{"slug": "openai-expands-chatgpt-ad-test-to-five-more-countries", "title": "OpenAI expands ChatGPT ad test to five more countries", "summary": "OpenAI expanded its ChatGPT Ads test to the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea on August 11, following the initial U.S. launch on February 9. The ads appear below responses for free and Go users, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education accounts remain ad-free. OpenAI says advertisers do not receive users' chats or personal data, and the company is testing whether conversational AI can support a large free user base without altering generated answers.", "body_md": "# OpenAI expands ChatGPT ad test to five more countries\n\n- OpenAI said ChatGPT Ads launched on August 11 in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea, after beginning in the United States on February 9.\n[[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)[[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt) - Ads appear below responses and can be selected using the current conversation, past chats and ad interactions when personalization is enabled.\n[[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)[[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt) - Free and Go users may see ads; Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education accounts remain ad-free. Free users can remove ads in exchange for lower usage limits and reduced feature access.\n[[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt) - OpenAI’s public rollout materials do not name publisher revenue-sharing arrangements or specific advertiser partners. Its advertiser materials describe direct CPM and CPC buying, ranking by relevance and bids, and aggregate campaign reporting.\n[[3]](https://help-lb.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics)\n\nOpenAI is expanding advertising in ChatGPT to five more countries, bringing sponsored placements to users in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea as the company tests whether conversational AI can support a large free user base without changing the answers it generates. [[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)\n\nThe expansion, announced in an update dated August 11, follows the February 9 launch of the test for logged-in adult users on ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers in the United States. OpenAI says Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education accounts will not receive ads. [[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)[[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)\n\n## A placement below the answer\n\nOpenAI’s ad format places one or more sponsored units below a ChatGPT response when there is a relevant match. Each unit can include the advertiser’s name, logo or favicon, headline, description, landing page and an image asset. The ad is labeled as sponsored and visually separated from the response text. [[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)[[3]](https://help-lb.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics)\n\nThe selection system evaluates the current conversation and its intent, the ad’s landing page, title and copy, advertiser-provided context hints, and targeting selections. When personalized ads are enabled, OpenAI says selected signals from a user’s broader ChatGPT experience may also be used. Advertisers do not submit exact-match keywords or receive a guarantee that an ad will appear in a particular conversation. [[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)[[3]](https://help-lb.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics)\n\nOpenAI says the initial categories are concentrated in consumer goods, local services, travel and experiences, and digital products or education. Its policies allow some approved advertisers in financial services, health care and legal education, while prohibiting political advertising, individual legal services and deceptive or misleading offers. [[4]](https://openai.com/policies/ad-policies/)\n\n## Targeting without advertiser access to chats\n\nOpenAI says advertisers do not receive users’ chats, chat history, memories, names, email addresses, precise locations, IP addresses or sensitive information. They receive aggregated, non-identifying performance information such as views or clicks. If a user chooses to message an advertiser directly through an ad, however, the advertiser can see the messages sent to it. [[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)\n\nThe privacy boundary is central to the product’s design: ChatGPT can use conversational context to select an ad while withholding the underlying conversation from the advertiser. OpenAI says ads will not appear for accounts identified as belonging to people under 18, based on account information and age-prediction signals. Ads are also ineligible near sensitive or regulated topics including personal health, mental health and politics. [[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)\n\nThe company says users can turn off ad personalization, dismiss or report ads, see why an ad was shown and clear data used for advertising. Turning off personalization does not remove ads; it limits the signals used to select them. [[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)\n\n## A commercial system, not a publisher network\n\nOpenAI’s advertiser documentation describes cost-per-thousand-impressions and cost-per-click buying options. Advertisers can optimize for reach or clicks, set maximum bids and receive reporting on impressions, clicks, spending, click-through rate, average costs and conversions. If multiple ads are eligible, OpenAI says relevance and advertiser bids help determine which appears first. [[3]](https://help-lb.