- Can your business advertise on ChatGPT?
- Step 1: create your advertiser account
- The three settings you can't change later
- Step 2: finish setup before anything runs
- Step 3: build your campaign
- Step 4: write context hints that help
- Step 5: launch and watch the signals
- Is it worth it for a small business?
- Frequently asked questions
To advertise on ChatGPT, sign in at ads.openai.com with an OpenAI account, create an advertiser account in Ads Manager, add your logo and billing details, then build a campaign, an ad group with context hints, and an ad with a title, copy, image and landing page. Ads go live after they pass review. Your business has to be based in a country where self-service Ads Manager is available.
ChatGPT Ads is now open to businesses in 89 countries after OpenAI's 21 October 2026 expansion, and OpenAI says more than 100,000 advertisers have used it since ads launched. For a small business that's a new place to be found at the exact moment someone is weighing up options.
This guide follows OpenAI's own Ads Manager help pages. It covers who can sign up, the setup steps, the one setting that trips people up, and how to write the context hints that decide when your ad is relevant.
Can your business advertise on ChatGPT?
Self-service Ads Manager is limited to eligible business advertisers, and the legal entity that advertises must be based in a country on OpenAI's availability list. The list includes the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, the Philippines, South Africa and much of Europe and Latin America. Check OpenAI's Ads Manager Availability page for your country before you plan anything.
If your country isn't on it yet, you can still create an account and OpenAI will tell you when it opens. Creating an account doesn't give you early access, though.
Step 1: create your advertiser account
Go to ads.openai.com, choose Login or Sign up, and use the OpenAI account you already use for ChatGPT, or create one. OpenAI's quickstart suggests an account tied to your work email. You then pick one of two routes:
| Route | What happens |
|---|---|
| Start with your website | You enter your URL, Ads Manager drafts your first ad from it, you review it and build your first campaign during signup |
| Skip to Ads Manager | You create the advertiser account first and build your first campaign later |
Either way, have one person create the account and invite everyone else. If your business already has an account, ask its admin to invite you rather than making a second one.
The three settings you can't change later
This is the step to slow down on. OpenAI says your country or region, currency and time zone can't be changed after the account is created. Check all three before you submit. Getting the time zone wrong means your reporting days never line up with your own working week.
You'll also enter one advertiser name at signup, which fills three fields: Account Name (internal), Brand Name (shown next to your ads in ChatGPT) and Legal Name (used for business verification). You can change each separately later in Settings > General, but changing the Brand Name or Legal Name triggers a review.
Step 2: finish setup before anything runs
- Open Billing and complete the setup prompts. Campaigns can't deliver until this is done.
- Go to Settings > General and confirm your logo and Brand Name.
- Complete account verification.
- Invite teammates under Settings > Users as Admin (full access), Member (create and manage campaigns) or Viewer (view only).
If you created an ad during signup, OpenAI's notice says it'll go live once it passes review. If you're not ready to advertise yet, pause the campaign in Ads Manager and check its status.
Step 3: build your campaign
Every campaign in Ads Manager has the same three layers:
- Campaign: your objective, dates and targeting.
- Ad group: a set of ads around one theme or intent, where you add context hints.
- Ad: what people see in ChatGPT, with a title, copy, image and landing page.
You can build campaigns with the guided flow or by bulk upload with a template. Bulk upload doesn't yet support product-feed campaigns. One quirk from the quickstart: on your very first campaign you may not see start and end dates before you publish. They appear when you edit the campaign afterwards. If your ads must start on a set date, don't publish just to reach those settings, because the ads could start running straight away.
Step 4: write context hints that help
Context hints are the most interesting part of ChatGPT advertising, because they're unlike keywords. They're short descriptions, added at ad group level, that help OpenAI's systems understand when your ad might be relevant. OpenAI suggests asking: what else should we know about your product, who it helps, and when it's useful?
Good hints are additional, specific, relevant and accurate. Write one clear, natural phrase per idea rather than a list of keywords. Here's a prompt to draft them with ChatGPT itself:
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Copy this prompt
I run (type of business) serving (who your customers are) in (your area).
Write 8 context hints for a ChatGPT ad group about (one product or service).
Each hint is one natural phrase covering what it's for, who it suits, or when someone would need it.
Use only these facts: (paste your real features, service area and opening hours).
No keyword lists, no claims I haven't given you, no instructions like show this only to.
That last line matters. OpenAI says hints describe your business; they aren't targeting rules. A phrase like show this ad only to people in Chicago is a delivery instruction and won't work as one. Use the supported targeting controls for that.
Step 5: launch and watch the signals
After review, check your campaign status. If an ad says Not serving, hover over the status to see why. Many issues are fixed by editing and resubmitting, but some ads are rejected on policy grounds, and political advertising isn't allowed at all.
Ads Manager reports impressions, clicks, CTR and conversions if you've set up measurement. Impressions, clicks and CTR refresh roughly every 15 minutes, but some figures can lag by 7 to 8 hours, so a zero early on doesn't mean nothing has run.
Is it worth it for a small business?
It's early, and I'd treat it as a test, not a strategy. The strong case is intent: people explain their need in their own words, and ads sit under the answer. The weak case is that formats and measurement are still developing, which OpenAI says itself. Run a small campaign around one service with sharp context hints, and compare it with the ad platforms you already use.
Remember too that ads and organic AI answers are separate. Paying for an ad doesn't change what ChatGPT recommends, which is why I'm cautious about anyone who says they can guarantee ChatGPT will recommend you. If you'd like help deciding where AI search and AI ads fit for your business, that's what my consulting sessions are for.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I sign up to advertise on ChatGPT?
Go to ads.openai.com and sign in with an OpenAI account. You then create an advertiser account in Ads Manager.
Which countries can advertise on ChatGPT?
Businesses based in countries on OpenAI's Ads Manager Availability list, which includes the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and many more after the 21 October 2026 expansion.
Can I change my ChatGPT Ads account currency later?
No. OpenAI says country or region, currency and time zone can't be changed after account creation, so check them before you submit.
What are context hints in ChatGPT Ads?
Short natural phrases added to an ad group that describe what you offer, who it suits and when it's useful. They inform relevance but aren't targeting rules.
Do ChatGPT ads affect ChatGPT's answers?
No. OpenAI says ads run on separate systems and advertisers can't shape or rank responses.
