Eligibility and geography
1. Who can see ads in ChatGPT today?
Free and Go plan users in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
2. Do Plus, Pro, or Business users see ads?
No. All paid plans are ad-free.
3. Do under-18 users see ads?
No. Users declared or predicted to be under 18 are excluded from ad-eligible inventory.
4. When will ChatGPT ads expand to the UK, EU, India?
OpenAI has not published a public timeline. Plan campaigns for the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand for now.
The ad unit and where it appears
5. Where in the conversation does the ad appear?
Below the ChatGPT response, distinct from the model's answer. Ads are clearly labeled.
6. What does a ChatGPT ad contain?
Advertiser name, favicon, title (headline), copy (description), landing-page link, and an image asset.
7. Can my ad appear inside ChatGPT's answer text?
No. OpenAI's policy explicitly separates ads from model responses.
8. Are ChatGPT ads labeled as sponsored?
Yes. Clear labeling is one of OpenAI's three published trust principles.
Context hints
9. What are context hints?
Short descriptions of the conversations, topics, or keywords where your product is relevant. They live at the ad-group level and are OpenAI's primary targeting input.
10. Are context hints exact-match keywords?
No. OpenAI explicitly states hints are not exact-match. The auction evaluates relevance across the full conversation.
11. Does providing a context hint guarantee ad delivery?
No. Hints guide matching but do not guarantee delivery in any specific conversation.
12. How many context hints should one ad group have?
Five to fifteen variants describing the same audience-intent-topic combination usually outperforms one or two broad hints.
13. Can context hints include competitor names?
Descriptively, yes — "switching from competitor X" is a legitimate description of a conversation. Verify alignment with OpenAI's current ad policies before scaling.
14. Should I write hints as sentences or short phrases?
Full sentences usually outperform fragments because they let the model assess audience, intent, and topic together.
15. Are there negative context hints?
Not in the Ads Manager Beta today. It is one of the most-requested features.
16. Where can I see examples?
Fifty worked examples by vertical live inside the cornerstone guide.
Bidding, pricing, and the auction
17. What's the recommended starting CPC bid?
$3-5 USD per click, per OpenAI's documentation.
18. What's the default CPM bid?
$60.
19. How does the auction work?
It is a relevance-weighted second-price auction. The platform evaluates bids and relevance, then the winner pays one cent above the next-highest eligible bid.
20. What inputs affect relevance?
Context hints, landing page, ad title, and ad copy — the four named relevance inputs.
21. Should I bid above $5 to win competitive verticals?
Usually no. Tightening hint specificity raises relevance faster than raising the bid raises rank, and at lower cost.
22. CPC or CPM — which should I pick?
CPC (Clicks objective) for lower-funnel performance campaigns with a measurable conversion. CPM (Reach objective) for awareness and brand-building campaigns.
Setup, billing, and verification
23. How do I sign up for Ads Manager Beta?
Visit Ads Manager Beta and follow the sign-up flow. You need an OpenAI account; one can be created during sign-up if you don't already have one.
24. What are the five setup steps?
Create account → complete onboarding and Persona verification → complete account info → set up billing and payment → invite team members. See our setup walkthrough.
25. How long does verification take?
A rolling-queue review. Wait times vary; OpenAI emails the account creator when access is granted.
26. Can I run multiple advertisers from one account?
No. Each business advertiser requires its own account.
27. What account-level settings exist?
Members and permissions, API keys, billing details, and change logs.
28. Does my landing page need to be crawlable?
OpenAI publishes guidance for advertisers on allowing its web crawlers. Don't block them at the robots level if you want the relevance scorer to read your landing page properly.
Reporting and measurement
29. What metrics does Ads Manager Beta report?
Impressions, clicks, spend, click-through rate (CTR), average CPC, average CPM, and conversions.
30. How do I track conversions?
Set up conversion measurement inside Ads Manager Beta. UTM parameters persist on click for downstream analytics.
31. Will my UTMs flow into GA4?
Yes. UTM parameters set on the landing-page URL persist on ad clicks and appear in your downstream tools the same as any other paid channel.
32. Can I export reporting?
Yes. Ads Manager Beta supports CSV exports alongside in-product table and chart views.
Policy, brand safety, and trust
33. What categories are restricted?
Sensitive categories are excluded. Review OpenAI's published Ads Policies for the current list — it is the authoritative source.
34. Are political ads allowed?
Refer to OpenAI's current published policies. Treat this as evolving.
35. What are the three trust principles?
Ads are clearly labeled, ads remain separate from ChatGPT's responses, and users have choice and control over how their data is used for ads.
36. Can users opt out of ad personalization?
Yes. User choice and control is one of OpenAI's published principles.
Strategy and operations
37. Should B2B SaaS run ChatGPT ads in 2026?
If you sell to buyers who use ChatGPT for evaluation and comparison (most modern B2B SaaS does), yes. The combination of stated intent and uncontested inventory is unusually favorable.
38. Who is already advertising on ChatGPT?
OpenAI's own marketing site highlights Best Buy, Lowe's, and VistaPrint as early advertisers, with a quote from Amy Adams, VP of Media at Best Buy.
39. What's a good first-90-day plan?
One campaign per objective (Clicks for performance, Reach for brand), one ad group per audience-intent combination (start with three), five to ten context hints per ad group, $3 CPC max bid, UTMs on every landing page, weekly review. See the definitive guide for the full operator playbook.
40. Can I get help building this?
Yes — book a 30-minute discovery call with Tarun. Free, no pitch, walk away with a plan.
Still have a question?
The fastest way to get a real answer for your specific situation is a 30-minute call with Tarun. Free strategy session, no pitch.
Book a discovery call