TL;DR
- What: OpenAI’s self-serve Ads Manager is open to advertisers in 32 European countries, including Bulgaria, since early September 2026.
- Who sees ads: only Free and Go users. ChatGPT had 900 million weekly active users in February 2026.
- Pricing: CPM, CPC and conversion-optimized bidding.
- Targeting: context hints instead of keywords, with no exact match.
- Requirement: landing pages must allow OpenAI’s OAI-AdsBot crawler, or ads can’t run.
Contents
- Who sees ChatGPT ads
- How the Ads Manager is structured
- Context hints instead of keywords
- What early advertisers are reporting
- Why landing pages must allow OAI-AdsBot
- Conversion tracking
OpenAI’s self-serve Ads Manager is now open to advertisers in 32 European countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and the rest of the EEA, as well as the UK and Switzerland. OpenAI announced the European expansion in August 2026, and self-serve access followed in early September.
Here is how the platform works, based on OpenAI’s documentation and a first-day walkthrough by Bulgarian marketing strategist Vyara Stefcheva.
Who sees ChatGPT ads
Ads are shown only to users on the Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscribers do not see ads. Ads run in ChatGPT on iOS, Android and web. That covers most of ChatGPT’s audience: in February 2026, OpenAI reported 900 million weekly active users and 50 million paying subscribers.
Ads appear in a separate, labeled unit with a headline, a short description and an image. When OpenAI first announced ads in January 2026, Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, set out the principles in “Our approach to advertising”: “Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you,” and conversations are kept private from advertisers.
How the Ads Manager is structured
The account follows a three-level structure similar to Meta Ads Manager:
| Level | What you set |
|---|---|
| Campaign | Objective (reach, clicks or conversions), locations, platforms, budget, schedule |
| Ad group | Bidding strategy, context hints, landing page URL |
| Ad | Headline, description, image, URL parameters |
Billing options are CPM (per thousand impressions), CPC (per click) and conversion-optimized bidding, where advertisers pay per click but bids are optimized for conversions.
Context hints instead of keywords
ChatGPT Ads do not use keywords or match types. Advertisers write context hints: descriptions of the conversations, topics or phrases where their product may be relevant. OpenAI describes these as guidance for matching, not strict targeting rules.
“You no longer buy a word. You describe a moment in a conversation,” says Stefcheva, who tested the platform on its first day in Bulgaria. “Nobody knows yet how precise this matching is, including the advertisers.”
What early advertisers are reporting
In Stefcheva’s test account in Bulgaria:
- the minimum daily budget was €15;
- headlines were limited to 50 characters and descriptions to 100;
- location targeting was available down to city level;
- AI text personalization, which generates translated and personalized ad variations without individual approval, was on by default;
- the system’s recommended starting budget was $100 per day.
These details may vary by account and market.
Why landing pages must allow OAI-AdsBot
Before an ad runs, OpenAI’s OAI-AdsBot crawler visits the landing page to validate it and understand its content. OpenAI’s advertiser guidance lists three common reasons pages fail: robots.txt restrictions, web protection services such as Cloudflare, and anti-bot measures like CAPTCHAs. There is no manual bypass. Advertisers must make the page crawlable and may need to resubmit the ad.
OpenAI recommends allowing both OAI-AdsBot and OAI-SearchBot. Many sites block them without realizing it: in July 2025, Cloudflare began blocking AI crawlers by default for new customers.
“GEO used to be an organic strategy. With ChatGPT Ads, it becomes a prerequisite for paid,” says Stefcheva. “If AI can’t read your page, your ad won’t reach the right people.”
Conversion tracking
Conversions are measured with the OpenAI Pixel, installed on the advertiser’s website, or through the Conversions API. Supported events include page views, leads, checkouts, purchases, subscriptions, trials and booked appointments, as well as custom events. Product catalogs can be synced via SFTP feeds.
Further reading: Vyara Stefcheva’s first-day analysis of ChatGPT Ads on stefcheva.com.
Sources: OpenAI – ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe · OpenAI – Our approach to advertising and expanding access to ChatGPT · OpenAI Help Center – Advertiser guidance for allowing OpenAI web crawlers · TechCrunch – ChatGPT reaches 900M weekly active users · MIT Technology Review – Cloudflare will now block AI bots by default
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