OpenAI announced that ChatGPT Ads has reached $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate in less than 200 days after launch, and the platform is now used by tens of thousands of advertisers. Starting later today, advertisers can purchase ChatGPT ads directly through Ads Manager across India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Advertising is one pillar of OpenAI’s business model, alongside consumer subscriptions, enterprise offerings, and usage-based APIs; together these fund an advertising-supported free tier that helps keep ChatGPT available to more than 1 billion weekly active users.

The opportunity is built around decision-making. People come to ChatGPT with goals such as choosing software for their business, learning a language, planning a renovation, looking for a job, or exploring a hobby. They describe what they want to accomplish, what matters, and their constraints. ChatGPT helps them frame the decision, establish criteria, understand alternatives, and move closer to action. The ads system uses the current conversation’s context to show ads relevant to what someone is exploring. In some countries and depending on user settings, it may also use context from the broader ChatGPT experience, so ads can reflect both immediate questions and, where enabled, wider interests and preferences.

OpenAI says it has built the platform around its ads principles, with trust as the North Star. Ads are clearly labeled and kept separate from ChatGPT’s answers; advertising does not influence those answers. Advertisers do not get access to people’s private conversations, and users can control how ad personalization works. Throughout the global rollout, measured trust, relevance, and overall experience metrics have remained strong.

ChatGPT Ads is now available in more than 40 countries through the OpenAI Ads Solutions team and agency and technology partners. Self-service access via Ads Manager is launching across India, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The client base is increasingly global, with advertisers outside the U.S. representing a growing share of revenue and many of the largest clients running campaigns across multiple markets. The advertiser base has also broadened: the company started with managed sales, agency, and partner-led distribution, and now works with more than 50 technology and measurement partners. Ads Manager, introduced in May, opened the platform to small and medium-sized businesses, which now account for a material share of the business.

The platform itself has matured. CPC and outcome-optimized bidding now account for the majority of campaigns, and Pixel and Conversions API have become foundations for measurement and optimization. Product feeds, platform and geographic targeting, and custom audiences help advertisers reach relevant customers. OpenAI cites two recent outcomes: an ecommerce advertiser achieved a 3x return on ad spend across its campaigns over 28 days, and a technology partner reported that more than 80% of ad-driven ChatGPT traffic comes from new customers.

Plans include expanding ChatGPT Ads to additional markets and adding new formats, objectives, buying options, and measurement capabilities. OpenAI also says it will explore more native ways for businesses to interact with consumers inside ChatGPT. The next phase, in its telling, continues the dual focus of expanding access to AI while staying true to the stated principles.