ChatGPT Ads Passes a $1 Billion Annual Revenue Run Rate

ChatGPT Ads has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate less than 200 days after launch, OpenAI says. The company is also opening self-serve buying through Ads Manager to advertisers in India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

OpenAI set out the figures in a post on its site, which says the platform now has tens of thousands of advertisers and is available in more than 40 countries through its sales team and its agency and technology partners.

From $100 Million to $1 Billion

The curve is steep. In March, The Keyword reported the pilot at $100 million in annualized revenue about six weeks after the US launch in February. At that point just over 600 advertisers were in the program, buying through a managed-sales model.

Two changes since then explain most of the growth. OpenAI opened Ads Manager in May, and it says small and medium-sized businesses now make up “a material share of the business”.

The advertiser base has also moved beyond the US. OpenAI says advertisers outside the country are a growing share of revenue, following the international expansion The Keyword covered in April and Ads Manager’s arrival in the UK in June. Many of its largest clients now run campaigns across several markets.

ChatGPT Is Now Bought Like a Performance Channel

The more useful detail for media buyers is how campaigns are bought. OpenAI says CPC and outcome-optimized bidding now account for the majority of campaigns, with the Pixel and Conversions API as the base for measurement. Product feeds, platform and geographic targeting, and custom audiences are all available.

That is the toolkit of a standard paid channel. An advertiser can run ChatGPT with the same bidding logic and conversion tracking used on Google or Meta, and judge it on cost per acquisition rather than as a brand experiment. OpenAI counts more than 50 technology and measurement partners in its ecosystem.

Targeting still starts with the conversation. Ads are matched to what a person is asking about, and depending on the country and the user’s settings, OpenAI’s system may also draw on context from their wider ChatGPT use. OpenAI says ads are labeled, kept separate from answers and do not influence them, and that advertisers never see private conversations.

What It Means for Advertisers

The run rate turns ChatGPT from a test budget into a line item worth planning for. Reach has a ceiling, though. ChatGPT has more than 1 billion weekly active users, but ads are shown only to adults on the free and Go tiers, while Plus, Pro and Business subscribers see none.

Advertisers in the newly opened markets can now buy directly through Ads Manager, without going through OpenAI’s sales team or an agency partner.

OpenAI says the next phase brings more markets and “additional formats, objectives, buying options, and measurement capabilities.” One new format is already in testing. On 20 September The Keyword reported that ChatGPT is trialling ads that open a brand agent chat with selected US advertisers.