads →
Related articles: How much advertising in ChatGPT costs · Context hints instead of keywords · ChatGPT Ads vs Google Ads
Sources: OpenAI Help Center — Ads in ChatGPT: The Basics · OpenAI Help Center — Ads in ChatGPT (FAQ) · OpenAI — ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe · OpenAI Ad policies
