OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents, a ChatGPT ad format in which clicking an ad can open a labeled conversation with an AI agent that speaks for the advertiser.
The test is running with selected advertisers in the United States. OpenAI's help center calls it a limited alpha and says the company is not accepting early access requests, so most advertisers will meet Sponsored Agents as users long before they can buy one.
How the Format Works
After seeing a relevant ad, a user can choose to open the conversation, say what matters to them, ask follow-up questions, and follow a link to the business's website when they are ready. OpenAI's own example is a shopper who sees a dining table and wants to know whether it fits the room, how many people it seats, and how to care for the finish. Those are the questions a product page answers badly and a salesperson answers well.
OpenAI says in its advertising announcement that the conversation with a Sponsored Agent is distinct from ChatGPT's independent answers and separate from the conversation the user started. That separation is the basis of the whole format. The company is selling advertisers a channel inside the assistant while telling users the assistant's own judgment is not for sale.
What Changes for the Advertiser
A conventional ad is finished when it ships. An agent is not. Whatever the agent can explain, compare, concede or get wrong becomes the advertisement, which moves the work from writing a headline toward assembling the product knowledge, the pricing rules and the boundaries the agent answers within. Teams that have written for a fixed unit for twenty years now have to decide what the brand says when a stranger pushes back.
The Tooling Around It
Sponsored Agents arrived with a set of platform tools rather than on its own, which follows the pattern of the past few months. OpenAI added a second ad format on July 1 and an option that drafts ads for advertisers on July 7.
Advertisers can now create, update and analyze campaigns with natural-language prompts in ChatGPT through the Ads Manager plugin, turning a website or a brief into a campaign. Ads Manager also suggests copy and imagery based on the landing page and the campaign objective, with the advertiser reviewing and editing before anything is added. An opt-in text customization setting adapts existing headlines and descriptions to the context of a conversation and translates ad copy into the user's language.
Two integrations landed alongside them. HubSpot, OpenAI's first CRM partner, lets businesses connect a ChatGPT Ads account and then create ads, track performance and follow up on leads inside HubSpot. Shopify is the first ecommerce partner. United States merchants can run campaigns from a ChatGPT Ads app in the Shopify App Store, with products already connected through Shopify Catalog, and the app reaches other markets where ChatGPT Ads run on September 23.
The Measurement Detail
Search Engine Roundtable reports, from an email OpenAI sent to advertisers, that conversion optimization with impression billing is now generally available and is the platform's recommended model. The same email is reported to set attribution windows of 7, 14 or 30 days for clicks alongside a 0 or 1 day view window, to split targeting across Android app, Android web, desktop web, iOS app and iOS web, and to score Pixel and Conversions API sources from 1 to 10 for event quality. None of that appears on a public OpenAI page.
Everyone Is Building the Same Thing
The conversational ad is now contested across three companies. Google has been placing ads inside AI Mode since it began testing them in May 2025, and it widened those placements that November. Amazon went further in June, letting a shopper complete a purchase inside an Alexa+ conversation on an Echo Show. OpenAI's version keeps the brand's own agent in the exchange rather than the platform's assistant, which is a different bet about who the shopper trusts.
It also lands on a narrow base. ChatGPT ads reach the free and Go tiers only, so a format built for deep consideration is being tested on the part of the audience that has declined to pay.
Recap
What are Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT Ads?
They are an ad format that lets a user open a labeled conversation with an AI agent representing a business after clicking its ad in ChatGPT. OpenAI is testing the format with selected advertisers in the United States and is not accepting early access requests.
How does a Sponsored Agent conversation work?
A user chooses to open the conversation from the ad, explains what matters to them, asks follow-up questions, and can follow a link to the business's website. OpenAI says that exchange is distinct from ChatGPT's independent answers and separate from the conversation the user started.
What does the format change for advertisers?
The unit being bought stops being a finished piece of copy and becomes a live exchange, so preparation moves toward the product knowledge, pricing rules and limits the agent answers within. For now the format cannot be requested, so most advertisers can only watch it run.