ChatGPT ads pricing, by date
None of these figures is an OpenAI rate card. Each one comes from trade press or agency reporting, cited in the row.
| When | What was reported |
|---|---|
| Feb 2026 (pilot) | About a $60 CPM, with minimum commitments around $200,000, sold through OpenAI and agency partners.46 |
| Apr 2026 | Minimum commitment reportedly cut to $50,000.2 |
| May 5, 2026 | Self-serve Ads Manager opens in the US. CPC bidding added and no minimum commitment.15 |
| Mid-2026 | CPMs reported between $25 and $60. Suggested CPC starting bids of $3 to $5.23 |
| Aug 2026 | Self-serve daily minimums reported in ten currencies, starting at $25 in the US.6 |
How pricing works
ChatGPT ads run on an auction. On CPM you pay for every thousand times your ad is shown. On CPC you pay only when someone clicks, which was added in May 20261. Your actual price depends on your bid, how relevant the ad is to the conversation and how many advertisers want the same conversations. Self-serve accounts are billed after delivery, against a saved card5.
Budget calculator
Enter your own numbers. The defaults are examples drawn from the ranges above, not quotes.
What isn't public yet
OpenAI hasn't published average click-through rates, CPCs or conversion rates for ChatGPT ads. Until it does, treat any benchmark you see, including ours, as an early read that will move as more advertisers enter the auction. Plan your first campaign as a measured test rather than a forecast.
How this compares with Google
Google doesn't price AI Overviews or AI Mode separately: those ads run through the normal Search auction at no extra charge7. ChatGPT is a separate auction you buy into directly. Our platform comparison sets the differences side by side.