ChatGPT Ads in Europe: How they work and who can use them

Since 24 August 2026, ChatGPT has been showing ads to users in Slovenia as well. OpenAI extended its advertising platform to 31 European markets, the largest geographic expansion of this channel so far. For companies that already spend money on Google Ads or on social media, a new space opens up that is worth watching, even though you cannot yet run the campaigns yourself in these markets.

Who sees the ads

Ads appear to users on the free plan and on the Go plan, which costs EUR 8 per month in Slovenia. Subscribers to the Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans do not see ads. Ads are also not shown to accounts that OpenAI identifies as belonging to people under 18. If you do not want ads, you can still use ChatGPT free of charge without them, but with lower usage limits and a smaller set of features.

What the ads look like and what decides when they appear

An ad appears below the answer from the chatbot. It is visually separated from the content and clearly marked as sponsored. It can contain the advertiser's name, a logo, a headline, a short description, a link to a landing page and an image. OpenAI states that "advertisers cannot shape or change the responses" that the chatbot gives the user. Non-personalised ads are selected mainly from the content of the current conversation, the location of the user and the type of device, not from earlier conversations.

There is one important difference compared with the United States. In the European Economic Area and in Switzerland there are no personalised ads for now. They will become possible only after a user gives explicit consent. OpenAI also states that it does not share conversations with advertisers and does not sell them user data. Advertisers receive only aggregated performance data, for example the number of impressions and clicks, and not the content of conversations.

Companies here cannot manage the campaigns themselves yet

Ads are already showing in Slovenia, where we do most of our work, but self-serve campaign management through the OpenAI Ads Manager is not available here yet. At first, advertisers in Slovenia will reach it through the OpenAI sales team, partner agencies and technology partners. Ads Manager, where an advertiser sets up the campaign, the targeting and the budget without help, is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. Other European markets should follow later.

OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT in February 2026 in the United States. According to its own figures, tens of thousands of advertisers have used the platform so far, among them larger names such as Newegg, Best Buy, Lowe's and VistaPrint. The system supports CPM and CPC buying, optimisation for conversions, geographic targeting and custom audiences. Results can also be tracked with the OpenAI Pixel, the Conversions API and integrations with external measurement providers.

Why this is interesting for advertisers?

ChatGPT is interesting for advertisers mainly because users often say in a conversation what they are looking for, what they are comparing and what they intend to buy. They do this in more detail than they would in a search box in Google. An ad can therefore appear while the user is still researching and weighing up the options, before they visit a web shop or a traditional search engine.

What this means for you?

For most companies this does not yet mean that you can start a ChatGPT campaign tomorrow. It does mean that advertising space inside the AI tools people use every day for research and decisions is growing, and that access will reach your market sooner or later. It will most likely arrive through agencies and technology partners before self-serve management becomes available.

Until then, the most useful thing you can do is to make sure that your offer is visible where the decisions are actually made, so in Google Ads and in your wider digital marketing. It is also worth checking that your website and its content answer the questions users put to an AI assistant, and not only the ones they type into a classic search engine.

Because access to advertising in ChatGPT currently runs through partner agencies and technology partners, we are already following this as a route through which we could open ChatGPT advertising to all of our clients, so that they do not have to deal with the application, the campaign setup and the technical requirements of the platform themselves. If you are thinking about how to fit these changes into your marketing strategy, our digital maturity assessment can help you. We will keep following how advertising develops in ChatGPT and in similar tools, and we will keep you informed about what is new and how you can take part.