All U.S. businesses can now access OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager after the company eliminated the $50,000 entry barrier that had restricted the platform to larger spenders since its debut earlier this year.
The company dropped its $50,000 minimum spend requirement and added cost-per-click pricing as it expands beyond its pilot partners
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All U.S. businesses can now access OpenAI's self-serve Ads Manager after the company eliminated the $50,000 entry barrier that had restricted the platform to larger spenders since its debut earlier this year.
Agency holding companies Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP are among those gaining access, alongside small and midsize businesses, startups, and global brands, the company said. Ad tech firms such as Adobe $ADBE, Criteo, Kargo, Pacvue, and StackAdapt will also have access to the platform.
Through the tool, campaigns can be launched and adjusted on the fly, with advertisers able to work independently or route activity through agency partners. The expansion marks the broadest opening yet of a platform that launched in February 2026 with a small group of test partners and a cost-per-thousand-impressions pricing model. Advertisers can now also buy on a cost-per-click basis, according to Axios.
According to Digiday, ads and monetization lead Asad Awan briefed reporters on two forthcoming additions — cost-per-action bidding and third-party measurement — while declining to specify when either would arrive or which outside partners might be involved. A conversions pixel is already live, and a conversions API is in development. On user trust, Awan said the company maintains a high bar on privacy and that paid placements have no bearing on how ChatGPT's core organic model operates.
Where ads actually appear inside ChatGPT remains entirely under OpenAI's control; partners such as Adobe and Criteo are limited to managing budgets, bids, and creative assets on behalf of advertisers. Rather than gaining access to the raw conversation data behind any given placement, advertisers are given rolled-up performance figures. Category eligibility remains narrow for now — consumer goods, local services, travel, entertainment, and digital or educational products are among those permitted — with broader access tied to the maturation of OpenAI's review and compliance infrastructure.
The platform's rollout reflects how far the advertising effort has advanced in a short period. Cost-per-click pricing became available to pilot advertisers earlier this year, with bids set between $3 and $5 per click. Before that, the cost per thousand impressions had fallen from an opening rate of $60 to about $25 in some transactions, and the minimum campaign commitment had already dropped from $250,000 to $50,000. OpenAI has also been recruiting an advertising marketing science leader to build out measurement strategy and relationships with independent measurement vendors.
The ad-supported model for ChatGPT reflects broader pressure across the AI industry to diversify revenue as infrastructure costs rise. Axios reports that OpenAI is targeting $2.5 billion in advertising revenue for the current year, with a longer-range ambition of reaching $100 billion by 2030.
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