ChatGPT has adverts now. Should your business be in them?

2 September 2026 · 4 min read · Sam, CTO at Lunr Launch

3D render of the ChatGPT app icon on a teal background

Every few months a new place to put adverts appears, and every few months we get asked whether it matters. This summer it was ChatGPT. I went straight to what OpenAI has published themselves rather than the hype around it. This is the plain version of what's actually happened, and what I'd say to one of our clients if they asked.

Short version: it's real, it's small, and most businesses shouldn't move money towards it yet. Here's why.

What's actually happened

OpenAI started testing adverts in ChatGPT in the US in February. In an update to that same announcement on 11 August, they confirmed the adverts are now live in the UK, along with Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea. The UK was announced first, back in June, and the self-serve tool for buying them started reaching UK businesses around the same time. It's still labelled a beta, which is OpenAI's way of saying things will change.

Since then it's moved fast. On 31 August OpenAI opened self-service buying across Europe and said adverts had passed a billion dollars a year in run rate, with small businesses now a meaningful share of its advertisers.

So yes, it's real, and yes, it's here.

Who sees them

Only people using ChatGPT for free, or on the cheap "Go" plan. If you pay for Plus, Pro, or a business plan, you see no adverts at all. Free users can even switch them off in exchange for fewer messages a day.

That matters more than it sounds. The people seeing these adverts are the casual users, not the ones who've made ChatGPT part of their working day. For a lot of our clients that's still a very big audience. But it's not everyone, and it's not the same crowd you reach on Google.

Who sees the adverts: only Free and Go users; Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education see none — Only free and Go users see adverts. Everyone on a paid plan sees none.

What they look like

Small. A sponsored link that sits underneath the answer, clearly labelled and visibly separate from what ChatGPT actually said. Your business name, a short headline, a line of text, a picture. Nothing like a full-screen video on Instagram.

The advert is matched to the topic of the conversation, and OpenAI says it can also use someone's past chats, with controls for the user to switch that off. Advertisers don't get to see anybody's conversations. OpenAI is also firm that the adverts don't change the answers. Whether people believe that over time is a fair question, but it's their stated rule.

Illustration of a ChatGPT answer with a small sponsored unit underneath, labelled and separate — An illustration, not a real screenshot: the advert sits below the answer, always labelled, in four small parts.

What I'd tell a client

Not yet, for most of you.

Here's my reasoning. Everything we know about buying adverts is built around a search or a scroll. Somebody types "emergency dentist Bolton" into Google, and we know exactly what they want. Somebody flicks past your video on Instagram, and we know roughly who they are. A conversation with ChatGPT is neither of those things. Nobody, including OpenAI, has years of data on what a "good" conversation to advertise in looks like, or what a click from one is worth.

A search, a scroll, a conversation: we know what the first two mean for a business, nobody knows the third yet — We know what a search and a scroll mean for a business. Nobody knows what a conversation means yet.

The early advertisers OpenAI is showing off are companies like Best Buy, Newegg and Lowe's. Big American retailers with budgets to experiment. That's a long way from a karate club or a family haulage firm.

And your money is already working somewhere. Whatever mix of Google and Meta is bringing you enquiries today, pulling budget out of it to test something unproven is one of the most common ways I see small businesses waste a marketing budget. There's no medal for being first.

Who should be looking at it now

If you're a bigger brand with a proper testing budget, or you sell something people genuinely research in a long back-and-forth (software, expensive considered purchases, anything with a comparison stage), I'd have a look. The buying tool is open, the old minimum spends have gone, and the cost of finding out is low.

One practical wrinkle: OpenAI has told agencies not to set up accounts on behalf of clients. So if you want in, the account will need to be yours, with us running it alongside you.

What we're doing

Keeping a close eye on it, as we do with every new platform, and the moment it's worth a client's money we'll say so plainly. That's the point of these updates. Not to sound clever about every new platform, but to tell you which ones deserve your money and which ones don't yet.

If you want to talk through where your own budget should be going, book a call. If not, you now know more about this than most people selling it.