OpenAI is scaling ChatGPT advertising aggressively. On October 21, the company announced that ChatGPT ads are expanding to 26 additional countries, bringing the total to 89 markets worldwide. OpenAI also said more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns on the platform since ads launched a little over eight months ago, up from about 20,000 in late August.
The rollout is heavily weighted toward Latin America, which accounts for 14 of the new markets, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. The remaining launches span Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, with Nigeria, South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine, Cambodia, and Bangladesh named in the announcement. It follows earlier launches in Mexico and Brazil.
Ads appear only on ChatGPT’s Free and Go plans. Plus, Pro, and Enterprise subscriptions remain ad-free. OpenAI says ads are clearly labeled, kept separate from ChatGPT’s answers, and do not influence responses. The company adds that conversations stay private from advertisers and customer data is not sold.
Businesses in the new markets can buy placements through OpenAI’s technology partners or through self-service access in Ads Manager. OpenAI puts ChatGPT’s weekly audience at more than 1.2 billion people and frames advertising as the funding model that keeps free and low-cost access available.
The expansion follows an August milestone, when OpenAI said the ad business had reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate. L’Oréal is quoted as an early tester, and the company says the next phase will add more ad formats, buying options, and measurement tools. Rival assistants such as Claude and coding agents like Codex operate without ads today, making ChatGPT‘s monetization push a notable divergence in the consumer AI race.
Source: gHacks Tech News
