OpenAI Brings ChatGPT Ads to 26 More Countries, Reaching 89 Markets

OpenAI announced Wednesday that ChatGPT Ads will expand to 26 additional countries, extending its advertising push into markets including Argentina, Peru, Nigeria, South Africa and Ukraine. Free users and Go subscribers there will begin seeing ads in ChatGPT.

The company said the ads are kept separate from ChatGPT's responses to prompts, do not influence its answers and are clearly labeled. "Our goal is to make ads useful to people as they pursue their goals and make decisions - and effective for the businesses that advertise with us," OpenAI said in a release.

The ads product is eight months old and has become a new pillar of OpenAI's business alongside enterprise contracts, consumer subscriptions and usage-based APIs. Its ad business reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate in August, up from $100 million in March, and more than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns on the platform. Wednesday's expansion brings ChatGPT Ads to 89 countries in total.

OpenAI began testing ads in the U.S. in February, a move ridiculed by rival Anthropic, which made OpenAI's ads push the focus of its first Super Bowl campaign and pledged to keep its Claude chatbot ad free. Both companies are widely expected to pursue blockbuster IPOs, with OpenAI executives signaling they are eyeing a 2027 listing.

OpenAI said it plans to develop additional ad formats, measurement capabilities and buying options in its next phase of growth, and is exploring new ways for businesses to natively interact with ChatGPT consumers.