To advertise on ChatGPT you open an account in OpenAI's Ads Manager, which has been self-serve for any US business since 5 May 2026, the same day OpenAI removed the minimum spend entirely (PPC Land, 14 May 2026). From there the flow is: install the OpenAI pixel, build a campaign, pick Reach, Clicks or Conversions as the objective, set a daily budget from $25, choose your countries, then write context hints instead of keywords, and upload a headline of up to 50 characters, a description of up to 100 and a square image (Search Engine Land, 10 August 2026). Expect $2 to $5 a click. As of 3 September 2026 the channel runs in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico and across Europe.
This guide is written for a founder or a solo marketer who is going to click every one of those buttons personally. It covers the misinformation on page one first, because it is costing people months, then eligibility, structure, bidding, measurement, creative limits, a realistic floor for a small budget, a launch checklist and the things that get campaigns throttled. Where a number cannot be sourced, it says so instead of guessing.
Is ChatGPT advertising still invite only?
No, and this is the single most expensive stale fact in the category. Search "how to advertise on ChatGPT" today and a page one result from August 2026 will still tell you to fill in a request form and wait for an invitation. That advice was already wrong by three months when it was published.
The timeline, from sources fetched for this guide: the pilot opened on 9 February 2026 with managed buys only, a $60 CPM and a minimum spend reported at $200,000 to $250,000. On roughly 10 April 2026 the minimum fell to $50,000 (PPC Land, 13 April 2026). On 5 May 2026 the Ads Manager opened to all US businesses and the minimum spend was removed (PPC Land, 14 May 2026).
The belief lingers on the buy side too. Farhad Divecha of Accuracast told Digiday in July that "most are keen to try ChatGPT ads, but quite a few still think the minimums are too high or the ad platform is still not open to all advertisers" (Digiday, 30 July 2026). A practitioner in the r/PPC beta thread put it more bluntly in May: "Don't need a minimum spend anymore but there is an approval and waiting process (for now)" (u/g_hock, r/PPC, 15 May 2026).
Do this now: if a page you are reading about ChatGPT ads does not carry a date after May 2026, close it.
Who can advertise, and where
Ads serve only to people on the ChatGPT Free and Go tiers. Pro, Plus, Business and Enterprise accounts stay ad-free (Search Engine Land, 19 August 2026). No ads go to accounts identified as under 18, and none serve alongside sensitive conversation topics such as personal health, mental health or politics, per our ChatGPT ads skill, verified 26 August 2026.
Live markets as of 3 September 2026: the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Japan and South Korea (PPC Land, 15 August 2026), plus Brazil and Mexico (Search Engine Land, 24 August 2026) and 31 European countries from late August (Search Engine Land, 19 August 2026).
One catch worth knowing before you plan a European launch. Search Engine Land reported the European rollout arriving first through OpenAI's Ads Solutions team, agency partners and technology partners, with self-service "expected later in summer 2026". PPC Land made the same point differently: the user-facing rollout and the buy-side rollout are on separate clocks. So being in a live market does not guarantee you a self-serve account there yet. Check the availability page inside Ads Manager rather than assuming.
Restricted verticals as of April 2026 were dating, health, financial services and politics, per our ChatGPT ads skill. If you are near any of those, confirm current policy in Ads Manager before you build anything. OpenAI's own ads documentation could not be fetched for this guide, so treat the vertical list as reported rather than primary.
How the account is structured
Three levels, and the naming is familiar: campaign, then ad group, then ad. Targeting lives at ad group level. Per John Horn's walkthrough of early campaigns for Search Engine Land, 10 August 2026, the campaign level holds:
- Campaign type: Standard or product feed.
- Objective: Reach, Clicks or Conversions.
- Geography: country, region, DMA and postal code. Note that this contradicts our own ChatGPT ads skill, which recorded country-level targeting only as of 26 August 2026. Horn's is the more recent hands-on account, so check what your own account offers before you promise a client local targeting.
- Custom audiences, with a minimum of 25,000 matched users.
- Daily or total budget, minimum $25 a day.
- Optional conversion tracking.
The ad group holds the bid, the default destination URL and the context hints box. The ad holds a headline capped at 50 characters, a description capped at 100, and a square image in PNG or JPG at 256 by 256 pixels or larger. Both text fields can be truncated in the live unit, so front-load everything that matters.
One structural rule worth adopting: one scenario theme per ad group. There is no query report, so ad group names are the only readout you will get on which contexts convert.
Which objective and bid should you choose first?
OpenAI recommends a starting max bid of $3 to $5 per click, and $60 is the default maximum for CPM buys (Digiday, 21 April 2026; WebFX, 2 June 2026). Horn found the platform actively warns you below that: "If you set a max CPC lower than $3, the platform will tell you that your ad may not deliver."
Since August 2026 a "Maximize results" automated strategy is preselected on eligible new ad groups, and it does not guarantee delivery against any CPA, CPC or ROAS target (PPC Land, August 2026; Search Engine Land, 24 August 2026). Your budget is the only constraint on it.
For a first test, override the default and set a manual max CPC in the $3 to $5 band. A manual max bid is the only hard cost ceiling the product offers. Move to Maximize results after the pixel has recorded real conversions and you know what a customer is worth to you.