Early advertisers in OpenAI’s ChatGPT ad pilot, which launched in February and required minimum commitments of $200,000 at $60 per thousand views, say the buying process relied on phone calls and spreadsheets with no automated purchasing tools, and that the data provided was limited to basic view and click counts with no measurable business outcomes. OpenAI is now moving to address those gaps by planning its own self-serve ad manager, partnering with ad tech firm Criteo, and expanding ad exposure to all U.S. free and low-cost ChatGPT users in the coming weeks, a significant jump from the limited pilot audience. With roughly 920 million weekly active users as of late February and only about 5% paying, building a functional ad business is critical to monetizing OpenAI’s vast base of non-paying users, with the company projecting $17B in consumer revenue this year including both ads and subscriptions.
