Sam Altman Moves Advertising Into ChatGPT

OpenAI is quietly testing ads inside ChatGPT as it looks for a new revenue engine beyond subscriptions. ChatGPT now has about 1 billion monthly users, making it the world’s ninth-largest service, but 95% of them use the free tier. The rest are split between the GO plan at $8 a month, Plus at $20, and Pro at $200, mostly used by large companies.

The closed pilot is running in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, with Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico due to join in the coming weeks. If the experiment works, the industry may see a new marketing category emerge, which Dentsu Israel calls AIMedia. Mirit Rabinovitz, CEO of Dentsu Israel, the first local agency in the pilot, said OpenAI wants to capture half of a market she estimates will reach $200 billion by 2030.

OpenAI selected a small group of agencies as “early alpha” partners, and Dentsu Israel secured approval in early February after arguing that Israel’s ad market is highly advanced. Initial advertisers were chosen carefully, while sectors such as insurance, banking and gaming were excluded. The entry threshold was set at $250,000, and Dentsu has since run campaigns for Israeli companies selling into the U.S., including Nice, Lightricks, GlassesUSA and ZyG.

Ads currently appear only to free and GO users, as banners at the bottom of a chat. They are targeted in real time based on the user’s intent and context, and OpenAI says engagement is high. Pricing has evolved from $60 CPM to dynamic CPM, then PPC and now CPA. Current rates are $2 to $5 per click or $25 to $60 per 1,000 impressions, with higher costs in competitive categories such as travel, home design and fashion.

OpenAI also launched a self-serve ad platform, but Rabinovitz said brands get no support and agencies can analyze performance more broadly. She said the biggest challenge is creative volume, with teams generating dozens, hundreds or even thousands of ad variations. GlasseUSA marketing vice president Arie Tom said early results have been promising, with click-through rates reaching 4% to 5%, though OpenAI still limits scale. He expects AI advertising to become a major channel within months and a must-buy within a year.