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics)\n\nThe public materials reviewed for this article do not name launch advertisers, publisher partners or a publisher revenue-sharing arrangement. They do show OpenAI recruiting businesses directly through its advertiser program and describe the system as an advertising marketplace operated inside ChatGPT. [[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)[[3]](https://help-lb.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics)\n\nOpenAI has said it plans to explore additional formats, objectives and buying models over time. The current public documentation does not establish whether future formats will remain below answers or whether the company will introduce sponsored product recommendations, interactive units or other placements. [[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)\n\n## The answer-integrity test\n\nOpenAI says advertising will not influence ChatGPT’s answers. Its Help Center adds that ads run on separate systems and that advertisers cannot shape, rank or alter responses. Those are company controls and representations, not an independent audit of the ranking and model systems. [[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)\n\nAn August 5 academic study of early ChatGPT advertising collected more than 3,000 ads from 186 advertisers using 91 controlled accounts and 335 prompts. The researchers found that the initial ads were heavily concentrated in consumer goods, generally directed users to an advertiser rather than a specific product, and were clearly separated from the model’s response text. The study also reported differences in ad exposure by account income in its audit design, a finding that warrants further testing as targeting expands. [[5]](https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05008)\n\nOpenAI said in March that its early internal results showed no impact on consumer-trust metrics, low ad-dismissal rates and improving relevance. It did not publish the underlying measurements in the August rollout update. [[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)\n\n## Regulatory questions are already on the record\n\nThe advertising test has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers focused on whether chatbot recommendations can be distinguished from paid influence. In a January 22 letter, Senator Edward Markey asked OpenAI and other AI companies whether commercial agreements could influence model training or recommendations, whether conversation data would be used for ad personalization, how sensitive topics would be excluded, and what disclosures would apply if advertising affected an answer. [[6]](https://www.markey.senate.gov/download/ai-chatbot-ad-letter?download=1)\n\nOpenAI’s stated safeguards address several of those questions by separating ads from answers, restricting sensitive contexts, excluding accounts identified as belonging to minors and limiting advertiser access to aggregate reporting. The public materials do not establish how the company will independently verify that commercial demand cannot affect answer ranking, recommendations or model behavior, or how those safeguards will be evaluated across the newly added markets. [[1]](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)[[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)[[4]](https://openai.com/policies/ad-policies/)[[6]](https://www.markey.senate.gov/download/ai-chatbot-ad-letter?download=1)\n\nFor now, the test preserves an ad-free paid option and a limited free option. Free users can choose an ads-free experience with fewer daily messages and reduced access to some tools, while Plus and Pro provide an ad-free experience without that tradeoff. [[2]](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)\n\n## Companies mentioned\n\n## Further sources\n\n[[1] OpenAI’s August 11, 2026 update says ChatGPT Ads launched in the United Kingdom… ↗](https://openai.com/index/testing-ads-in-chatgpt/)\n\n[[2] OpenAI’s Help Center explains current plan eligibility, February 9 U.S. launch … ↗](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001047-ads-in-chatgpt)\n\n[[3] OpenAI’s advertiser documentation describes the ad unit, selection signals, tar… ↗](https://help-lb.openai.com/en/articles/20001207-ads-in-chatgpt-the-basics)\n\n[[4] OpenAI’s advertising policies define initial categories and restrictions on pol… ↗](https://openai.com/policies/ad-policies/)\n\n[[5] The August 5, 2026 academic study audited more than 3,000 ChatGPT ads from 186 … ↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05008)\n\n[[6] Senator Edward Markey’s January 22, 2026 letter asked OpenAI and other chatbot … ↗](https://www.markey.senate.gov/download/ai-chatbot-ad-letter?download=1)\n\nThe stories that matter, in one email. Free — unsubscribe anytime.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-expands-chatgpt-ad-test-to-five-more-countries", "canonical_source": "https://mlq.ai/news/openai-expands-chatgpt-ad-test-to-five-more-countries/", "published_at": "2026-08-11 17:04:58.905800+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-11 17:05:01.166781+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "ChatGPT", "United Kingdom", "Mexico", "Brazil", "Japan", "South Korea", "United States"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-expands-chatgpt-ad-test-to-five-more-countries", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-expands-chatgpt-ad-test-to-five-more-countries.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-expands-chatgpt-ad-test-to-five-more-countries.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-expands-chatgpt-ad-test-to-five-more-countries.jsonld"}}